All Theology and No Heart

Job 25:1–6 (ESV) Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 “Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven. 3 Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? 4 How then can man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? 5 Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; 6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!”

I put the entirety of Bildad's final accusation against Job here because of its brevity and to celebrate this as the final word from the three horrible friends who have not changed in the least as they have sat and mourned with their "friend" in his dire situation. 

Some people are all theology and no heart. Job's three friends fit that bill exactly. When I first read Bildad's final speech here in Job 25 I thought, "This guy sounds like a die-hard reformed theologian." He's speaking hard-line "total depravity" here. And while the doctrine of the reformed church is a beautiful thing filled with true Biblical wisdom, sometimes in practice it can overlook the challenges of life people experience and speak right over their heads about those beautiful truths. 

Let's not do that!

I do not want what I know about God to impede me from helping people with the love and grace and truth of God. But so many people can get there. Why? Because knowledge can be just as idolatrous as sex and money. That is, the more we have of it the more we think it makes us who we are and satisfies our life. No. Knowledge without love is useless as Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians. 

1 Corinthians 13:2 (ESV) And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

We come to the end of Job's friends' contribution and we have to ask ourselves an important question. Are we where they are? Have we idolized what we know over whether or not we grow? I don't want to be full of so much head knowledge that my heart can't learn from the hard times of life. After all, none of these three friends are remembered are they? Do you remember the names of the other two? I don't.

If we are to really make a difference in the world, we should offer SOMETHING and not nothing. The lesson we get from Job's friends is simple: Don't lead with what you know, listen and grow. God is doing something bigger than you understand and there's wisdom to be learned if we are willing.

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