I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 6-10.

    I always struggle with the Book of Job because of the need to keep in mind God’s condemnation of what Job’s friends say and His rebuke of Job. If you read Job, it is obvious that the first and most important lesson of the book is that suffering is not evidence that the sufferer is any more a sinner than anyone else. However, the length of the book tells us that there is more to be learned than just that. As I mentioned yesterday, Job is an example to us that we can faithfully serve God in the midst of suffering: that being faithful in the face of suffering may be our calling. I am going to paraphrase what Job said in the first part of today’s passage, “If I died now, I could be happy because, despite my pain and suffering, I have not denied God nor turned against Him.” So, whatever pain and suffering we face in this life, let us follow Job’s example and remain faithful to God in the midst of them.

    Then Bildad responds and more explicitly blames Job’s suffering on his sin…without ever pointing out what that sin might be. This is perhaps one of the most important places to note that God condemned Job’s three friends. Bildad assumes that Job’s children died in their tragedy because of their sin, even though he knows of no sin which they committed. Further, Bildad is sure that those who prosper are godly and that the godly will prosper. Bildad is unequivocally wrong. Those who are suffering are not necessarily greater sinners than others and those who prosper are not necessarily godly.

    Job speaks once more and tells us how much greater than us God is. He is mighty and powerful beyond the limits of our ability to imagine. God’s greatness inspires fear in us, as it should. Job complains that the fear which God inspires in us makes it impossible for us to plead our case before God, it would do so even if we were innocent of sin. Then Job expresses the plea that all men who understand God’s greatness and goodness have felt, if not expressed: “If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together.” And this is the great message of Christianity. There is indeed a mediator to bring Man and God together. That mediator is Jesus Christ.