S) "2 'How long will you hunt for words?
Show understanding and then we can talk.
3 'Why are we regarded as beasts,
As stupid in your eyes?
4 'O you who tear yourself in your anger—For your sake is the earth to be abandoned,
Or the rock to be moved from its place?'"
Job 18:2-4 (NASB)
O) This time, it is Bildad who was replying to Job. This time, he was speaking to the futility of many words, when a person doesn't seem to want actual resolution. Job's responses to his friends were dismissive to this point, regarding their advice as stupid (and perhaps, rightly so). Meanwhile, he was continuing to lash out in anger (at least verbally, if v.4 is figurative). In the last verse above, Bildad challenged Job to consider, that he might be thinking too self-centered about the whole situation. The point he was making, was that if Job wasn't willing to hear them out, if he was only interested in arguing, and he was going to pre-dismiss the words of his friends, and if Job was only going to see the situation from his own perspective, then that was going to be a problem. Bildad went on to describe the fate of the wicked, and how they will only be doomed to perish by their own wicked schemes - in a sense, he was bringing to light that if Job was not willing to have a rational discussion, he was no better off than every other wicked person, doomed to die for their wickedness, by their wickedness.
A) Like so much of the story of Job has been, there is a two-sided application. First, it is super-challenging to take criticisms like the ones presented by Bildad. I need to trust my wife, brothers, and friends, that they do not criticize lightly. If someone comes to me, I need to recognize the significance of that situation, and hear them out. I cannot let my pride close my ears, and not hear what they are speaking, because it very well could be that the Lord is speaking through them.
On the flip-side, if I am trying to counsel someone, and they are simply not willing to try and understand, then I may need to simply let the matter go. If a person is not willing to talk something through, if they are stuck in a self-centered mindset, only willing to see their own perspective on a matter, and dismissing my words before they leave my mouth, then I can truly do nothing for them.
P) Father, You are truly unique in Your divine ability to pierce walls, and to take a heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. You performed this miracle, by the Holy Spirit, within my own life. I know firsthand, the amount of grace that is involved in that kind of redemption. I never want to waste the work You have done in my life, by closing my own eyes and ears. Father God, continue to humble me, so that I can receive admonishment and rebuke from You, even when it comes through other people - especially when it comes through others. When I am tasked with that same duty, to counsel someone, guide me by Your Spirit. Make me aware when my words are fruitless, and let me then rely only on the work of the Holy Spirit in that person's life, because my words will be futile. Give me freedom on both sides, Father God, to celebrate Your work in my own life, and through me. In this, and everything, let Your will be done. In Jesus's name I pray. Amen.
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