Have you ever started speaking, then lapsed into an awkward silence when you ran out of things to say? It's embarrassing: you initially give the impression that you are persuasive and eloquent, but you end up stuttering and stammering.

Bildad is like that in today's reading. His third and final speech, in Job 25, is surprisingly short. It's rather pathetic, really. In a way, its brevity symbolises the bankruptcy of the tidy system of the comforters.

Bildad doesn't say much, but let's listen to what he does say. In verses 2 and 3, he begins to wax eloquent about the greatness and power of God. God has ″dominion″ and inspires ″awe″. He rules in the ″heights of heaven″, which speaks of His ″place″ of government of the universe–far above the ability of human beings to challenge Him. He has such huge armed forces that you can't count them. His power as Creator impacts everybody: there is no corner of the universe that can claim to be outside of God's power.

So far, so good: Job would agree, as would any believer.

But then, in verse 4, Bildad repeats what Eliphaz has said repeatedly (4:17; 15:14-16): because God is so awesomely great, it follows that no mortal human being can ever hope to be ″righteous″ (in the right) or ″pure″. That is to say, when Job arrogantly–as it seems to Bildad–wants to stand before God and be vindicated (23:1-7), he is chasing the moon. No mortal can hope for that, and it is outrageous and proud to think you can. After all, even the moon and the stars are not pure in God's eyes (25:5-6). No mortal can ever be more than ″a maggot . . . a worm″!

And so, the speeches of these wise comforters, who bring the wisdom of the world to bear on Job and his sufferings, stutter to a halt. There is no gospel here. A God who is sovereign is true. Mortals who acknowledge our frail mortality are wise. But unless God provides a mediator who can enable Job to stand in the presence of God, there is no gospel. Only when Job's undeserved sufferings are seen as the foreshadowing of the cross of Christ, can there be hope for mortal men and women.