In Job 8, Bildad offers his first monologue to Job. He tells Job his children were killed for their transgression, and it is time for Job to repent. He tells Job if he will repent God will make his latter days greater than his beginning. This is quite a promise, and reflects the belief system of that day. Bildad appealed to the tradition that had been established before their lifetimes, reminding Job that their lives were like a shadow. It is a good thing to rely on the wisdom of those who have come before us, especially when the appeal is to the wisdom of God and his people. The problem in this case is Bildad as Eliphaz before him, based their assumptions of Job’s situations on the “norm.” Normally, people reap the consequences of their sin, and when terrible consequences take place, the assumption is they must have been preceded by terrible sin. This was not true in Job’s case. While Job’s case was an extreme exception to the “rule,” Job’s case establishes for us that the “rule” of bad things happening to sinful people and not to good people is more of a guideline than a rule!
Job responds in Job 9 & 10. His first few words of response are directed at Bildad and it’s as if he says, “Duh!” Of course punishment comes from sin. Then he turns his attention to God and says he is not guilty, but even so how can he go against God? He states that no one can stand before God whether that one is in the right or the wrong. He acknowledges God is the judge, but he does not understand why he is being judged when he has committed no sin. He calls again for God to end his brief, miserable life. We can understand Job’s comments and questions, and even his desire to be done with suffering, at least if we have ever suffered when we haven’t been at fault. While in the back of our minds, we are probably still thinking, “Really? Is it possible Job could be in the right here, fully in the right?” It doesn’t seem possible, and Job admits he isn’t perfect, but as we will see in the last few chapters of the book, God sides with Job in the matter of his righteousness. Once again, we need to remember never to agree with the enemy, when we are being accused, but always to agree with God, whatever He says about us.
As we return to Matthew 15, we find the Pharisees once again attacking Jesus’ disciples for not following the traditions of the elders. In this case they didn’t practice the ceremonial hand washing ritual before they ate. While we might think it a bit disgusting that the disciples didn’t wash their hands before they ate, Jesus took on the Pharisees’ attack with a great deal of energy. When they asked, “Why do you disciples break the traditions of the elders…?” Jesus responded with His own question, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your traditions?” Jesus was having none of the Pharisees ritual and tradition taking the place of God’s commands in their lives. The specific example He gave was the Pharisees broke the 5th Commandment to honor one’s father and mother, by saying that the money they would have used to support their parents was set aside for God’s purposes. Jesus challenged this hypocrisy, and also pointed out to the Pharisees that it isn’t what we put into our bodies that defiles, but what comes out of them. He was speaking specifically of the attitudes and desires of our hearts. If those are evil then we are truly defiled. The disciples didn’t understand Jesus’ comments, so He explained them clearly. The key in our lives is to have clean hearts, so our lives will reflect Jesus’ values and the fruit of the Spirit. Then whatever we ingest with hands clean or dirty won’t matter. (I’m not saying, don’t wash your hands. I’m saying hand washing, as so many other traditions we have are secondary matters and not matters of what Jesus sees as right or wrong.)
Matthew offers us two more miracles of Jesus in this chapter. First, Jesus heals the child of a foreign woman, but only after initially rejecting her request, because she was a foreigner. Jesus came only to minister to the “lost sheep of the people of Israel.” That does not mean Jesus’ salvation was only for the Jews. It means His personal ministry was only for them. He equipped the disciples for a world-wide ministry, but in his brief ministry He only ministered in Israel. The second miracle was the feeding of the four thousand along with healing many other people. This was a corporate miracle in which Jesus met the needs of all who came to Him. He met their physical needs both for food and health. This gives us another glimpse of what it’s like in the Kingdom of Heaven: There is ample food and total wellness for all. While Jesus is always most concerned about our spiritual well-being, His earthly ministry shows us He is also concerned about our bodies and souls as well as our spirits!