Job 8:8 - Meaning and Application

Bildad speaks here very well about the sad end of hypocrites and evil doers, and about the final ruin of all their hopes and joys. He does not go as far as Eliphaz, who said that no righteous person had ever been cut off like this (Job 4:7). Still, Bildad assumes that God, in the normal way he works through providence, does bring wicked people to shame and ruin in this world, even when they seemed pious and were prosperous. By making their success short-lived, he believes God shows that their religion was false.

Whether Bildad means to prove that every ruined person must be a hypocrite, he does not say so plainly. He only suspects it, and thinks the answer is easy. His point is that the hopes and joys of hypocrites will surely be destroyed. He proves this by appealing to old wisdom and to the shared judgment of wise and good people. Taken in the fullest sense, it is certainly true, if not in this life, then in the next, that hypocrites will lose all their false trusts and proud hopes.

Bildad begins by setting aside his own opinion and that of his friends. “We are but of yesterday, and know nothing” (Job 8:9). He seems to know that Job thinks little of their ability and wisdom. So Bildad says, in effect, “We will admit that we know nothing. We are as ready to confess our ignorance as you are to condemn it. We are only a short time on earth, and our days are passing away like a shadow.”

From this he draws two points. First, they are not as close to the source of God’s revelation as earlier generations were, so they must ask what the older people said and repeat what they handed down. In those days, revelation seems to have been passed on by tradition. We are blessed now that God’s word is written, so we do not need to depend on the former age for that. The Scripture is as near to us as it was to them (Romans 10:8), and it is the more sure word of prophecy, which we should pay close attention to. If we study and obey God’s commands, we can understand more than the ancients (Psalm 119:99-100).

Second, they do not live long enough to observe God’s ways fully, so they are not as able to judge such matters as older people were. Human life is short, and that limits the growth of knowledge. Weak bodies and short lives hold us back. Life is brief, but learning has no end.

Bildad then calls Job to ask the former generations, so they can tell him what they knew, not only from themselves but also from their fathers (Job 8:8). He says they will teach and tell him (Job 8:10) that in every age God’s judgments have followed wicked people. They will speak from their hearts, meaning they will say what they sincerely believe, what has deeply affected them, and what they want others to feel as well.

This is a useful way to study God’s providence, that is, his wise rule over the world. We should compare the observations and experiences of earlier ages with what happens in our own day. For that reason, history is helpful, especially sacred history, because it is the oldest, fully trustworthy, and written for our instruction. Those who want knowledge from earlier times must search carefully and take trouble to find it. And the best teaching comes from people who speak from the heart, from experience, not merely by repeating words. Such teachers reach the heart of learners more deeply.

Some have suggested that Bildad, being a Shuhite, may have had a special eye on the history of Abraham’s descendants and the destruction of nearby eastern peoples for their wickedness. If so, he may have been thinking that God often prospers the righteous and roots out the wicked, even if the wicked flourish for a time.

Bildad then illustrates this truth with pictures from nature. First, he compares the hopes and joys of the hypocrite to a rush or water plant (Job 8:11-13). The rush grows out of mud and water. In the same way, a hypocrite’s hope cannot grow without some false and rotten support. He builds it on worldly success, on a good outward profession of religion, on the praise of neighbors, or on his own good opinion of himself. None of these is a solid foundation. It is all mud and water, and the hope built on it is only like a rush or reed.

Such a plant may look green and fresh for a while, and it may even grow faster than grass. But it is light, hollow, empty, and useless. It is green only for show. Then it withers quickly, before other plants do. Even while it seems fresh, it is already drying up and fading away. The best condition of hypocrites and evil doers is always close to decay. Even when they seem green, they are already going.

That is why the way of all who forget God ends the same way (Job 8:13). They go the same road as the rush, and the hypocrite’s hope will perish. Forgetting God lies at the root of hypocrisy and of the false hopes people build for themselves. No one would be a hypocrite if he remembered that God sees the heart and demands truth there, or if he remembered that God is a Spirit and looks directly at our spirits. And hypocrites would not keep hoping in their false religion if they remembered that God is righteous and will not be fooled by half-hearted obedience.

