Chapter 8
| Collection: | The Book of Job and 42 Paintings |
| Author: | Fr. Antonio Oteiza |
| Type: | Painting |
| Location: | Cataloguing Room |
| Characteristics: | Acrylic paint on cardboard |
| Artwork: |
Click to enlarge |
| Description: |
Bildad of Shuh then spoke and said: How long will you speak like this, and how long will your words be like a raging wind? Can God pervert what is right, or can the Almighty distort justice? If your children sinned against him, he has already delivered them into the power of their offences. But if you rise early to seek God and plead with the Almighty, if you keep yourself pure and upright, he will watch over you and restore your rightful dwelling. Your past will seem insignificant compared with your magnificent future. Ask the generations of the past; pay attention to what your fathers discovered. We are only of yesterday and know nothing; our days are but a shadow upon the earth. But they will instruct you; they will speak to you with words that come from the heart. Does papyrus grow outside the marsh? Can reeds grow without water? While still green and uncut, they wither before any other grass. Such is the destiny of the one who forgets God; this is how the hope of the godless ends. His confidence is fragile; his security is a spider's web. If he leans upon it, it cannot bear him; if he clings to it, it cannot support him. Full of sap beneath the sun, he sends out shoots throughout his garden. His roots entwine among the stones and cling to the stone wall. But if he is uprooted from his place, that place disowns him: “I have never seen you.” Thus ends his joyful course, and another plant springs from the earth. God does not reject the righteous man, nor does he lend a hand to evildoers. He can still fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Your enemies will be covered with shame, and the tent of the wicked will disappear. |
