30: Christians are Nice Guys. Thanks.

Chapter Eight introduces us to Job's second friend named, Bildad. However, unlike his name suggests, he is not fatherly-like at all. He claims that Job is being punished because he has sinned. Job should stop complaining and start repenting.

While I don't necessarily agree with him, I do like the way in which he says what he says. He is poetic and smooth. He says that we should look to the past, which, in modern times, could suggest looking at the Bible. By searching the Bible, we can see that we know nothing. But this is not to belittle our intellectual abilities. It only proves that we are infants in spiritual growth. Even I, the somewhat great scholar (cough), have a lot to learn.

He further states that we cannot grow without this foundation. He compares us to weeds without water. "Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?"

However, I believe Bildad gets it wrong when he states that God does not reject the righteous man and does not strengthen the hand of the wicked. Perhaps in the afterlife all things will be just, but on earth, this earth, I question how bad people gain material wealth and are deemed successful. By Bildad's thoughts, all Believers should be happy and all non-Believers should be weak. In the real world, however, I almost see the exact opposite. It is the Christians who are weak and the non-believers who are successful. Granted, this is only on earth and not in all eternity, but still. We, as humans, don't know the afterlife and cannot comprehend infinity. Therefore, life, to us as we can understand it, is what we see on earth, now.

I do believe that even if God does not intentionally reject the righteous man, He still can ignore him and cause him pain. Also, I believe that God can give the wicked power, such as he did in Pharoah's heart when he told Moses that his people could not go. Right there, in one of the Bible classics, is an example of how God can deem power to the wicked. Ah, but wait. It's for His purpose, right? So I guess that makes it okay?

No, it doesn't. It makes life more confusing. So as Christians are labeled as nice guys, everyone else can live based on their natural instincts and scratch and claw for whatever they can before they die. This may seem like a tortoise and the hare type of race, but sometimes it pays to be the hare. Remember, just don't stop to take a nap.