Job 25

Six small verses to mark the last words of Bildad, the last of Job’s friends to speak into (or rather against) his suffering. Bildad chooses to give the Sunday School answer, tried and true, already given a million and one half times before. If you’ve ever taught Children’s Church or Sunday School, you know exactly how that goes. Every question receives the same answer, with little variation.

• Teacher: Who made the world and everything in it?
• Class: God.
• Teacher: Great! Okay, children, Who was with God in the beginning?
• Class: God.
• Teacher: *blink, blink*
• Class: *yawns and fidgets all around*
• Teacher: Okay. You’re not wrong.
• Teacher: Alright, kids, Who died on the cross?
• Class: God.
• Teacher: *rapid blinking*
• Class: *giggles and wiggles*
• Teacher (head in hands): Okay. Sure. Yes. Also, not entirely wrong, but actually, it was Jesus, Who is God, so…
• Class: *general nose-picking, feet tapping, and squirming*
• Teacher: Okay. How about Play-Do?
• Class: Yay!

Kudos to you if you just signed up for the children’s ministry at your church. Also, fair warning, and may God bless you immensely. Sunday School kiddos can leave you scrambling for theological answers you didn’t know you didn’t know. Bless them. Their simple faith is an example to us. They answer truthfully, innocently.

But not so for Bildad. He isn’t speaking from a heart of faith. His words are a repeat of what has already been said multiple times. It’s almost as if he just wants to have the last word. He gives some basic truths that read like a fragment sentence. Did he finish his thought? It seems like there’s a big “but” coming…except, there isn’t. That’s it. Bildad just ends with this hanging, hopeless idea, maybe because he doesn’t really have anything thoughtful or helpful to say.

“Dominion and fear are with God; he makes peace in his high heaven. Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not arise? How then can a man be in the right before God? How can he who is born of woman be pure? Behold, even the moon is not bright, and the stars are not pure in his eyes; how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man who is a worm!”

Job 25

Let’s take a moment to see through the eyes of a child and wonder together at the immensity of God. The piece that Bildad is missing is found in Psalm 8, where David examines the stars in the night sky and comes away in awe of Who God is. Yes, he sees his own inadequacies, but above that, the psalmist is overwhelmed by the majesty of God. As we should also be.

“O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouths of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Psalm 8:1-5

Out of the mouths of babies and infants indeed. Next time you have the privilege of teaching a children’s Sunday School class, consider their faith. Consider the simplicity of their one word answers and marvel at the way God works. Concerning the majesty of our God, children and stars are our teachers.