Job 18:1

One of Job's friends, "the Shuhite," perhaps a descendant of Shuah the son of Abraham and Keturah. He in no way understood Job's case, and could only judge that God was punishing Job for wickedness, while God had called Job a righteous man. God's anger burned against Bildad. But he and his two companions brought a sacrifice, and when Job prayed for them God accepted him.

The main difference between Bildad's speech and Eliphaz's is that Bildad's is shorter. He mostly follows Eliphaz's lead, but in a way all his own. His speech is full of beautiful poetic imagery and true statements about the certain doom of the wicked. But it misses the mark. It never establishes any link between Job and the wicked whose end he describes so vividly.

As we noticed in the earlier debate, Bildad has far less gentleness of spirit, and less self-restraint, than his older friend Eliphaz, who leads all these discussions. So he is much less scrupulous about voicing his doubt of Job and his hint that Job is a hypocrite. That is what soon comes out.

One translation of the second part of verse 2 reads, "Be intelligent, and then we will speak." He clearly felt that Job's rejection of their position and their arguments degraded them, as though they were beasts, so he hit back with an insult. All four of these men feared God, Job most of all. But see how the spirit behind their words had gone downhill!

Bildad again takes his place in the contest (Job 18). He means well, but his words are poisoned arrows. "The light of the wicked is put out." Yes, every word is perfectly true of the wicked; but how crushing to Job! Circumstances seemed to favour the charge.

It is painful to see how his hard spirit takes advantage of the pitiful calamity that had blotted out the children of Job.

Is it not humbling and solemn that we can be as sincere as possible in what we believe, and still be completely wrong? We are just as responsible for our convictions as for what we do or say. Only One can give us the right thought or feeling: He who alone gives the wisdom and strength to act on it. It is God Himself.

Truth in the abstract is of no use at all to the people of God. Things that are true, but misunderstood and misapplied, can do more harm than many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth lends God's apparent authority to an error, and that error carries all the more weight because it arrives as the truth. If someone says a foolish thing, or a plainly false one, people dismiss it. But no believer can brush aside the truth of God.

Nothing is as dangerous as a truth applied wrongly. You can do the greatest harm with a word of Scripture in the wrong place... So how important the command is: "be slow to speak," above all in spiritual matters. People often come to regret rushed conclusions and hasty judgments, just as Job's friends were ashamed of their mistakes when it was too late.