"The Terrors of Death" (Job 18:1-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/11/2011 10:01:59 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  “The Terrors of Death”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                         Reference:  Job 18:1-21

 

            Message of the verses:  Today’s SD begins a new chapter in “Be Patient” and Dr. Wiersbe entitles this chapter “Will The Real Enemy Please Stand Up?”  The first main section is from the eighteenth chapter of Job and it is a speech from Bildad, his second speech to Job.  I want to quote from the end of the last chapter in Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary, “If only the next speaker would have expressed compassion to this hurting man!  But Bildad is all primed to frighten Job out of his wits with the most vivid pictures of death found anywhere in Scripture.”  So this is what we have to look forward in today’s SD.  Joseph Baylor writes “Death is the great adventure, beside which moon landings and space trips pale into insignificance.” 

 

            “1Then Bildad the Shuhite responded, 2 "How long will you hunt for words? Show understanding and then we can talk. 3 "Why are we regarded as beasts, As stupid in your eyes? 4 “O you who tear yourself in your anger-For your sake is the earth to be abandoned, Or the rock to be moved from its place?”  (Job 18:1-4 NASB) 

           

            Bildad begins his speech with some familiar words of his “How long.”  He is wondering how long Job will stick to his story that he had not sinned to cause all of these things to come upon him, and yet all of Job’s friends keep sticking to their stories about Job and telling him that God is just and God punishes the wicked and blesses the righteous, and since Job was suffering he must be wicked, and of course they keep saying that if Job would only turn from his sins that God again would bless him.

 

            A light put on Job (Job 18:5-6):  “5 "Indeed, the light of the wicked goes out, And the flame of his fire gives no light. 6 “The light in his tent is darkened, And his lamp goes out above him.”  Proverbs 20:27 says, “The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, Searching all the innermost parts of his being.”  Dr. Wiersbe adds “and God can blow out that lamp whenever He pleases.”  The Bible teaches that light is associated life and darkness is associated with death.  Bildad is associating the flickering light of a tent lamp or a fire as it goes out.  He is speaking about death in order to frighten Job, but Job is a believer and therefore he should not uses these tactics on a believer, and Job was hurting and so Bildad should have been teaching the truth in love, something none of Job’s friends have learned.

 

            A traveler trapped (Job 18:7-10):  “7 “His vigorous stride is shortened, And his own scheme brings him down. 8 “For he is thrown into the net by his own feet, And he steps on the webbing. 9 “A snare seizes him by the heel, And a trap snaps shut on him. 10 “A noose for him is hidden in the ground, And a trap for him on the path.” 

           

            Bildad continues his story to Job telling him that since the lamp and fire are now out that this man runs from his tent only to find death on the road.

           

            Dr. Wiersbe gives definitions of six different words that Bildad uses to describe the dangers that people face when they run from death:

1.      A net—spread across the path to catch him.

2.     A snare—branches covering a deep pit

3.     A trap—a ‘gin’ (snare) with a noose that springs when touched; he is caught by the heel.

4.     A robber—another pitfall

5.     A snare—a noose hidden on the ground

6.     A trap—any device that catches prey

 

I realize that these devices are used to catch animals, but Bildad is using them to bring fear into Job’s life so that he will confess his sins.  It doesn’t matter where this traveler goes if death is to get him it will.

 

            A criminal pursued (Job 18:11-15):  “11 “All around terrors frighten him, And harry him at every step. 12 “His strength is famished, And calamity is ready at his side. 13 “His skin is devoured by disease, The firstborn of death devours his limbs. 14 “He is torn from the security of his tent, And they march him before the king of terrors. 15 “There dwells in his tent nothing of his; Brimstone is scattered on his habitation.”

           

            In verse fourteen we see the words “king of terrors,” and this refers to death.  No matter what this frightened criminal does death will catch him and take him. Bildad is saying that Job is the frightened criminal.

 

            A tree rooted up (Job 18:16-21):  “"His roots are dried below, And his branch is cut off above. 17 “Memory of him perishes from the earth, And he has no name abroad. 18 “He is driven from light into darkness, And chased from the inhabited world. 19 “He has no offspring or posterity among his people, Nor any survivor where he sojourned. 20 “Those in the west are appalled at his fate, And those in the east are seized with horror. 21 “Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, And this is the place of him who does not know God.’”

           

            Job used this illustration of a tree when speaking of the resurrection in Job 14:7-11, but Bildad does not agree with it so he uses the tree illustration as death, a slow death where the roots become diseased and slowly the tree dies.  This could be referring to Job’s family as they had all died before with the exception of his wife.  This to me is another low blow by Job’s “friends.”

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The Bible has much to say about death; from the beginning of the Bible to the end it is filled with what death is all about.  The death of a believer is much different than the death of an unbeliever.  Jesus spoke about hell more than love as we learn from the Gospels.  Death of the wicked is something to fear, but the death of a believer is going home to the Father (John 14:1-6).  It is like falling asleep on earth and then waking up in heaven (Acts 7:60). 

            There was a woman from Texas who when she was very young helped to kill some people.  She was the daughter of a prostitute and had no proper upbringing and so she turned to being a prostitute at an early age and a person who was on drugs, which she was when she helped to kill her victims.

            She went to prison and was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.  There had not been a woman executed in Texas since the civil war.  While in prison she accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as her personal Savior and her life was completely changed.  I have a friend who was a friend of Karla Faye Tucker and he received a letter from her right before she was executed many years after being convicted.  He tells me that when they were taking her to the place where she was to be executed that the warden broke down and Karla ministered to her, along with the guards that were taking her there.  My friend talked to the man who was in charge of the execution, who had seen many convicts die, and he said that Karla looked to him like a little girl getting ready to go to bed and being tucked in by her father.  It was very moving to him to see her die, not like the others that he had witnessed. 

            It is different with non believers and that is why I, along with other believers need to be ready at all times to tell the story, the old, old story of Jesus and His love to those that the Lord brings into our path.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Peter writes that we as believers are to be ready to tell others of the hope that we have in us, may the Lord bring someone into my path this very day.

2.     Continue to learn contentment.

3.     Ephesians 6:10-18.

4.     1Cor. 10:13.

5.     Luke 22:40b & 46b.

 

11/11/2011 11:05:20 AM