Job 8:3-4 3Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? 4When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
Have you ever heard of “Mother Bear Syndrome?” I am sure you have seen it at least once in your lifetime. It is when someone tries to hurt a child and Mom steps in to protect. You don’t want to get between a Mom and her kids. That is a danger zone! You enter at your own risk.
People sometimes say stupid things. I won’t admit it publicly, but I have even said some stupid things. I wish I could say those stupid things were all in the distant past, but it isn’t true. I have an impulsive streak that has diminished over the years, but the vein runs deep. And every once in a while something strikes stupid and out it comes.
Job’s friends have sat with him for a full week, overcome by the horror of his circumstances. Their minds have swirled with ideas. They have wrestled with the question of ‘why’ just like Job. And I truly think they are trying to be helpful.
But then the ‘stupid’ vein gets struck and out comes the resulting arguments. I am sure if they had spent a little more time reflecting on what they were saying, they would have tempered their responses. They would have put themselves in Job’s shoes for another day and said nothing. But out it comes.
Bildad, one of Job’s friends, has his turn to answer Job. His reasoning is based on what we might call Quid Pro Quo Justice. You reap what you sow. Your kids sinned and they got what was coming to them.
Their error stems from a lack of knowledge. They assume they know what is going on in Job’s life. They know the LORD is just, and therefore His justice has been done. They assume that the LORD’s justice is exacted in this life, and they forget that with the LORD, life extends beyond the grave. Justice isn’t complete until time is complete.
So they look at the circumstances and their minds have to try and resolve the conflict. But some conflicts will be there throughout this lifetime. Some things will remain a mystery UNTIL we stand face to face with the LORD.
And if only they had stopped here. Bildad said Job’s children got the natural consequences of sin and that is why these things happened to them. How quickly they forget Israel’s history of interactions with the LORD. Often times consequences for sin didn’t happen to those who sinned. Instead, the mercy of the LORD intervened and consequences were withheld.
Bildad goes on and charges Job’s children with forgetting God (8:13) and suffering because of it. He charges them with being godless! How does Bildad, or anyone for that matter, know the state, truly know the state of another person’s heart? We can’t. But his belief that sin carries consequences that get carried out on those who sin in this life paints him in a corner from which he can’t escape.
So a friend who comes to help comfort another friend in his time of need creates even deeper wounds by what he says. All his good intentions go out the window because of his own need to wrap up nice and neatly his theological dilemma. His need for simplicity and clarity creates muddy water in his relationship with Job.
Sometimes we need to just be quiet and wrestle with God. There are theological questions that don’t get answered with nice neat Ben Franklin quotes. They can’t be put into memes that include cute kids. They are wrestle-worthy.
So get wrestling.
The Arnold Journey 