Job 8:8 – For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

Job 8:9 – (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

Job 8:10 – Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart?

Hello readers, new blog time today. We are still in the book of Job, and it seems a long way to go! But it’s a wonderful book, a book for real life. Today we are actually going to look at part of what Bildad said. Bildad was a blunt sort of guy, he didn’t mince words, his statement was short, sharp and shiny. He really went for the throat. The Bible truly is God’s word, it’s incredible how much you can get out of it. For example, in the context of Job’s situation, what Bildad was saying was wrong. Yet in and of itself there is a principle we need to learn. And in and of itself, what he said is actually a wonderful bit of advice which if taken in the context of the truth of God’s word… a word of advice we could do we well to take heed to in fact.

Enquire of the former age. Bildad is telling Job, hey you want to know some things (like I do? right?) go back to history. Go back to what your dads searched out. Go back to time past and learn from history. Now that is great advice, so long as you look in the right place. The Bible is a book of history. That’s where you should go. History is a teacher. The fathers of the Christian faith are in there. If you want to start learning some stuff, go back to history, the former age… why do we live so stupidly when we have so much history to learn from and not make the same mistakes that past generations have made, not go in the same error past generations have gone in. You could read Ecclesiastes and learn from Solomon’s wasted life… yet you will waste your life. You can see the end of sinners, yet you live for sin yourself? When will we start learning? Get into the book of history… the Bible. Get your thinking right. You’re not anything new, the Bible says there is no new thing under the sun.

There’s something else to learn from what Bildad said. He acknowledged that we are but nothing. Think about it. Depending on your age, that’s how long you’ve been here. If I’m thirty… I’ve been here only thirty years. I’m nothing! We truly don’t know as much as we are told we know. We can come out of high school and university as the biggest know it alls. How much we are kidding ourselves! Bildad said… we know nothing. That’s so true. Why does the Bible say let God be true and every man a liar. We tend to get such an overinflated view of ourselves, of our own capacity, of our own sufficiency… we are really nothing. Maybe your fathers did actually learn some lessons which you live like not so. Remember Belshazzar? His father, Nebuchadnezzar, was greatly humbled by God, God brought him to a realization of how he was NOTHING in the sight of God. Yet Belshazzar lived like he was something, so he didn’t search out what his father had found out… he thought he knew better than dad… and he was dead wrong. Absalamon thought he’d do a better job as king than David… he was dead wrong. How much more foolish than to follow Absalom, like many did? How stupid! The Bible is written so you don’t have to be stupid, so you don’t have to be a fool… so you can know things, so you can know the record OF GOD.

Now it is important to not go into the error that Bildad went into. Because Bildad and the other two said a whole lot of stuff to Job that was wrong. Was Bildad referring to knowledge that he had? Well what Bildad ended up with wasn’t much help to Job. So we are gleaning what can actually be taken from what he said. You don’t want to go where Bildad got his stuff from necessarily do you! He held Job to an impossible standard. Job agreed with him, yeah Bildad, so how can anyone be just with God? How can anyone be right with God… you included? People can go looking in the wrong spots for what to learn from. Go to the Bible, that’s where to go. Go to a proven source. Don’t go back to someone else’s error in the past.

It’s funny how some people have forefathers who believed in God, but now they know better than God right? Maybe you had forefathers who knew the truth, who held to the truth… but now you’re an atheist, now you don’t believe the Bible! How wonderful a godly lineage is, but how it can squandered, how it can be lost. If you don’t have one, make one. Paul said he served God from his forefathers. What does that mean? It means Paul’s forefathers served God. Do you want to leave a legacy… a legacy of faith in God’s word, of holding to truth… that maybe, just maybe, will help a descendant of yours or someone looking for the truth down the track? Do you realize that if you have faith, Abraham is a forefather of yours? The promises of God were made to Abraham, promises we also enter into… those of us who are children of the faith, children of the promise. Galatians 3:7 – Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

It’s a wise thing to learn about the fathers who knew the truth. Learn about Abraham, about Joseph, about Daniel… these guys who searched out the truth. How about surrender thinking you know it all, and go to a proven age old source like the Bible, the oracle of God? Go back to creation. Go back to Noah’s flood. Go back to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Find out what happened. Get your thinking set straight. Proverbs talks of a generation that is wise in their own eyes. We get to thinking we know it all. So we can glean to day from what Bildad said… a great truth. Many people have found out the hard way that God says what he means, and means what he says. Learn from it? We have God’s word written down, a Bible that covers human history from the beginning to the ending (which we still haven’t arrived at!). You want to advance your thinking, that starts with less of you… and more of God’s word. But we are too proud for that right?

Look, Bildad was speaking down to Job, telling him off. But the principle of what he said was right when applied in a Biblical sense… if you’ve had a godly father, why go away from truth? There are so many who walk away from the Bible that their fathers believed. Abraham believed God. David believed God. But you’re more advanced than they are? Bildad had a warped view of God, because he’d been getting his wisdom from the wrong source. So don’t make his mistake… if you want to get your thinking straight, that comes from a life of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, a life guided by the light and truth of God’s word. Where we get our information from matters hugely. There is a faith the Bible says… a faith once delivered unto the saints… a faith from the very start… a faith that Abel had… get back to that. Search that out! That’s the age old, that’s the tried and tested, and that’s the true… we are nothing. The same word from the beginning, that same word still has power to save. The Bible says Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world… it’s always been about Jesus Christ, from start to finish… he is our only link to God. You want to get your thinking set straight, as Bildad was trying to tell Job…. it starts with recognizing your own inadequacy, and getting to the tried and tested and proven. That’s God’s word folks.

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