Job began his reply to Bildad by saying, “he knows it is so of a truth” (Job 9:1-2), but what does he know of a truth? Well, although Bildad wasn’t looking for an answer per se, Job replied to Bildad’s rhetorical question: “Does God pervert judgment? or does the Almighty pervert justice?” (Job 8:3). In other words, Bildad expected Job to agree with him on this point. However, Job specifically mentioned that he agreed with Bildad’s implication that God doesn’t pervert judgment or justice, in order that he might add a rhetorical question of his own: “…how should mankind be just with God?” (Job 9:2). Job’s point was that his friends were missing the obvious.
Job asked how man’s sense of justice could be so correct that God, himself, was required to agree with and support mankind’s judgment or sense of justice? Consider the fact that we, as readers of the Book of Job, are privy to the cosmic drama occurring behind the scenes, concerning, which neither Job nor his friends are aware. God has afflicted Job and destroyed his life without cause (Job 2:3). He is responsible, despite the fact that it was actually Job’s enemy who conspired to rob him. However, it was the Lord who permitted it all to take place. It was God, himself, who killed Job’s children, and it was God who afflicted Job with the painful disease that had given him no rest. It was Job’s friends’ sense of justice that that caused them to accuse Job of committing a great secret, which up to this point even they had been unable to identify. Yet, he must have acted wickedly, because he was collapsing under God’s apparent judgment.
This is the only conclusion their worldview of God’s relationship to man would permit. Nevertheless, Job disagrees, for he knows he hasn’t committed such an horrendous crime that would warrant his then present circumstance. Moreover, according to Job’s worldview, the Lord isn’t required to correct the friends by offering them an explanation for what he has done; and we, the readers of the book, are compelled to agree with Job, because we are privy to the fact that the friends have erred in accusing him of sinning and bringing the wrath of God upon him. The friends’ judgment is wrong, so it necessarily follows that their sense of justice is wrong. Indeed, God will not pervert judgment or justice (Job 8:3). Nevertheless, man will, and the problem at hand is that Job’s friends require God to support their own inaccurate sense of justice. Hence, Job’s question: how should mankind be just with God (Job 8:2)?
Therefore, Job opens his second reply to the friends by telling them they erroneously believe they have God figured out well enough to speak for him and accuse Job of a secret sin, which they can’t even identify. Job’s point is not so much that they have mischaracterized him, as the fact that they have mischaracterized God. We do much the same today! Some of us may believe we understand the truth through experience (Eliphaz) or through tradition (Bildad) or our emotions tells us what’s true (Zophar). Not only so, but we then expect God to establish our truth. For example, experience told the folks in Nazareth that Jesus couldn’t be the Christ (Mathew 13:54-56), because he simply didn’t fit their concept of what the Messiah should be.[1] On another occasion, Jesus and his disciples were expected to observe the traditions of the elders (Bildad’s argument), but Jesus told the Jewish authorities that their traditions violated the truth of the word of God (Mark 7:5-13). On still another occasion, Jesus asked a question of the Jewish authorities: who among them was able to prove he was sinning (John 8:46). They argued out of their emotions rather than the word of God (cp. Zophar) in an effort to condemn Jesus, and failing, they sought to kill him (John 8:48-59).
As for us, we blindly support a political party and accuse those who don’t agree with us of sinning against God. Imagine, through our support of the power that crucified Christ, we accuse our own brethren of sin (cp. Zophar). Or, we blindly pontificate, through long tradition and well accepted arguments, that human life begins HERE (pick a month or week in the womb) and accuse brethren of murder, if they abort the fruit of the womb. Yet, nothing in the word of God supports such a point of view (cp. Bildad).[2] Finally, we pass judgment upon brethren who have no experiential witness. This is, what they believe about the word of God, vis-à-vis Genesis 1:1, has no visible support in what we are able to reasonably conclude from what we see in life’s experiences (science/Eliphaz)![3] Thus, the arguments of Job’s friends continue to this day, and they argue against the truth as revealed by God.
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[1] Compare Eliphaz’s argument that Job’s condition simply didn’t fit his concept of what should occur to a righteous man.
[2] See my previous studies on the issue of abortion.
[3] That is, what is falsely called science. See my previous studies on the subject of evolution.
Smoodock's Blog 
7 responses to “How Is Mankind Just With God?”