The hope of hypocrites is a great lie they tell themselves. It may flourish for a time, but it will surely die, and they will die with it.

Next, Bildad compares the hypocrite to a spider’s web, or spider’s house, as the margin says (Job 8:14-15). The hope of the hypocrite is woven from his own inner thoughts. It is the product of his own imagination, rising from his false belief in his own worth and ability. There is a great difference between the work of the bee and the work of the spider.

A faithful Christian, like a hardworking bee, gathers comfort from the gentle dew of God’s word. But the hypocrite, like a clever spider, spins his comfort out of a false idea he has made up about God, as if God were just like him. He is also very fond of that comfort, just as a spider is fond of her web. He enjoys it, wraps himself in it, calls it his house, leans on it, and holds it tightly.

The spider, we are told, can even be found in kings’ palaces (Proverbs 30:28). In the same way, a worldly person takes pride in his outward success. He treats his house like a palace, protects it like a fortress, and uses it like a spider uses her web, to trap others he wants to take advantage of. A religious pretender does something similar. He flatters himself, feels sure of his own salvation, thinks heaven is certain, and misleads others with his empty confidence.

But all of this will be swept away as easily as a cobweb is brushed away when God comes to clean his house. The prosperity of worldly people will fail them when they most expect safety and happiness from it. They try to hold on to their wealth, but God is taking it out of their hands. And then whose will it be, after all? What good will it do them?

The confidence of hypocrites will also fail them. They will hear, “I do not know you.” The house built on sand falls in the storm, right when the builder needs it most and had counted on it. When a wicked man dies, his hope dies with him. What he trusted in will prove false. He will be disappointed in what he expected, and the foolish hope that kept him going will turn into endless despair. His hope will be cut off, his web, that shelter of lies, will be swept away, and he will be crushed in it.

The hypocrite is also compared to a healthy, deeply rooted tree. It may not wither on its own, but it can still be cut down, and soon no one will know where it stood. A secure and successful sinner may feel offended at being compared to a rush or a reed, because he thinks he has stronger roots. Bildad says, in effect, “We will grant him that much and still bring him to sudden ruin.” He is pictured, like Nebuchadnezzar in his dream (Daniel 4:10), as a great tree.

Look at this tree when it is fair and flourishing (Job 8:16), like a green bay tree (Psalm 37:35). It stays green in spite of the burning sun, and its branch spreads out under the shelter of its garden wall and from the goodness of its soil. See it fixed firmly in place, with deep roots, and not likely to be blown over by strong winds, because its roots are tangled among the stones (Job 8:17). It grows in solid ground, not in mud and water like a rush. So a wicked man, when he prospers in the world, thinks he is safe. In his own mind, his wealth is a high wall.

Yet see that same tree cut down and forgotten, destroyed from its place (Job 8:18), so completely removed that no sign is left of where it grew. The place itself will say, “I have not seen you,” and everyone standing by will say the same. “I looked for him, but he could not be found” (Psalm 37:36). For a while, he made a great show and caused a lot of noise, but suddenly he is gone, with neither root nor branch left (Malachi 4:1).

This is the end of the wicked man’s way (Job 8:19), the finish of all his joy. The way of the ungodly will perish (Psalm 1:6). He thought his hope would finally become joy, but this is what it comes to in the end. The harvest he gathers will be only a heap in a day of grief and desperate sorrow (Isaiah 17:11). That is the best of it. What, then, will the worst be?

Will he at least leave a family behind to enjoy what he earned? No, others will rise from the earth, not from his own roots, and they will have no family tie to him. They will take his place and rule over what he worked for. Others, people with the same kind of spirit and behavior, will grow up in his place and be just as secure as he was, without learning from his fall. The way of worldly people is foolish, yet there is always a crowd that approves of what they say (Psalm 49:13).