The Book of Job

Word Study

"dominion," Hebrew hamshel (הַמְשֵׁל), rule, sovereignty. Bildad begins with a true and lofty statement: "Dominion and fear are with him." God rules with absolute sovereignty, and Bildad is right to say so. This is sound theology as far as it goes; God is indeed the sovereign Lord over all.

"fear," pachad (פַחַד), dread, awe. The word is stronger than reverence; it is dread. Bildad's God inspires holy awe, and that too is true. But notice what Bildad's God is like: distant, exalted, awesome, ruling from unreachable heights, and utterly separate from lowly man.

"peace," shalom (שָׁלוֹם). God "maketh peace," ordering and reconciling all things in His domain. He is the God of peace who brings order out of chaos and keeps the harmony of the heavenly hosts.

"his high places," meromav (מְרוֹמָיו), the heights, the heavens. But this is where Bildad leaves that peace. He can describe God's dominion and God's peace in the heights, yet he has no conception of that peace coming down to man; his God stays up there. This is precisely the limitation of the friends' theology throughout: they know a God high and terrible, but not a God who stoops. Bildad rightly says God "maketh peace in his high places", but the Gospel proclaims something Bildad never imagined, that this same God would make peace, not only in His high places, but between heaven and earth, between Himself and sinful man.

Explanation

Bildad begins loftily and truly: "Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places." God rules with absolute sovereignty, inspires holy awe, and orders all things in the heavens. This is sound as far as it goes. But Bildad's God is distant and exalted, ruling from unreachable heights, utterly separate from lowly man. He can describe God's peace "in his high places" but cannot imagine that peace coming down to man. This is the limit of the friends' theology: they know a God high and terrible, but not a God who stoops.

Gospel Focus

"He maketh peace in his high places", Bildad's God made peace only in the heights, but the Gospel proclaims a God who made peace between the heights and the depths, between heaven and earth. When Christ was born, the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14), the peace of the high places coming down to earth. For God has "made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself... whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven" (Colossians 1:20). The distant God of Bildad's theology drew near in Jesus Christ, who "is our peace" (Ephesians 2:14), and "came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh" (Ephesians 2:17). Bildad could exalt God's dominion but knew nothing of God's condescension; the Gospel reveals the sovereign Lord of the high places stooping to make peace with rebels through the cross. The God who "maketh peace in his high places" has made peace with us, so that "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). The heights and the depths are joined; the awesome God who rules the heavens has become the Prince of Peace who reconciles man to Himself. Bildad's God stayed above; the true God came down, and made peace for us.

Word Study

"justified," Hebrew yitzdaq (יִצְדַּק) from tsadaq, be declared righteous, be in the right. Bildad returns to the great question that has echoed through the book: "How then can man be justified with God?" This is the very question Job himself raised in chapter 9, "how should man be just with God?" (Job 9:2). It is the question of all religion: how can a sinful, mortal creature be declared in the right before the infinitely holy God?

"clean," yizkeh (יִזְכֶּה) from zakah, be pure, clean. The second half of the question asks not about legal standing but about purity: "how can he be clean?" Eliphaz had asked the same in chapter 15, "what is man, that he should be clean?" (Job 15:14). Bildad states the problem with force, but, tellingly, he offers no answer. He can pose the question but cannot solve it.

"born of a woman," yelud ishshah (יְלוּד אִשָּׁה). The phrase names the whole human race by its frail origin, and for Bildad that settles the matter. His theology has a towering God and a groveling man, and no bridge between. This is the poverty of a religion of mere greatness-and-lowliness: it can humble man, but it cannot save him. It leaves the sinner crushed beneath an unanswerable question. But the question is not unanswerable. It only awaited the One who could answer it, not with a theory, but with Himself. The whole Gospel exists to answer Bildad's "how then can man be justified with God?"

Explanation

Bildad returns to the great question of the book: "How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" It is the question of all religion, raised already by Job (9:2) and Eliphaz (15:14): how can sinful, mortal man stand justified and clean before the holy God? Bildad states the problem forcefully but offers no answer. His theology has a towering God and a groveling man and no bridge between. It can humble the sinner but cannot save him, leaving him crushed beneath an unanswerable question, unanswerable, that is, until Christ.

