Job 25:1-6
Man Cannot Be Righteous
1Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2“Dominion and awe belong to God; He establishes harmony in the heights of heaven.
3Can His troops be numbered? On whom does His light not rise?
4How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
5If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,
6how much less man, who is but a maggot, and the son of man, who is but a worm!”
Berean Standard Bible
Bildad's final speech is brief. He declares that dominion and awe belong to God, who establishes peace in His heights. His attention turns upward to the armies of heaven and the light that shines on all creation.
He asks how a man can be righteous before God and how one born of a woman can be pure. If the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in God's sight, how much less a man, who is only a maggot, and a son of man, who is only a worm.
The speech says something true about the difference between God and humanity, but it does not answer Job's complaint. It reduces a suffering person to a general statement about human smallness, as though humility requires Job to stop asking for justice.
The brevity may show that the friends' argument is running out of substance. They can repeat that God is great and humans are small, but they cannot explain why a blameless man suffers.
Questions
1 To whom does dominion belong?
AnswerDominion and awe belong to God, who establishes peace in His heights.
2 What does Bildad ask about humanity?
AnswerHe asks how a person can be righteous or pure before God.
3 How does Bildad describe human beings?
AnswerHe describes them as small and unclean compared with God's greatness.
4 What can Bildad's speech not explain?
AnswerIt cannot explain why Job suffers despite the opening testimony that he is blameless.
What This Means for Us
Humility before God is not the same as surrendering every question about justice. A person can be small and still be wronged.
Do not use someone's weakness to make their complaint disappear. Good theology should make room for the truth of a person's experience.
Prayer
LORD, give us humility without humiliation. Help us honor Your greatness while taking suffering seriously, and keep us from making smallness an excuse to ignore injustice. Amen.