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Text: Job 8

Outline:

1. Bildad's graceless counsel, 8:1-22.
   • 'Job, redirect your wind,' 8:1-4.
   • 'Seek God,' 8:5-7.
   • 'And learn from the past,' 8:8-19.
   • 'See that God only ever receives godly people,' 8:20-22.
2. Turning a profit from Bildad's graceless counsel.
   • Have the humility to say 'I don't know, but God does.'
   • Hold out a whole God.
   • Be clear and competent on grace.

Prepare

Questions to Consider:

1. In 8:1-4, what's Bildad's main theological claim? How does he hear Job's words (ch. 3, 6-7) with respect to it? How does he (horribly) illustrate his point?
2. Bildad would have Job redirect his 'wind,' his words. How in 8:5-7? And why? What similar (mistaken) assumptions does he make to Eliphaz with respect to Job's lamentation and pursuit in it?
3. Bildad puts a lot of faith in the past. He clings to the old wisdom. Why is that a problem in the book of Job? Why should God's 'uncharted territory,' aka progressive revelation, speak louder than the world's ancient sages? Are we, like Bildad, miserly when it comes to human traditions or wisdom that the Word of God directly confronts and/or contradicts?
4. In 8:11-19, what are we to assume the ancients would have to say to Job? What's good and right about what Bildad says? Why is all wrong with reference to Job?
5. In 8:20-22, Bildad says, 'God will not reject a blameless man, nor take the hand of evildoers,' yet the Gospel (in it's reconciling sense) teaches otherwise. Bildad means to throw some hope into his hard counsel, but his blindness to God's grace prohibits him from doing even that. Are we clear on the Gospel? Are we able to be salt and light for those wounded in the darkness of suffering? Are we able to bring real joy alongside sorrow for Job?