Thurs.’s Devo - Bildad’s Take on Job

Read: Job 4:1-7:21; 1 Corinthians 14:18-40; Psalm 37:30-40; Proverbs 21:27
Bildad, the Shuhite was the first of Job’s friends to offer Job a comment about his situation. Bildad means “son of contention” and was a descendant of Abraham’s son Shuah also the name of the district in Arabia where he was from. The common thought of the day was that if you lived righteously then you would be rewarded on earth, but if you sinned, you were punished on the earth. That is true to an extent, just not true in Job’s case. Bildad went to great legnths to prove his point. He ended by advising Job to plead for mercy from God and repent. God loves those he corrects so this was nothing more than God lovingly rebuking Job for something he had done.
Job tried to explain that this was the lot that God has decided for him. He compared his life to living in the army with God as his sergeant. This was his assignment - suffering for a set time. I laughed out loud when I read Job’s complaint to God. He said, “Wont you ever take your eyes off of me, at least long enough for me to swallow my spit?” Job felt like he was under God’s heavy hand for God’s reasons, not because he did some big great sin.
In Corinthians, Paul is still addressing the issue of speaking in tongues in the church. He explained that he spoke in tongues much than even they did but when he is in church it is more beneficial to the people if he prophesied and they could understand what he was saying. A first time visitor was going to be afraid if someone spoke in tongues without interpreting the message. But if a prophet were to stand and give a prophecy and reveal what the man was thinking in his heart, then he would probably become a believer really quickly.
He addressed the order of giving prophesy and told them that if someone was prophesying and they got a word from the Lord, they had the power to wait until the person speaking finished. He concluded with telling them not to forbid people from speaking in tongues and to eagerly seek to prophesy, but just to do both of them with sincerity and order.
Lord, help us to trust you through our trials and not try to figure them out while we are in the midst of them.