Job 18: 1 – 21
Nothing Like Kicking Me When I Am Down
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 “How long till you put an end to words? Gain understanding, and afterward we will speak. 3 Why are we counted as beasts, and regarded as stupid in your sight? 4 You who tear yourself in anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed from its place? 5 “The light of the wicked indeed goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. 6 The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp beside him is put out. 7 The steps of his strength are shortened, and his own counsel casts him down. 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks into a snare. 9 The net takes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him. 10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground, and a trap for him in the road. 11 Terrors frighten him on every side, and drive him to his feet. 12 His strength is starved, and destruction is ready at his side. 13 It devours patches of his skin; The firstborn of death devours his limbs. 14 He is uprooted from the shelter of his tent, and they parade him before the king of terrors. 15 They dwell in his tent who are none of his; Brimstone is scattered on his dwelling. 16 His roots are dried out below, and his branch withers above. 17 The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name among the renowned. 18 He is driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. 19 He has neither son nor posterity among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. 20 Those in the west are astonished at his day, as those in the east are frightened. 21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him who does not know God.”
From time to time I come across people who want to fight God. They have taken upon themselves the desire to mock the bible. I am sure you have heard how people will say that it is just a bunch of stories, of myths put together over time. The first question I ask such a person is this, ‘Have you personally read the whole bible’. Guess a percent that had actually read the bible before shooting their mouths off? So far I have not come across one person who has criticized the bible as being false and has actually read it.
In my typical kindness I tell them to go and read the bible and then come back and we will talk about their disagreements. You know it’s a funny thing. Not one person has done this and has come back to talk about it being false.
In a similar way I see the same thing going on here in the book of Job. This guy Bildad is saying the same thing to Job. See if you pick this up?
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 “How long till you put an end to words? Gain understanding, and afterward we will speak.
In this chapter Bildad makes a second assault upon Job. Back in chapter 8 he came into the picture against Job. Then he had said that Job could hope that all things should yet go well for him some again in the future. But here there is not a word of that; he has grown more irritated, by Job’s reasoning’s. He sharply reproves Job as arrogant and obstinate in his opinion.
3 Why are we counted as beasts, and regarded as stupid in your sight?
I like a quote from Matthew Henry who said, “None so dear that will not hear. None so blind that will not see.’ Job had indeed called the visitors mockers, had represented them both as unwise and as unkind, wanting both in the reason and tenderness of men, but he did not count them beasts. This is how Bildad heard and interpreted Job’s remarks.
In situations like this I refer to my formula for the escalation of problems. Thoughts = emotions = actions. When you do not hear clearly what a person has said then you have incorrect thoughts. Would you agree? Then with the incorrect thoughts circulating in your mind you start to get angry. Which in many cases leads to actions that may be regrettable?
4 You who tear yourself in anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed from its place?
Back in chapter 16 verse 9 Job had said that God, “He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.’ These words seem to circulate in Bildad’s mind. So, he answers Job, ‘No, God isn’t tearing you. You are tearing yourself in your own anger.’
I hate it when people jump to conclusions especially when they accuse you of being angry. Job never said that God was angry at him. How does anyone read that into what Job had said? Job had been accused by these three guys of having committed some sin that he would not confess. Being bombarded by these verbal attacks he started to think that there might be something that he had done that now God Is getting him for. As we know from our study of this book Job had not sinned.
While Bildad has brought up this emotion, I want to say something about it. Anger is a sin that is its own punishment. Fretful passionate people tear and torment themselves. It will cause a person to tear his or her own soul. Every sin wounds the soul.
Please look again with me at the statement of Bildad to Job, ‘shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed from its place?’This guy is way out on the limb in his pompous words. He now mocks ‘should the course of nature be changed and the rules of God’s creation are altered just to satisfy someone who does not like what is happening to him?’
The rest of Bildad’s remarks are entirely taken up in an wordy description of the miserable condition of a wicked man, in which there is a great deal of certain truth, and which will be of excellent use if it is true—that a sinful condition is a sad condition, and that iniquity will be men’s ruin if they do not repent of it. But it is not true that all wicked people are visibly and openly made thus miserable in this world; nor is it true that all who are brought into great distress and trouble in this world are therefore to be deemed and charged as wicked men, when no other proof appears against them; and therefore, though Bildad thought the application of it to Job was easy, yet it was not accurate nor just.
5 “The light of the wicked indeed goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. 6 The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp beside him is put out.
Bildad refers to Job’s complaints of the great distress he was in and the darkness he should shortly make his bed in. "Yes,’’ says Bildad, "So it is; you are confused, put in difficulties, and made miserable, and should expect nothing better; for the light of the wicked shall be put out, and therefore it shall happen to you.’’
