to purify our counsel to others. It is a fact that comes with our baptism of fire. We cannot beat ourselves with guilt or hesitate to move forward – we simply must embrace the lesson of our permissible suffocation and choose to become wiser still.
JOB RESPONDS TO BILDAD’S COUNSEL – Chapter 9
Job starts out by declaring that he indeed did not doubt the true and honorable justice of God, when he refused to accept the fact that they were calling him a hypocrite, for he says: how should man be just with God? He clearly communicates his guilt of sins more than his “friends” could count and that he could not justify them before God, therefore he deserved worse than the permissible sufferings allotted to him by his God. An interesting note here, when Job is talking about the wisdom and power of God, he actually forgets about his sufferings and puts less of an emphasis on them. A practice God wants all of His children to master. Job knew, as we should, we are unfit to question or judge the actions of God. He has come to realize in a very personal way that the acts and decisions of God no creature can resist. If Job did not come to this conclusion, he would think that those who think they have power and strength to help themselves, or others, could actually battle such permissible sufferings.
At this point in our reading, Job is still in harmony with God’s view of him - For thee is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away
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