A Good Friend
Have you ever gotten to the point where you are just fed up with listening to someone complain?
Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: ‘How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a great wind? Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children sinned against him, he delivered them into the power of their transgression. If you will seek God and make supplication to the Almighty, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore to you your rightful place. Though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great. ‘For inquire now of bygone generations, and consider what their ancestors have found; for we are but of yesterday, and we know nothing, for our days on earth are but a shadow. Will they not teach you and tell you and utter words out of their understanding? ‘See, God will not reject a blameless person, nor take the hand of evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouts of joy. Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.’ - Job 8:1-10, 20-22
Bildad is trying to be a good friend, but I think he is a little frustrated by Job's complaints.
So what if you have been wronged. Appeal to God for help and God will restore you, he tells him. But is that what Job wants to hear? Job knows he is innocent.
Who would want to admit to a crime they didn't commit, even if they were promised a pardon?
Bildad wants Job to be restored and he believes God will do that for him, but Job has to ask God for grace in order to receive it. That's how he believed it works with God.
In Bildad's eyes, Job could easily stop the torment but he chooses not to, holding his ground, which Bildad believes is foolish.
Chances are we might feel the same way if one of our friends was suffering and we believed there was an easy way to stop it.
It's not easy to be a good friend sometimes. It takes patience and compassion. And sometimes it takes more than those. Sometimes you need a little tough love as well.
More to come...