How do you respond to depressing truths?
In the book of Job, one of Job’s friends, Bildad, tries to help him by sharing true but discouraging principles. God blesses those who seek Him, he says, so if you were upright, He would surely bless you now (Job 8:5-6). “Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase,” he promises (Job 8:7), which turns out to be true in the end, but not yet (see Job 42:12). “God will not cast away a perfect man,” he declares (Job 8:20), which at least seems reassuring for perfect people, except that Job had already been characterized as “perfect and upright” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3), yet he felt very abandoned. Bildad also shares an analogy of a plant that withers, saying “so are the paths of all that forget God” (Job 8:11-13).
The second time he speaks, Bildad’s words take a darker turn. He lists the punishments which befall the wicked: captured by snares and traps, surrounded by terrors on every side. “His remembrance shall perish from the earth,” Bildad affirms. “He shall be driven from light into darkness” (Job 18:17-18). True, perhaps, but not exactly uplifting!
His third speech is concise and fatalistic. Not only are the wicked punished, but we are all wicked. “How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” Bildad states that even the moon and the stars are imperfect. “How much less man, that is a worm? and the son of man, which is a worm?” (Job 25:4-6).
Not much of a pep talk! God will bless the righteous and punish the wicked, but since we’re all wicked, we can’t expect to be blessed. What’s a person supposed to do with that collection of assertions, especially a person who is currently suffering?
The Book of Mormon provides answers.
Like Bildad, Alma shares an analogy of a growing plant that withers in the heat of the sun. But he assures his listeners that a different outcome is possible:
If ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.
Alma 32:41
Alma’s father, also named Alma, recalled his time serving as a priest of the wicked king Noah. Like Bildad, he says that when he was doing wickedly, he was “caught in a snare,” but that was not the end of his story:
Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth.
Mosiah 23:10
Several Book of Mormon prophets agree with Bildad that we all fall short of righteousness. Mormon even characterized humankind as “less than the dust of the earth” (Helaman 12:7). Why? Because the dust instantly obeys God, but we do not. But he adds:
Blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved.
Helaman 12:23
And King Lamoni offers a hopeful answer to Bildad’s rhetorical question: “How can he be clean that is born of a woman?” After praying for mercy and falling into a coma for three days, he arises and says to his wife, “Blessed be the name of God, and blessed art thou. For as sure as thou livest, behold, I have seen my Redeemer; and he shall come forth, and be born of a woman, and he shall redeem all mankind who believe on his name” (Alma 19:12-13). Can anyone born of a woman be clean? Absolutely, yes! In fact the very Redeemer of whom Job testified (see Job 19:25) would be born, live a perfect mortal life, and then offer salvation to us all.
So yes, righteousness brings blessings and wickedness leads to sorrow. And yes, we all fall short of perfection. But there is more to the story. Blessings come as we exercise faith over time with patience. God will hear our cries and help us escape from the snares that trap us. And all of that is possible because of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
Today I will seek for the encouraging truths that put dismal ones in their proper perspective. I will remember that while discouraging words may be accurate, they may also be myopic. I will seek hope by maintaining an eternal perspective and trusting in God’s grace.
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