Job 18 – Bible with Free Grace study notes

1Then Bildad the Shuhite answered,

2“How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and afterwards we will speak.

3Why are we counted as animals, which have become unclean in your sight?

4You who tear yourself in your anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed out of its place?

Free Grace note

Bildad is offended that Job will not fit the formula.

How long will you hunt for words, Bildad snaps, are we counted as animals in your sight? His irritation is telling. Job's refusal to accept the tidy explanation, sin brings suffering so confess your sin, feels to Bildad like an insult to the moral order itself. Shall the earth be forsaken for you, he asks, as if Job were demanding the universe bend to his special case. But Job is not attacking God's order; he is refusing to lie about guilt he does not have. This is a common pressure the hurting face even now: agree with our explanation or you are being proud. Sometimes faithfulness looks like declining a false comfort. Job will not purchase relief by confessing sins he never committed, and Scripture will vindicate him in the end, Job 42:7, where God rebukes the friends, not Job.

5“Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, The spark of his fire shall not shine.

6The light shall be dark in his tent. His lamp above him shall be put out.

7The steps of his strength shall be shortened. His own counsel shall cast him down.

8For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he wanders into its mesh.

9A snare will take him by the heel. A trap will catch him.

10A noose is hidden for him in the ground, a trap for him on the path.

11Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall chase him at his heels.

12His strength shall be famished. Calamity shall be ready at his side.

13The members of his body shall be devoured. The firstborn of death shall devour his members.

14He shall be rooted out of his tent where he trusts. He shall be brought to the king of terrors.

15There shall dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur shall be scattered on his habitation.

16His roots shall be dried up beneath. Above shall his branch be cut off.

17His memory shall perish from the earth. He shall have no name in the street.

18He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world.

19He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, nor any remaining where he lived.

20Those who come after shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were frightened.

21Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.”

Free Grace note

A true principle aimed at the wrong man, and the mercy hidden in its failure.

Bildad's long portrait of the wicked, light snuffed out, roots dried up, memory perished, is not entirely false as a principle; the way of the wicked does lead to ruin, Proverbs 4:19. His error is applying it to Job, whom the reader knows to be blameless. The objection presses itself on us here: does not suffering measure guilt? If it did, none of us could stand, for all have sinned, Romans 3:23. There is deep mercy in how wrong Bildad is. Because our acceptance before God does not hang on our circumstances or a friend's harsh audit, we are free. A righteousness we could never earn is credited to the one who believes, just as it was to Abraham, Romans 4:3 to 5. When accusers point at your troubles and whisper that God must be against you, remember the finished work of Christ. Your standing is a gift, not a grade.

This Bible is free and always will be. If it helps you, you can help keep it online.