Monday, September 28, 2009

Job 18

Bildad

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:


2 "When will you end these speeches?
Be sensible, and then we can talk.

3 Why are we regarded as cattle
and considered stupid in your sight?

4 You who tear yourself to pieces in your anger,
is the earth to be abandoned for your sake?
Or must the rocks be moved from their place?

5 "The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out;
the flame of his fire stops burning.

6 The light in his tent becomes dark;
the lamp beside him goes out.

7 The vigor of his step is weakened;
his own schemes throw him down.

8 His feet thrust him into a net
and he wanders into its mesh.

9 A trap seizes him by the heel;
a snare holds him fast.

10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground;
a trap lies in his path.

11 Terrors startle him on every side
and dog his every step.

12 Calamity is hungry for him;
disaster is ready for him when he falls.

13 It eats away parts of his skin;
death's firstborn devours his limbs.

14 He is torn from the security of his tent
and marched off to the king of terrors.

15 Fire resides in his tent;
burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling.

16 His roots dry up below
and his branches wither above.

17 The memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name in the land.

18 He is driven from light into darkness
and is banished from the world.

19 He has no offspring or descendants among his people,
no survivor where once he lived.

20 Men of the west are appalled at his fate;
men of the east are seized with horror.

21 Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
such is the place of one who knows not God."

Side Notes:

Bildad pretty much thought that he was an expert and thought he knew how the universe should be run. That and he saw Job as an illustration of the consequences of sin. Bildad rejected Job's story because it didn't fit with his outlook on life. It is very easy to condemn Bildad because his errors are obvious, but, unfortunately we often act the same way when our ideas our threatened.

vs. 14 The "king of terrors" is a figure of speech referring to death. Bildad viewed death as a great devourer (13), but the Bible teaches that God has the power to devour even death (Psalm 49:15; Isaiah 25:8; 1 Corinthians 15:54-56).

5 comments:

Anna said...

Hmm... the side note is so true... Bildad is thinking God is making an example of Job, because he doesn't know another explanation for the "punishment" other than that Job has sinned against God. Because that is the way the Bildad thinks, he can not fathom that Job would be innocent of his accusations. But even though we know Bildad is wrong, how many times have I done this? Assumed or asserted that someone else was wrong because it didn't fit in with what I know... I'm sure many many times in my life. Something for me to work on...

Feldman Family said...

Well good Monday to you all! Hope you all had a good weekend! And Anna...soon you'll be out having good weekends with the rest of us...and you'll have a new baby to do it with! Keep having your positive attitude! This too shall pass...right?!?!

Anyway...on to the chapter...I agree with Anna...the side note is true...Verse 11 also stuck out to me how he says "Terrors startle him on every side and dog his every step". How terrible would this be. While this speech doesn't pertain to Job I do think Bildad is speaking the truth about people who do evil...and I can't imagine having terrors startle me on every side. Sometimes I wonder about the people who write horror stories or movies...what could really be going on in their minds and do they have a problem going out at nighttime or being in the dark...do they scare themselves? Evil is nothing to mess with. We also have to remember that Job's friends don't know about the deal Satan had with God like we do...they think Job is arrogant and they can't understand it...not that it is any excuse for how they are talking to him. And then I liked verse 17 "The memory of him perishes from the earth; he has no name in the land". It reminds me of God's Book of Life and how once your name is erased it is forgotten...Jesus said it in Matthew 7:23 (well read before to get the whole context) "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.'" And here He's talking about supposed "religious" people who are even prophesing in his name. I am just so thankful for God's grace for us and for saving us so that we will not have to hear those words! Good chapter...one we can all learn a little from :o)

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Did you notice I changed some things on the blog? I thought that we might also like to try memorizing some verses so I put a verse of the week on here...I started out with Psalm 119:11 because I think it shows us the answer to why we should memorize scripture...and here's what my Bible had to say about the verse:

Hiding (keeping) God's Word in our hearts is a deterrent to sin. This alone should inspire us to memorize Scripture. But memorization alone will not keep us from sin; we must also put God's Word to work in our lives, making it a vital guide for everything we do.

How about that...I thought it was a good reminder! So we'll have a new verse each week...if there is a verse you'd like to have put on for the week let me know...otherwise I'll just pick verses that I think are important and we'll go from there...but input would be great! And I'm thinking there will be verses on the list that have to do with light since this is a dark world and we are called to be the light...I think that God really requires this of us because He did mention it a lot in His Word.

Oh...and I also put some new title and pretty pictures on the side column...how do you like it :o)

Anna said...

Ali I love the verse of the week idea!

Unknown said...

I really don't have much to add to your comments already. This is way off the subject at hand, but the principle applies......probably not very well so bear with me. I do agree that the way Job's friends are talking to him is not helpful to him or to them. However, I believe the fact that they are even talking to him is probably an indication that they really do care about him. What if they thought everything they said, but they just didn't even care enough to say it to him? Now suppose we could rewrite history and we would give Job's friends a teachable spirit. The reason they are so offensive is because they are telling Job the way it is. How different would their response have been if they had been willing to learn from Job instead of assuming they had the answers? If they had a teachable spirit, rather than accusing Job of sin...........they would have asked him, "Job, what's going on? Why do you think this is happening? I always thought this (fill in the blank) before, but is that really the way I should be looking at it? How can we help? Are you sure there isn't any unconfessed sin in your life? No? Okay.......could there be another explanation?" And the lesson for us is to seek to have teachable spirits. Things may not always be what they seem.

Unknown said...

Anna, how are you doing? How far along are you right now? Ali, I like the new picture of you and Jon on your blog page. And yes, i also agree with Anna that the memory verse is a great idea.