Day 6: Job Part 2

So we continue into Job, and I expect the good man's frustration with his blinkered friends will mount. Their trouble is, they just won't take no for an answer. Or as my father sometimes says, “I know what I believe, just stop trying to confuse me with a load of facts!”

Job's troubles

Job 7:1-21

Bildad reproves Job and asserts that God is just

Job 8:1-22

Job acknowledges God's justice and pleads with his maker

Job 9:1-35, 10:1-22

Zophar reproves Job and assures him of blessings if he repents

Job 11:1-20

Job reproves his friends, complains that the wicked often prosper and recognises God's wisdom and power

Job 12:1-25

7:4 “The night drags on, and I toss till dawn.” That was me last night! Fortunately verse 5 doesn't apply! But I mustn't laugh at Job's sufferings – here's a man who feels that the eye of the Lord on him is very heavy, very heavy indeed. Bildad responds by saying “How dare you criticise God? You must have let him down, otherwise you wouldn't be suffering. Your complaining proves that you are a sinner.” I often encourage people to shout at God - “He's got broad shoulders, he can take it,” I tell them. There is comfort to be had in complaining to the Almighty. But for Bildad, this is a sign of loss of faith. Job knows that God is right. This reminds me of a time when I desperately wanted to do something that God had forbidden. I knew that if I did, it would end in disaster, because I knew that God was right. But that just made me feel worse. Job desperately wants to state his case before God, and yearns for some sort of mediator, or advocate. If only he had someone to speak to God on his behalf, saying, “God, be gentle with him, he's doing the best he can.”
Job actually has a powerful argument against God: “You made me, why are you now destroying me?” Then Zophar speaks up, saying much the same as Bildad. He is hurt to hear Job questioning God's wisdom, but he can't understand how his criticism hurts Job all the more.