Bildad attacked his friend Job for the second time. His flawed theology was that God did not allow the righteous to suffer, as Job clearly was; therefore, Job could not be innocent. He must be suffering because of hidden sin in his life. This chapter is filled with what Bildad believed would happen in the lives of ungodly people. Most of it is of the “turn or burn” style of preaching, which we have all heard before.<\/p>\n
Job knew he was suffering. He also knew he wasn’t wicked. As he struggled to reconcile these two facts, the one thing he knew for certain was that his friends’ take on his situation was incorrect. What Job was coming to understand was that bad things happen to people who love God and have repented of their sins. Jesus said so in Matthew 5:45: “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Job was learning that we live in an imperfect world that is broken by sin. A broken world is not a fair world, but we aren\u2019t left hopeless as the judge of all the earth will someday settle all accounts.<\/p>\n
There is an old story about a farmer in the Midwest who had a strong disdain for anything “religious.” As he plowed his field on Sunday mornings, he would shake his fist at church people as they passed by on their way to worship. October came and he had the finest crop he had ever had, the biggest yield of the county. When the harvesting was complete, he bought an entire page of space in the local newspaper, where he belittled believers for their faith in God. Near the end of his rant he wrote: “Faith in God must not mean much if someone like me can prosper.” In the next edition of the town paper, a brief response appeared: “God doesn\u2019t always settle His accounts in October.” How much better for us to throw ourselves, now, on the mercy of Jesus, who died for our sins, while we might still serve Him.<\/p>\n
“Thank You, LORD, that You have revealed Yourself to us in Your word. Please guide us this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Job 18 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0How long\u00a0will it be ere\u00a0<\/em>ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0Wherefore are we counted as beasts,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>reputed vile in your sight?\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0He teareth himself in his anger: shall the earth be forsaken for thee? and shall the rock be removed out of his place?\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0The light shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with him.\u00a0\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0The steps of his strength shall be straitened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.\u00a09<\/sup>The gin shall take\u00a0him\u00a0<\/em>by the heel,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the robber shall prevail against him.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0The snare\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.\u00a0 11<\/sup>\u00a0Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet.\u00a0\u00a012<\/sup>His strength shall be hungerbitten, and destruction\u00a0shall be\u00a0<\/em>ready at his side.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0It shall devour the strength of his skin:\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>the firstborn of death shall devour his strength.\u00a0\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0His confidence shall be rooted out of his tabernacle, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0It shall dwell in his tabernacle, because\u00a0it is\u00a0<\/em>none of his: brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0His roots shall be dried up beneath, and above shall his branch be cut off.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street.\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.\u00a0\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0He shall neither have son nor nephew among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings.\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0They that come after\u00a0him\u00a0<\/em>shall be astonied at his day, as they that went before were affrighted.\u00a0\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0Surely such\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>the dwellings of the wicked, and this\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>the place\u00a0of him that<\/em>knoweth not God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bildad attacked his friend Job for the second time. His flawed theology was that God did not allow the righteous to suffer, as Job clearly was; therefore, Job could not be innocent. He must be suffering because of hidden sin in his life. This chapter is filled with what Bildad believed would happen in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7568"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16455,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7568\/revisions\/16455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}