He leans against his house, but it does not stand; he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
Bildad is speaking. This verse sits in the middle of his picture of the man whose confidence collapses — a man leaning on a house that will not hold him. The question the verse forces is not whether the picture is accurate, but who it is aimed at, and whether Job is that man.
The argument behind the image
Bildad is the second of Job's friends to speak. He comes at Job with less patience than Eliphaz, who spoke first. One writer traces his motive and the flaw under it.
Samuel RidoutBildad now takes up what is fast becoming a dispute. There is perhaps less of the courtesy and dignity that marked the speech of Eliphaz, and there is some harshness toward Job, apparently caused by Job's bitter charge against God. For all that he does not know about God's ways, Bildad cares deeply about God's honor, and cannot allow Him to be accused. In this he is right. But he fails to convince Job, because of the error at the root of the thinking of all of them: God must punish sin, so Job must be a sinner, since he is being punished.
The pictures Bildad piles up
Bildad keeps changing the picture. A web, then a vine in full sunshine — each one shows something that cannot last.
Samuel RidoutChanging his picture, Bildad compares the confidence of the wicked to a man leaning on a spider's web. How pitiful is the state of someone clinging to something so frail, and all for nothing! Piling up images again, he compares this passing prosperity to a lush vine spreading over a heap of stones in the garden, full of sap and strength in the bright sunshine. Soon God cuts him off, and the place that once knew him will know him no more. Others will take his place.
The house that had already fallen
"House" here means more than a building. Another writer ties it to what Job had just lost.
Leslie M. GrantBildad saw that Job's confidence had been shaken. He treated that confidence as "cut off," as though Job had been trusting a spider's web (v.14). He further says, "He leans against his house, but it does not stand" (v.15). Of course he is thinking of how Job had leaned on the stability of his house, but it had collapsed: all his family was gone.
That is what makes the words so cruel. Bildad points at a grave and calls it evidence.
True sentences, wrong target
Almost nothing Bildad says here is false in itself. The error lies in the application.
Leslie M. GrantIt is certainly true that the hypocrite's hope shall perish, but to apply this to Job was totally unfair.
The reasoning that was itself a web
There is a turn in the argument that the speakers never saw. The image they used against Job described their own case better than his.
William KellyAnd he talks about the hypocrite being no better than a spider's web. That is exactly what they were. They were not hypocrites, but they were all wrong in their reasoning, and wrong reasoning is never better than a spider's web.
The same writer names what was missing from every speech, and what it took for Job to find it.
William KellyThey were all arguing on the ground of righteousness. Not one of them had taken in, up to this point and for long after, any thought of grace. And Job only arrived at it at last when God stepped in. There he was dust and ashes. There he took the place of nothingness, and worse than nothingness. Then he was blessed; then he was vindicated by God, and not till then.
When these words are turned on a believer
These words still get turned against people who truly trust God.
C. Stanley"The hypocrite's hope shall perish," but the weakest sheep of Christ shall never perish. Yet if he looks at his own imagined greenness — at his own boasted goodness — that will fade away, and so Satan gains the advantage. There may be much freshness of soul at conversion, like the green reed; but beware of trusting in this... Then come showers of darts, such as: "Have I deceived myself?" "I do not feel as I did." "Perhaps I have no root in Christ." "The hypocrite's hope shall perish." Then, oh, what darkness of soul — what confusion! The eye is off Christ; the heart is listening to Satan.
Summary
- Root error. Bildad's whole case rests on one assumption — God must punish sin, so a suffering man must be a sinner. Everything else he says stands on it.
- The web. Bildad's picture is a man putting his whole weight on something that cannot hold it. The sunlit vine and the leaning house end the same way.
- The wound. The "house" that would not stand was Job's own — his family, already gone. Bildad turned Job's loss into proof against him.
- The misfire. The sentence about the hypocrite's hope is true. Aimed at Job, it was unfair. True words can still wound the wrong man.
- The mirror. The friends were not hypocrites. Still, their reasoning was the very web they described, and wrong reasoning holds no more weight than a spider's thread. Not one of them had reached any thought of grace. Look away from your own greenness to Christ, and the darts lose their point.