Job 8-10: The Impossible Divide

There is a lot of truth hidden in the dialog between Job and his three friends.  Each one is trying to sort out, to put into words what they know about God and in doing so, they speak the truth from their perspective and some of those truths resonate down through the ages to us today.  Bildad speaks to us today when he asks:
“Ask the former generations
   and find out what their fathers learned,
for we were born only yesterday and know nothing,
   and our days on earth are but a shadow.
Will they not instruct you and tell you?
   Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh?
   Can reeds thrive without water?
While still growing and uncut,
   they wither more quickly than grass.
Such is the destiny of all who forget God;
   so perishes the hope of the godless. - Job 8:8-13 NIV

'We can't do it without God'. he says.  'The former generations would tell us that.'  And Job's response resonates as well.  'How can we approach God?' Job asks:
 “He is not a man like me that I might answer him,
  that we might confront each other in court.
  If only there were someone to arbitrate between us,
  to lay his hand upon us both,
  someone to remove God’s rod from me,
  so that his terror would frighten me no more.
  Then I would speak up without fear of him,
  but as it now stands with me, I cannot. - Job 9:32-35 NIV

Bildad and Job were both right, but they were seeing history from a different perspective than the one we have now.  God did become man.  He sent his Son to become the arbitrator between man and God.  A son who removed God's rod from us by taking the punishment himself.  The gulf has been bridged between us and an unreachable God.  Access has been provided by the Son.  

2010 Post - Job 8-10:  Leaning on a Spider's Web