For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 25:1-6

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 ‘Dominion and awe belong to God;
    he establishes order in the heights of heaven.
3 Can his forces be numbered?
    On whom does his light not rise?
4 How then can a mortal be righteous before God?
    How can one born of woman be pure?
5 If even the moon is not bright
    and the stars are not pure in his eyes,
6 how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot –
    a human being, who is only a worm!’

A. Find Out

1. How does Bildad describe the Lord? v.2
2. What does he ask about Him? v.3
3. What does he then ask about mankind? v.4
4. How does the moon compare with God? v.5
5. So what is man in comparison? v.6

B. Think:

1. What is Bildad answering in Job’s previous speech?
2. What point is he making?  

C. Comment:

When there has been a long argument (as in the previous two chapters!) the listeners tend to just pick on one bit of it. From what is being found in this short chapter, Bildad is responding to Job’s claim in 23:6,7 that God would not find him guilty.  Hold on, replies Bildad, are you saying you are righteous? Is any man righteous before God?  To explain this he points out how great God is, having established Creation (v.2), and being Lord over myriads of angels (v.3).  How can a man possibly compare with God’s greatness? (v.4) Look, the moon is almost dull in comparison with God’s glory (v.5 implied)  so how much less is a human being going to be? (v.6)

Can man compare with God? Of course not! But does that mean that a man or woman cannot be righteous? No, it’s a different sort of measurement. If we look at the Old Testament we will see that there are many references to us being able to be righteous. In the Law, righteous acts are described (e.g. Deut 24:13). Noah was described as a righteous man (Gen 6:9). The psalms often talk about ‘the righteous’ (e.g. Psa 1:5, 68:3) as do the Proverbs (e.g. Prov 2:20, 10:3). ‘The righteous’ in all of these cases (and very many more in the Old Testament) are those who walk with God and follow His ways and are morally upright. Abram believed God and his belief was credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6) and today ‘faith’ is credited us as righteousness (Rom 4:5). Bildad speaks without knowledge!

D. Application:

1. It IS possible to be righteous.
2. God declares all believers in Jesus Christ as righteous.