Job 8:1-2

Then Bildad the Shuhite spoke out saying:

   How long will you mouth such notions?

      Your utterances are a blustering wind.

(Written 5/2, Posted 5/8)

This is Bildad’s first go at Job, and he is not as courtly as Eliphaz. Job is the oldest, then Eliphaz, then Bildad, so naturally the younger you are the more brash, right? This is not a hard and fast stereotype, but it seems to be appropriate here. The real gap here is not age, but experience with the ways things should be. Inexperience allows one to question why things are not one particular way. Experience tells us the answer; if we are open to learning.

“Say”, “speak”, “go on”, and “jabber” were options for “mouth”. “Things” and “like this” were options for “such notions”. I had no real firm issues for any.

“Utterances” could have been “words of your mouth” or simply “your words”. I picked utterances since I used mouth before. “Blustering” could have been “great”, “strong”, “mighty”, and “huge”. Blustering just seemed to have so much more depth.

One source denoted that this was a difficult passage. I assume he meant more than just these two verses which seem simple enough. I read this as Job is thought to be speaking nonsense that is annoying Bildad. The experienced may say that he is simply too impatient to learn from the older and wiser Job.

I spoke to an older, wiser gentleman yesterday and sometimes the older and wiser just have a different background. We cannot all be experts in everything, so the wisdom of the mature is likely to be general in nature and about relating to people more than knowing big important things.

We hosted a party over the weekend, and I tried to focus on each individual as the evening progressed. It is amazing how little can be said in a six-and-a-half-hour event. Communication is a two-way street, and we must use our brain in each opportunity  if we are to hear how God is calling us to engage and respond. As our pastor said yesterday, the idea is to respond not just react. So pray that God will lead you to think and respond rather than to just react.