“Ugh!
You just keep going on and on and on. Why can’t you just shut up?”
Have you ever wanted to say that to someone? They keep pining away about their troubles and all they do is make matters worse because they keep rehearsing them over and over and over.
You want to say: “Get a grip! Move on! It is what it is!”
That is the response of Bildad to Job in chapter 18. This is what life is like, says Bildad. Bad things happen to bad people. Bad things have happened to Job. So . . . Job must be bad.
We’d like to think like Bildad at times. Justice seems to demand it. But we know better. Good things come to bad people. Bad things come to good people. You cannot ignore the truth, and feelings of disappointment and discouragement and injustice don’t go away just because you banish them from your life or cover them with busyness or pious platitudes. You have to deal with life’s incongruities.
Job is trying. Bildad is not.
Of the two, which of them reminds you of yourself when trying to deal with events that haven’t gone not just according to plan, but according to your sense of propriety?