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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Job 18:3
Comments
Bildad is annoyed that the best that he and his companions can offer has been repulsed with such hostile rejection. Do they know nothing? It is an insult to them that Job sees so little profit in what they have said, for they have addressed him with the very best of their wisdom. Yet he has been right to reject their superficial advice and right to regard them as having no real understanding of his condition. Bildad and his company are still enough in awe of Job that they are shaken by his dismissive response of their words, especially, as Hartley says, by his statement that he cannot find a wise man among them (17:10).Bildad suggests that there is a self-destructive element in Job’s behaviour. The phrase he uses is similar to one used by Job in 16:9, only here it is not God who is angry and tearing Job, but it is Job tearing his own flesh. In other words, Job has been trying to blame God for suffering that he has brought entirely on himself. Anger is a form of madness and anger may goad us to hurt ourselves when the real object of our passion is out of reach. Job has, according to Bildad, refused to face up to his own sin. If he were only to confess his sin and stop raging against God, he would not bring more and more discipline down upon him.‘Shall the earth be forsaken for thee?’ Must everyone who is of a different view to you make way for you and say that you alone are right and all others wrong? Bildad is talking about the matter in hand which is the great contest between them. He sarcastically asks whether Job would like the whole world to be emptied of those with any opinion different to his own. Would Job like the world for himself alone so that no one is left to contradict him? The liberal regards the evangelical as holding a minority position, peculiar to himself.‘Shall the rock be removed out of his place?’ The rock is permanent, fixed, and unquestionable. In this figure it refers to the principles of God’s justice and truth. Bildad suggests that Job is pitting himself against that which man must accept without question. He is expressing views that go against all the collected wisdom of the past.
Application
This rejection of false doctrine by the godly always stirs up the anger of liberals, for their pride cannot bear to see their knowledge set aside as nothing. Yet that is exactly what it is. The believer must have such a firm hold on the truth that he is not shaken by counter arguments expressed with extreme confidence and disdain. The believer has to suffer this kind of attack at times and hold on in the face of those who call black white, and white black. He must not to be blown off course by the strong winds that arise against him, some coming from those who he expects to be most supportive of him. Our hold on the truth must be a very individual matter.
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