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we know differently

Job 25:1-26:14 (JDV)

Job 25:1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:
Job 25:2 Dominion and terror belong to him, the one who establishes harmony in his heights.
Job 25:3 Can his troops be numbered? Does his light not shine on everyone?
Job 25:4 How can a mortal be justified before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
Job 25:5 If even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight,
Job 25:6 how much less a mortal, who is a maggot, a son of Adam, who is a worm!
Job 26:1 Then Job answered and said:
Job 26:2 See how you have helped the powerless and delivered the arm that is weak!
Job 26:3 See how you have counseled the unwise and abundantly provided insight!
Job 26:4 With whom did you speak these words? Whose breathing came out of your mouth?
Job 26:5 The departed spirits tremble beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.
Job 26:6 Sheol is naked in God’s presence, and Abaddon has no covering.
Job 26:7 He sends the northern skies over empty space; he hangs the land on nothing.
Job 26:8 He wraps up the water in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.
Job 26:9 He obscures the view of his throne, spreading his cloud over it.
Job 26:10 He laid out the horizon on the surface of the water at the boundary between light and darkness.
Job 26:11 The pillars that hold up the sky tremble astounded at his rebuke.
Job 26:12 By his power he struck the sea, and by his understanding, he crushed Rahab.
Job 26:13 By his breath the sky gained its beauty; his hand pierced the fleeing serpent.
Job 26:14 These are but the fringes of his ways; how faint is the word we hear of him! Who can understand his mighty thunder?

we know differently

Job allows Bildad only six verses before he cuts him off. He has had enough. Zophar will not even have another turn. Job’s response is like saying “Do you really think God needs you to defend him?” You see, Job was not on trial, and neither was God. The three therapists and their presuppositions are what this is all about. Their conventional wisdom was making God the author of all the misfortune that Job suffered. We (the readers) know differently. We know about Satan and his insistence on attacking Job to get him to renounce his faith. There is evil here, but it is not in God or his faithful servant. The evil is brought on by Satan, and helped by the prideful and their condemnation of the innocent. Job argues that God is above it all, and he is.

LORD, forgive us for blaming you for the evil that befalls us.