Allow me to add two things:
1. I don’t mean to imply I’m not subject to the same exact things. I am, and if I had a public blog it would be easy to scrutinize it. Hopefully you felt the spirit of that upon reading.
2. My 7th child, a daughter, was born in the caul. She lay there on the bed within the water sac…it was breathtaking – no pun intended. Those in the room to witness this were all speechless. No one rushed to break it. I witnessed her spirit before her first breath…but then again, I witnessed her spirit while she was yet in the womb. We talked, she’d hear and respond in the only way she was able.
This obviously colors my belief and presuppositions – how could it not. It was as real as the words I type to you now.
Greetings Landon, and thank you for your kind thoughts and encouragement. Lord bless you.
Concerning, “Adam was never in the womb…” This is very true, but lifeless? I don’t see this as you do. I believe his heart was pumping his blood throughout his body. I don’t see the creation of man as a sculpture, which after it was finished: presto it became alive. God is not a magician, and I realize this wasn’t the intention you wished to make. Yet, if his body was completely lifeless for hours, the blood would clot skin and other tissue would become hard or at least less supple. While I understand that God is Almighty and can correct anything that goes awry, why let it go awry in the first place, he who is Almighty caused the heart to beat as needed. Moreover, it takes awhile for a heart to form in the womb, so the babe doesn’t have a heart for some time either. Also, concerning “dirt” topsoil is alive with vegetation life, and that’s pretty much all the fetus has in the beginning, vegetable life. Certainly, it cannot think, feel pain or move by itself to get more comfortable etc. No matter which you choose, the womb or Eden. It took some time to create the life that we would recognize as human. The Lord didn’t just snap his fingers. I may not be wording this properly, but I think you know what I mean.
Concerning preparing Jesus’ body, to be sure, we are marvelously made in the womb, there is nothing meaningless about it. However, we have been subjected to the flesh in hope—since after the rebellion. There is no mention of a body being created until Genesis 3, where the Lord made “skins” for them. The fact that the woman would have greater pain in labor, and the fact that Adam would labor in sweat, suggests that a different “body” was intended from the beginning. The trial period in Eden included Adam’s soul and spirit, not a body. He was later clothed in a body, but in the beginning, he was “naked and unashamed” without one. Later, Paul would say he longed to be with the Lord, as long as he didn’t appear before him “naked.” He’s not speaking of clothing. He’s hoping for a new, spiritual body after death, the kind intended from the beginning.
Concerning John’s leaping in Elizabeth’s womb, it was Elizabeth who heard Mary’s voice, not John, at least the text makes no such claim. It was Elizabeth, not John, who was filled with the Holy Spirit. The babe in the womb lives by its mother; if the mother is excited, the babe may express that excitement weather fear or joy. Elizabeth was filled with joy. When my wife was pregnant with our first daughter, I came up behind her and touched her on the back. She was startled and she felt the babe in her womb curl up in a ball. That happens. It doesn’t mean John was excited to ‘know’ Jesus was in the area. He was part of his mother at that point and reacted like she reacted according to Elizabeth’s joy.
Concerning your reply to my questioning the life Jesus died for, the theory of evolution, as well as its mother, Hinduism, is behind all forms of bigotry. Who is more developed and why is merely an excuse for the educated wealthy to “use” and “abuse” the less developed and uneducated in human society. One does not get this from the Bible. It came out of Hinduism, was developed later by the Greeks and Egyptians as trade with the east grew, and was picked up by Darwin in the 19th century and passed off as ‘science.’ The atrocities that have been committed are not due to the word of God. They are due to men pushing God out of their knowledge, believing themselves to be wise (Romans 1:22, 28). In ancient Israel, if a pregnant woman lost her child due to the violence of another, the person who caused the miscarriage was fined, not stoned or hanged.
Don’t be so concerned about my feelings toward you, Landon. We believe differently on this matter, and we’re allowed. God encourages discussion, and wherever two or three are gathered together in peace, he his among us.
Seven children! Wow! You are blessed. I’m the oldest of eight, but I have only two daughters. My third brother, however, has seven, but he adopted an eighth. I do believe that was quite an experience you had, and, yes, it would color your thoughts on this subject— “how could it not.” I don’t wish to reply to that. It would be too much like critiquing a blessing from God, and that would be crass. We are both very serious in our faith and how we express it. We may believe differently on some things, but not on Jesus, who he is and what he has done.
Lord bless you, Landon and a very Merry Christmas to you and your blessed family. 😊