Bildad, one of Job’s three friends (who came to comfort him) decides he must speak to Job’s condition. The following words, in his mind, he must think are comforting to a suffering man. Yet, what is basically says is that, “You, Job, are a wicked man and your life has been planted in weak soil and in place nothing can take root. You are trusting in things that have the strength of a spider’s web. Your prosperity is shooting up to sky before others, but has no foundation to sustain it. Your suffering is the evidence of this fact.” And, to end, as adding insult to injury, he states, “Now you are dying, but God will use your ashes to bring forth another in your place.”
Read it yourself:
Job 8:11-19 (ESV)
11 “Can papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Can reeds flourish where there is no water?
12 While yet in flower and not cut down,
they wither before any other plant.
13 Such are the paths of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless shall perish.
14 His confidence is severed,
and his trust is a spider’s web.
15 He leans against his house, but it does not stand;
he lays hold of it, but it does not endure.
16 He is a lush plant before the sun,
and his shoots spread over his garden.
17 His roots entwine the stone heap;
he looks upon a house of stones.
18 If he is destroyed from his place,
then it will deny him, saying, ‘I have never seen you.’
19 Behold, this is the joy of his way,
and out of the soil others will spring.
Perhaps in our work with others, along with pointing out their natural sin, we can show them, also, the path of redemption. Bildad had accusations, but no redemption.
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