BILDAD MISUNDERSTANDS GOD’S JUSTICE
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: JOB 8:1-10, 20-22
KEY VERSE
“Then Bildad the Shuhite responded, “How long will you say these things, and the words of your mouth be a mighty wind?”
Job8:1-2
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
Have you ever been so convinced that you know the truth about something that you know for sure about your close friend that you were willing to angrily confront even your friend and accuse them of really bad behaviour?
What if you were wrong and your accusation hit your close friend really hard and hurt your close friend a lot?
Did you consider the pain your friend was feeling? Did you consider that you might not have all the facts and that your friend might not therefore be guilty of what you were accusing them of?
In the Study today we see such a situation. Job was a very rich man who was very generous and helped a lot of people. He never turned away anyone with a problem that he could fix. He was good and offered sacrifices to God for himself and his children as God required and he taught them about God. Job feared God and always did what was right. God also has done great things for us.
Satan told God that Job was only serving God because He had blessed Job so much. God told Satan that he was lying and to prove it God told Satan he had permission from God to take away everything Job had. God was sure that righteous Job would not curse Him no matter how badly life went with him.
Satan hurried and attacked Job and Job lost everything and became very sick. He had three friends who heard of Job’s troubles and they came to visit him.
They were very shocked when they came to where Job was and they saw the awful physical condition he was in. Instead of comforting Job and encouraging him that life would get better they began to attack their friend.
Bildad accused Job of committing some awful sin that had been so bad that to punish him God killed his children, destroyed his homes, and made him very sick. They said that when people got into this bad situation and lost everything they had it was because they had sinned. God was a just God and would only punish the guilty people and would always prosper the innocent and righteous people
That kind of religious belief was wrong. But these friends of Job did not understand God at all. God did not operate the way they thought and He did not treat people that way.
A lot of things was going on between God, Satan, and Job that they did not know. Even Job did not know God was testing him to show Satan that he was wrong for there were people who loved God and God was always protecting them.
Job’s friends had limited information about what was happening. In addition, they did not understand God’s justice and the way God operated. So they were very unkind and unloving and accused Job of things he was not guilty of for they acted on wrong information.
We learn from this that we must be very carefulwhen accusing people of bad things if we have not thoroughly researched what was the real truth. Sometimes we cannot find out all the truth and so we should be careful all the time about what we say about others.
We must learn to be kind, have compassion for those in pain, even if they did something wrong. If they did nothing wrong to cause the pain and grief they felt you have to pray for them and do all we can to comfort them.
We know God will always do what is right. He will not punish people and make a mistake. He is very patient even when people do wrong and waits sometimes for a long time to get them to repent and change their behaviour.
Job was a good person and his so-called friends did not turn out to kind, loyal and faithful. They were so bad in the sight of God that God asked Job to pray for them so that they would get forgiveness. So be careful and be kind.