Evangelist Ravi Zacharias has a radio program titled, “Let My People Think.” (www.rzim.org). Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar (EBZ) should have tuned in once in a while. Francis I. Anderson points out that it seems that one of the purposes for the writing of the book of Job was to show how inflexible the theology of EBZ was, and how it was held to so unthinkingly. No one should discount the wisdom and theology gained by past generations who “contended earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.” (Jude 3) But the problem here is a forcing of Job’s circumstances into such a severe and simplistic theology.
8:11 "Can the papyrus grow up without marsh? Can the rushes grow without water? 8:12 While it is still green {and} not cut down, yet it withers before any {other} plant. 8:13 So are the paths of all who forget God, and the hope of the godless (the KJV has “hypocrite”) will perish,”
Papyrus can grow 8-10 feet tall in the marshes along the Nile and other rivers. It was the “plastic” of ancient times – anything from shoes to boats to paper to baskets to clothes were made from this luxuriant reed. The height and greenness of the papyrus speaks of the pride of man and his luxuriant prosperity. The word “grow” in verse 11 is the same as “increase” in Psalm 73:12, “Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches (they grow into a ten foot reed).” Obviously a rush/reed/papyrus has no life in itself; it is only tall and green because it abides in the marsh. It is not self-sufficient. If it were to some how walk away from Marshfield, the overnight result would be a total witherfication. So what the Bildad Bible Seminary seems to be teaching here is, “Job, you divorced yourself from your only source of life (your marsh or swamp water) and that's why you are withering. You are dried up, diseased, and devastated because you aren’t abiding in the vine!”
Note also that the KJV uses the word “hypocrite” in verse 13. That is essentially how Job was viewed by his friends; he was “The Great Pretender” and wasn’t really who he presented himself to be.
On the phrase “So are the paths of all who forget God…” in verse 13, Hartley states, “The forgetting of God is not a mere lapse of memory, but the willful decision to live with no regard either for God or for his precepts.” This then is the crux of the matter – Job has forgotten God (he has moved out of the swamp) and thought his papyrus could grow all by itself.
(NIV) 8:14 “What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web. 8:15 He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.”
There is a wonderful verse in Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms…” But as per Bildad, underneath Job were not the Everlasting Arms, but a pretty flimsy spider’s web! Hartley writes, “The web represents the frailest of all things…anyone who grabs on to a spider web to break his fall finds no support at all. With this illustration Bildad warns Job that no earthly or personal security on which he might rely is any stronger than a spider’s web.”
The lyrics of the hymn “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” were written by Anthony J. Showalter as a way to minister to two of his students who had recently lost their wives in death. Bildad probably thought, “You know Job, instead of clinging to God, you’re clinging to a web. Shouldn’t you be singing the “Itsy Bitsy Spider” instead of “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms?”
Remember that not everything that EBZ said was incorrect. It is true that if we trust in our own talent or ability or wealth, it is as if we are leaning on a spider web or walking away from the swamp water. It’s just that their diagnosis as to why Job was suffering completely missed the mark. Job wasn’t leaning on a spider’s web, he hadn’t rebelled against God, and yet here he was at the town dump.
(NIV) 8:16 “He is like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden; 8:17 it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones. 8:18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’ 8:19 Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow.”
When the godless (as Bildad implies Hypocrite Job really is at his core) feels most secure, God will uproot him as a gardener would do a weed. And even though the roots of the weeds are wrapped around rocks (say that real fast three times), and seem very secure, the Divine Gardener will rip out all of the roots. JFB writes this in reference to vs. 18-19, “The very soil is ashamed of the weeds lying withered on its surface, as though it never had been connected with them. So, when the godless falls from prosperity, his nearest friends disown him. Bildad thus justifies the conduct of the friends toward Job.”
Translation? “Job, God has ripped you up out of the ground because of your hypocrisy and has disowned you. And so should we!” Later in the book, Job calls EBZ “sorry comforters.” When you realize what they had said to Job, you understand why!
8:20 "Lo, God will not reject {a man of} integrity, nor will He support the evildoers. 8:21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting. 8:22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame; and the tent of the wicked will be no more."
The word “integrity” is the same as that used in chapters 1-2 where, on at least three occasions, God uses it to describe (in admiration) his servant. Translation: “If you follow my advice,” says Bildad, “And repent, instead of being clothed with worms and dirt and scabs, your enemies will be clothed shame.”
(One writer observed that it’s interesting how God and Satan debate the character of Job, while Job and EBZ debate the character of God.)
Conclusion: Hartley sums up Bildad’s first speech thusly, “A prisoner of tradition, Bildad refuses to allow any experience, particularly Job’s, to temper his doctrine…There are no exceptions to his doctrine: The blameless are always blessed by God and the wicked always punished. Any circumstances to the contrary are either illusory or momentary.”
As one bumper sticker puts it, “We shouldn’t be so open minded that our brains fall out.” But neither should we be so rigid and simplistic in our thinking. The book of Job moves poetically and relentlessly toward the appearance of God at the town dump in a supernatural storm and the worship of that Majesty despite unanswered questions and unhealed circumstances. I would have loved to have been a mouse in the corner to see the expressions of EBZ when that happened.
EBZ = Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar
NASV = New American Standard Version
NIV = New International Version
OT = Old Testament
K&D = Commentary by Keil and Delitzsch (from PC Bible Study)
JFB = Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (from PC Bible Study)
Adam Clarke = Adam Clarke Commentary (from PC Bible Study)
Barnes = Barnes Notes (from PC Bible Study)
Hartley = The New International Commentary on the Old Testament:
The Book of Job by John E. Hartley
Swindoll = Job, Profiles in Character from Charles R. Swindoll
FIA = Tyndale OT Commentaries: Job by Francis I. Anderson
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