Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
Bildad opens his reply with a question that has only one answer. He then turns that truth into a weapon against a suffering man. The question is not whether Bildad is right about God. It is whether being right about God is enough.
One answer, and only one
Bildad's question is rhetorical. Anyone who knows God must answer no. One writer gives that answer, then traces the reasoning behind the question:
Samuel RidoutBildad asks Job a plain question: "Does God pervert justice?" Is He unrighteous? For anyone who knows Him there can be but one answer. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" He would not be God, if He were not perfectly righteous. This shows the dreadful cliff edge Job was approaching. He was driven on by this false principle that God always punishes for sin. Job was not a sinner; therefore God was unjust! This reasoning is frightening. Both the starting assumption and the statement of fact are wrong, and the conclusion is blasphemous. Why did Job — and Bildad too — not stop and question the assumption? Does God always punish for sin alone? Why does Job not examine the facts; is he sinless?
The flaw is not in the question about God's justice. It is in the assumption both men share: suffering is always payment for wrongdoing. If that were true, an innocent Job would make God unjust. So Bildad defends God's justice by attacking Job's innocence.
The ground Bildad is standing on
Bildad's argument does not rest on any revelation of who God is. It rests on what he sees of the way the world runs. And it stops where conscience stops:
William KellyThe reasoning of Bildad rests on precisely the same principle as that of Eliphaz. It is all founded on God's moral government. On that principle, no one can cause God grief, and no truly righteous man can be cast to the ground. And God will certainly bring every wicked man to nothing. It is all founded on what is going on in the world now. There was no faith in it. There was conscience, conscience toward God. Conscience is useful and very important for the soul. But it never does and never can reveal God. It detects our bad state... Everything was more or less confused, and people saw God only as a righteous God. But God is the God of all grace.
The test that breaks the principle
There is one clean way to test the idea that great suffering proves great sin. Apply it to the one person it cannot fit:
William KellyAnd what shows the falsity of the principle is the universal test. Bring Christ in. Was it any lack of God's delight in Christ that allowed Christ to be the greatest sufferer, far beyond Job? So the estimate was completely false, and the principle underneath it was false too. It imagined that there must be evil in anyone who came to this depth of suffering.
True words, wrong target
This is what makes Bildad's speech dangerous, not just mistaken. Anyone can brush off a false statement. A true statement aimed at the wrong person carries God's authority with it:
William KellyAbstract truth is altogether useless for the saints of God. Things that are true but misunderstood and misapplied may do more harm than many a thing that is false. Misapplied truth gives the apparent authority of God to an error. And that error carries all the more weight because it comes as the truth. If someone says a foolish thing, or one plainly false, people despise it; but no believer can brush aside the truth of God. So suppose someone uses the truth of God wrongly. Suppose he applies it to crush a person who is the object of God's intense interest at that moment. How foreign and offensive that is to His mind!
Certainty without knowledge
Bildad is sure of his conclusion while knowing nothing of the case. He never asks whether God might have a purpose in Job's suffering other than punishment:
Leslie M. GrantHe did not begin in the gentle way that Eliphaz did. He did not even try to show any understanding of Job's feelings. Instead, he spoke like a man out of patience. He at once accused Job of letting words come out of his mouth that were only "a strong wind" (v. 2). "Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?" he asks (v. 3). He did not know how God was dealing with Job. Yet he was sure God was punishing him justly, though he knew of no actual evil on Job's part.
Summary
- Premise. The verse states a truth no believer can deny: God never twists what is right. But Bildad ties it to a false assumption — that God punishes only, and always, for sin.
- Ground. Bildad reasons from God's government of the world as he observes it. That is conscience, not revelation. Conscience can expose our bad state, but it never reveals God.
- Test. Apply his principle to Christ, the greatest sufferer of all, and it collapses. Deep suffering never proved deep evil.
- Danger. Misapplied truth is worse than open error. It lends God's authority to a lie, and no believer can shrug it off.
- Result. Certainty without knowledge crushes instead of comforting. Bildad knew nothing against Job, yet was sure of his verdict.