Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes;
Bildad's last speech lifts Job's eyes to the night sky. He argues from the top down. If even the moon and the stars lose their shine before God, what hope has a man born of a woman? The words are true, but the question is whether truth aimed at the wrong target can help a suffering man.
The Night Sky as the Measure
The choice of picture is deliberate. Bildad does not point to the blazing sun but to the softer lights of night. Their dimming before God carries his argument.
Samuel RidoutBehold the moon; its light is dim in His holy presence. The sparkling stars are not clean in His sight. How much less is sinful man — a worm of the dust! Bildad selects the heavens at night rather than the sun by day for this noble comparison. "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?" (Ps. 8:3-4)... The moon and stars speak of God in a special way, and by contrast bring home to man his nothingness.
The Hebrew presses the smallness harder than most English versions. One rendering of the lines reads:
William KellyBehold, to the moon, and it shines not, / And the stars are not pure in His eyes: / How much less mortal man, a maggot; / And the son of man, a worm!
The Truth Bildad Has Hold Of
Taken on its own, the statement stands. Bildad's measure is God's own holiness, and Scripture returns to that measure again and again.
F. A. HughesGod is righteous and holy — ever was such and ever will be; He has "purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong" (Hab. 1:13); the stars in their sparkling beauty "are not pure in His sight" (Job 25:5). Many scriptures show the moral distance between man and his God because of sin.
True, Yet Beside the Point
Job never disputed any of this. He had said it himself, earlier and better. So Bildad repeats old ground instead of answering the man in front of him.
William Kelly"How then can man be justified with God?" Job had said exactly that in chapter nine. Bildad was only repeating what Job had said far better than he could... That was all true, but had no bearing.
Job had gone further still. He had asked for someone to stand between himself and God.
F. B. HoleHis description of the greatness and glory of God is fine and almost poetical. What he says about the sin and uncleanness and smallness of man, who is like a worm before his Creator, is just as true. But he could only repeat the question Job asked in Job 9, "How then can man be just with God?" He never tried to answer it. He never asked for a mediator, as Job had done.
The Words Turned the Wrong Way
Bildad's mistake is not in his facts but in his aim. He uses the dimmed moon and the impure stars as evidence against Job, and misses that they indict him too.
Samuel RidoutYet we cannot speak of these few sentences with scorn, for they state the two great basic facts that stand out clearly at the close of the book... But Bildad hardly grasps the force of what he says. He ties it to his theory, and so tries to prove that Job is the evil man they have all along insisted he was. But his words were as true for himself and the other friends as for Job.
The Question Bildad Could Not Answer
The question about man did not stop with Bildad. Someone else looked up at the same sky and asked it again.
H J VineThe first on record is the inquiry of Bildad the Shuhite in Job 25. In view of God's majesty and holiness, he asks how man can be right with Him — "Man, who is a worm? And the Son of man, who is a worm?" David next asks in Psalm 8, "What is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care for him?" (He finds the answer: Bildad did not.)
Bildad's conclusion — dim moon, impure stars, no hope for man — fits the light he had.
The Christian's FriendSo we should not be surprised at what they concluded. The Shuhite of those early days, and the psalmist in Israel's better times, knew nothing beyond the flesh and the law. Both concluded there was no justification before God. For us it is different, and how blessed that is. When the apostle sums up man's condition and guilt in the short words, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," he is only clearing the ground for the gracious words that follow in the same breath: "and are justified by his grace as a gift."
Summary
- Measure. Bildad chooses the night sky, not the sun. The moon dims and the stars lose their purity before God. Next to them, man is a worm.
- True. The saying is sound in itself. God's eyes are too pure to look at wrong, and Scripture shows again and again the moral distance sin has made.
- Misaimed. The words indicted Bildad and his friends as much as Job. He used them to prove Job the wicked man they had insisted he was.
- Unfinished. He repeats Job's own question about justification and never tries to answer it. He never asks, as Job had, for a mediator.
- Answered. David looked at the same moon and stars and asked the same question about man and the Son of Man. He found the answer Bildad missed. The full answer is plainer still: God justifies sinners freely by His grace.