Lesson 20 Job:8-10
A. We are now looking into Bildad's address to Job.
B. We saw that Bildad accused Job of believing God to be unjust.
C. We saw that Bildad offered two proofs that his allegations were correct.
1. The death of his children.
2. That mercy is available.
D. Starting in verse eight, Bildad brings up Job's problems in light of the past.
E. Notice the reference to the former age.
F. Notice also the reference to the search of the fathers.
II. The intellectual poverty of life. {vs.9}
A. Two unquestionable truths emerge from this verse.
1. The transitoriness of life.
2. The intellectual poverty of our moral life.
B. We know nothing.
1. Our ignorance arises from the brevity of life.
2. We have very little time to acquire knowledge.
3. We know nothing compared with what is to be known.
4. Each advancement in science has shown us the comparative nothingness of all human knowledge.
5. We know nothing compared with what we shall know in the future.
C. The imperfection of our knowledge is plainly owing to:
1. The narrowness of our facilities.
2. The lateness of our existence.
3. The disadvantage of our situation for observing nature.
4. The disadvantage of our situation for acquiring knowledge.
D. If we are thus so necessarily ignorant, it does not become us to criticize the ways of God.
E. The profoundest modesty should characterize us in the maintenance of our theological views.
1. It is the duty of man to get convictions of divine truth for himself.
2. It is the duty of man to hold theological convictions with firmness.
3. It is the duty of man to promote his theological views with earnestness.
4. All this must be done with the conscientiousness of his own fallibility.
5. All this must be done with the conscientiousness of regard or respect to the judgment of others.
6. True wisdom is ever modest.
III. Our days upon earth are a shadow.
A. The text here reminds us of life.
B. Bildad compares our existence to a shadow.
C. The meaning of the use of the word shadow.
1. A shadow is dark.
a. The word is always associated with that which is gloomy.
b. Man, that is born of woman has but a short time to live, and is full of misery.
2. A shadow is not possible without light.
a. We may be assured that our troubles are accompanied by the Sun of Righteousness.
3. To console us in all trials we have the light of God's presence.
4. To console us in all trials we have the purpose of God.
a. The storms of trouble develop holiness.
b. The storms of trouble develop virtue.
5. A shadow agrees with its substance.
a. It agrees in shape.
b. It agrees in size.
c. Life is a shadow.
d. God is the sun.
e. eternity is the substance.
6. A shadow is soon gone.