6. Job and His Three Friends: The Introduction of Bildad

Job 8:1-2 "Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?"

This sermon from American Pastor J.D. Montieth highlights the most foundational and important lessons in life from the oldest book in the Bible, the Book of Job. This sermon, the sixth in the series on the Book of Job, Job and His Three Friends: The Introduction of Bildad, introduces the second of Job's three friends, Bildad the Shuhite:

"Bildad demonstrates little patience toward Job and voices irritation after hearing his rebuttal to Eliphaz as to the cause of his trouble. Bildad’s speech immediately declares not only ignorance on his part but also supreme arrogance. He likens Job’s words to being as a strong wind, claiming him full of pride, and this is the reason that he cannot be persuaded of any personal guilt. Similar to what we observed in chapter one, when messengers came one by one to inform Job of the loss of all that he owned or cherished, now a similar pattern begins developing when one by one, those who are thought to be Job’s friends accuse him of being a sinner. Before it was Eliphaz, now Bildad, and soon it would be Zophar.

"Bildad’s words, though accurate come not from either the influence or inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit. What this teaches us is that men may speak a measure of truth, but this does not mean they speak for the Lord. Hence, though Bildad’s words are accurate, they are spoken generally, without any actual measure of the Spirit leading him.

"Bildad’s words reveal his complete and total lack of compassion toward Job when speaking of the death of his children. The death of one child is unbearably painful, let alone the deaths of all of one’s children. If men are not prompted by love, or led by God’s Holy Spirit, then even if their speech contains elements of truth, they do not speak for God. If a man also lacks divine love, then any other thoughts he may think he possesses of God, or of
His reasons for divine judgment cannot be accurate. Perhaps Job’s children had reaped as they had sown, but bringing up their deaths reveals immense spiritual insensitivity on Bildad’s part. Truth delivers; it does not injure.

"Though Bildad’s words would be proven true, they were not because of anything divinely revealed to him by God. It is also common that those who are not led by God’s Holy Spirit, and reveal themselves as false prophets, will often prophesy good, when in fact they have not received, nor have been taught anything truly from the Lord.

"It is not merely what a man has seen, either with his own eyes, or the experiences of others, that imparts true wisdom. For this there is needed, the inspiration of the Almighty. It is thus only from the Lord and divine revelation that true understanding can enter the sinner’s heart. And though human history does afford some measure of instruction, the truly deep things of both God and life are only discovered through spiritual inspiration."

This sermon was preached in the In the Mouth of Two or Three Witnesses series.

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