The wicked may have some light for a while, some pleasure, some joy, some hope within, as well as wealth, and honor, and power without. But his light is but a spark, a little thing and soon extinguished. It is but a candle, wasting, and burning down and easily blown out. His light will certainly be put out at length, quite put out, so that not the least spark of it shall remain with which to kindle another fire. Even while he is in his tabernacle, while he is in the body, which is the tabernacle of the soul, the light shall be dark; he shall have no true solid comfort, no joy that is satisfying, no hope that is supporting. Even the light that is in him is darkness; and how great is that darkness! But, when he is put out of this tabernacle by death, his candle shall be put out with him. The period of his life will be the final period of all his days and will turn all his hopes into endless despair. When a wicked man dies his expectation shall perish.
7 The steps of his strength are shortened, and his own counsel casts him down. 8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks into a snare. 9 The net takes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him. 10 A noose is hidden for him on the ground, and a trap for him in the road.
The preparative for that destruction is represented under the similitude of a beast or bird caught in a snare, or a malefactor arrested and taken into custody in order to his punishment.
Satan is preparing for his destruction. He is the robber that shall prevail against him; for, as he was a murderer, so he was a robber, from the beginning. He, as the tempter, lays snares for sinners in the way, wherever they go, and he shall prevail. If he makes them sinful like himself, he will make them miserable like himself. He hunts for the precious life.
He is himself preparing for his own destruction by going on in sin, and so treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. God gives him up, as he deserves and desires, to his own counsels, and then his own counsels cast him down. His sinful projects and pursuits bring him into mischief. He is cast into a net by his own feet, runs upon his own destruction, is snared in the work of his own hands; his own tongue falls upon him. In others words he is guilty by his own words. In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare.
All the steps of his strength, his mighty designs and efforts, shall be restricted, so that he shall not succeed in what he intended; and the more he strives to extricate himself the more will he be entangled. Evil men wax worse and worse. The wicked man thinks that he is secure and is kept in escaping the judgments of God that are in pursuit of him. He thinks that he will get away but will be snatched by his heal. He is proud because he sees and avoids a certain trap and then does not see the next one that is ready to catch him.
Sometimes you and I can reflect, see, and experience a little bit of Heaven while we are still here on earth. It is a joy to stop and think about those experiences. The Bible teaches us in the book of Philippians chapter 4 we read, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
11 Terrors frighten him on every side, and drive him to his feet. 12 His strength is starved, and destruction is ready at his side.
We can also experience or taste some of hells effects. You may have personally experienced this due to a sinful past. I deal with this quite often in people I counsel.
Bildad here describes the destruction itself which wicked people are reserved for in the other world, and which, in some degree, often seizes them in this world. Come, and see what a miserable condition the sinner is in when his day comes to fall.
I often see people disheartened and weakened by continual terrors arising from the sense of their own guilt and the dread of God’s wrath against what they have done. The terrors of individuals own conscience haunt them, so that they face physical, emotional, and spiritual problems. They cannot get away from them.
That which people rely upon as his or her strength ( wealth, power, high standing, friends, and the hardiness of spirit) shall fail him or her in the time of need.
13 It devours patches of his skin; The firstborn of death devours his limbs. 14 He is uprooted from the shelter of his tent, and they parade him before the king of terrors.
The case therefore is no marvel that a wicked person is a terror to himself. The way of sin is a way of fear, and leads to everlasting confusion, of which the present terrors of an impure and unsettled conscience are earnests, as they were to Cain. Let us take a quick look at his situations and see the drain and terror due to the nature of sin
Genesis 4: “And Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! “Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
Our skin covers as you well know by bones. Sadly, I have seen various people from our fellowship that has cancer which devours these body parts. Men who were agile and strong face so great a deterioration that their bones cannot support their ability to walk or lift things.
15 They dwell in his tent who are none of his; Brimstone is scattered on his dwelling. 16 His roots are dried out below, and his branch withers above. 17 The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name among the renowned. 18 He is driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. 19 He has neither son nor posterity among his people, nor any remaining in his dwellings. 20 Those in the west are astonished at his day, as those in the east are frightened. 21 Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him who does not know God.”
In the book of 2 Corinthians 5 the apostle Paul instructs, us, “1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
We understand that our bodies are also referred to as a ‘tent’. The question to consider is as we read here in verse 15 is who are these extra unwelcomed habitants who are dwelling in someone’s tent or body? If we are in truth spiritual beings dwelling in an earthly tent then the unwelcomed guests are spirits who take up residence in certain individuals. Bildad is accusing Job of this occurring in him.
Job stunk for his illness. When Bildad states - Brimstone is scattered on his dwelling’ he is referring that Job is emanating an odor because it is an obsolete name for Sulphur. “You stink Job.’
In our modern-day human culture, decomposition and decay have often come to be viewed quite negatively, with the former mainly associated with things that are rotten, have a bad smell and are generally symptomatic of death, while the latter is similarly viewed as very undesirable; we often refer to our ancestors and children as the family tree. Bildad says to Job that everyone before and after him will never be remembered. And if somehow Job you are remembered you shall be spoken about with dishonour. Your name Job will go down in the history books as one of the most evil and wicked person who ever lived.
You talk about kicking a man when he is down. This Bildad has not only done this but has smashed his foot down on Job for good measure.
