August 29, 2018: Day 18 – Job 18
August 29, 2018Okay, things are starting to get a bit personal. Job this past chapter really lambasted his friends and called them some pretty not nice things. Now the friend of Job, Bildad, launches out and begins to replay all the calamities that Job experienced but couches it in the terms what happens to the “wicked”. Vs. 13 is a direct reference to what Job is experiencing with his body. It almost seems as if Bildad goes backwards over Job’s calamities. So, vs. 13 refers to the last of the calamities which is that boils and sores afflict his body. We then read in vs.14 that a tent is torn and scattered as Job’s children’s tent was torn and scattered while they were celebrating. He goes on to press on that point and states that the wicked has “no survivor where they used to live.”
He ends all of this by saying that this is what happens to the wicked and to those who do not know God. The direct and pointed application has to be at Job who must be wicked and must not know the Lord or else this would not have happened to him. Don’t worry, Job will answer, but we have to know what he is being accused of by his friend and why this is such a personal attack. Bildad is not speaking in generalities, he is speaking specifically about Job.
Its a good thing one of Job’s qualities (of course given to him by God) is patience. Patience to wait on the Lord, knowing that God is in control. This is something we all need to be remembering. God gives each of us good qualities. Its up to us to recognize those qualities or to work on enhancing the bits and pieces of what we recognize as our shortcomings and to use them wisely. Not always an easy job when in the midst of trouble, but we know with God’s help anything is possible.