Gospel Focus

"How then can man be justified with God?", this is the question the entire Gospel was given to answer, and Bildad, who could only ask it, points us straight to Christ, who alone resolves it. A man is justified before God not by his own righteousness, which cannot survive God's holiness, but by faith in Jesus Christ: "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24); "a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Romans 3:28); "being justified by faith, we have peace with God" (Romans 5:1). How can a sinner be counted righteous? God "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ took our unrighteousness and gives us His righteousness, and so the impossible is done: sinful man stands justified before a holy God. And "how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" Only through the One who was born of a woman yet clean, "made of a woman" (Galatians 4:4), sinless, whose blood "cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Bildad's question had no answer within his theology of distance; but the Gospel of the God who drew near answers it gloriously. Man cannot justify or cleanse himself, but God, in Christ, justifies the ungodly and cleanses the unclean. The question that crushed the sinner becomes, in Jesus, the doorway to salvation.

Word Study

"man," Hebrew enosh (אֱנוֹשׁ), mortal, frail man. Bildad ends his final speech, and the friends' whole case, with the weakest of the Hebrew words for man: "How much less man, that is a worm?" If the moon and stars are not pure before God, how much less this frail, dying creature.

"a worm," rimmah (רִמָּה), a maggot. The first of the two worm-words, and the harsher one: a maggot in the dust, the thing that feeds on a corpse. This is the end point of Bildad's theology, man as nothing, crushed beneath the greatness of God.

"the son of man," ben-adam (בֶּן־אָדָם). Bildad means it as another way of saying "child of dust," but the title will not stay small. The Son of Man, whom Bildad could only imagine as a worm crushed under God, is the very title Jesus took for Himself, the "Son of man" who came not to grovel but to save.

"a worm," tola'ath (תּוֹלֵעָה), a worm, grub. The second worm-word, and the one Scripture handles very differently. There is a real truth here about human lowliness before God, and the Bible does use such humbling language; the psalmist even cries, "I am a worm, and no man" (Psalm 22:6). But notice: Bildad uses "worm" to leave man in the dust, hopeless; whereas Scripture, remarkably, puts that very word on the lips of the Messiah, for Psalm 22:6 is a prophecy of Christ on the cross. Bildad's theology ends with man as a hopeless worm; the Gospel takes that same lowly word and shows the Son of Man Himself stooping to it, becoming a worm, as it were, despised and crushed, that worms like us might be lifted up to glory.

Explanation

Bildad ends the friends' whole case with man reduced to a worm: "How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?" There is real truth about human lowliness here, and the Bible uses such language (Psalm 22:6). But Bildad uses "worm" to leave man hopeless in the dust. Scripture, remarkably, puts that same word on the lips of the Messiah, "I am a worm, and no man" (Psalm 22:6), a prophecy of Christ on the cross. The Son of Man whom Bildad imagined as a crushed worm is the very title Jesus took, who stooped to the dust to lift us up.

Gospel Focus

"The son of man, which is a worm", Bildad meant it as man's hopeless degradation, but the Gospel takes this very image and transforms it into the wonder of the incarnation and the cross. For the Lord Jesus, the true Son of Man, took upon Himself the word "worm." Psalm 22, the great psalm of the crucifixion, has Messiah say, "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people" (Psalm 22:6). The Son of God stooped lower than any worm, He "made himself of no reputation... and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:7-8). Bildad could only crush man down; Christ came down to where the crushed man lies, taking the reproach, the despising, the lowliness of the worm, that He might lift us up. And here is the glory: because the Son of Man became "a worm" for us, we who are worms are raised to be sons of God. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). Bildad's theology ends with man in the dust; the Gospel ends with man, through the Son of Man who took the dust for us, seated "together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). The worm does not stay a worm. The One who became low for us has lifted the lowly to glory. Do not despair at your lowliness before God; look to the Son of Man who became a worm, that worms might become the sons of God.