Sermon for March 13th, 2022

Job 18:1-21

Most Sundays I stand up in front of you and talk about God's love, God's mercy and forgiveness, how we are all created in God's image, and therefore precious in his sight. We like to be reminded of that, and we like to believe it. It's good theology. But any truly good theology must also be able to answer the question: Well..what about Jeffrey Epstein? What about Derek Chauvin and Vladimir Putin? What about Charles Manson, Adolf Hitler, and (insert your favorite evil villain here). Today we're going to talk about evil, about God's justice, and about the fate of the wicked.

Before you jump to any conclusions, we are not going to talk about hell or eternal damnation in the afterlife, because surprisingly, those concepts did not exist in the Old Testament world where our story takes place. But the idea of divine justice did exist, and it shows up powerfully in the Book of Job, in a conversation between Job (the main character) and his friend Bildad the Shuhite, which is our text today. By the time we join that conversation, it has been going on for about sixteen chapters. Job has lost everything, and three of his closest friends have arrived to comfort him. Only there's not much comfort in Bildad's speech to his friend, which is probably why most of you have never heard of Bildad, and why most biblical scholars through the ages have viewed him as a "bad friend."

I disagree with that characterization, mostly because I have friends who sometimes tell me things I don't want to hear, but need to hear. Things that are not at all comforting, but entirely true. I usually don't take it so well, either. Most of us don't. And Job is no exception. In fact, he's been throwing himself a pity party for the previous two chapters, when Bildad harshly interrupts him at the beginning of chapter 18, verse 1:

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 
2 “How long will you hunt for words? Consider, and then we shall speak.
3 Why are we counted as cattle? Why are we stupid in your sight?
4 You who tear yourself in your anger—shall the earth be forsaken because of you, or the rock be removed out of its 

place?

Now before you rush to judgment, please note that Job's friends (including Bildad) sat with him for three days and nights without saying a word. And in Bildad's first speech to Job he has plenty of comfort and encouragement for his friend. But right after that speech, Job went on a passionate tear about how God destroys both the innocent and the wicked alike--there is no difference between the two, so why even bother? It is this point that Bildad (after waiting patiently for another eight chapters) is responding to. Verse 5:

5 “Surely the light of the wicked is put out, and the flame of their fire does not shine.
6 The light is dark in their tent, and the lamp above them is put out.
7 Their strong steps are shortened, and their own schemes throw them down.
8 For they are thrust into a net by their own feet, and they walk into a pitfall.
9 A trap seizes them by the heel; a snare lays hold of them.
10 A rope is hid for them in the ground, a trap for them in the path.

There are some important things I want to point out here:

1. Nowhere in this speech (or anywhere else) does Bildad ever implicate that Job himself is wicked. He acknowledges what we all know--that wicked people do exist--and implicates that their path is quite different than the path of the righteous. This idea of two paths is a recurring motif throughout the Bible. Proverbs uses it, and so does Jesus.
2. Job has said that God destroys the innocent and the wicked alike, but notice who is doing all the destructive things on the path of the wicked: "their own schemes throw them down . . . they are thrust into a net by their own feet . . . they walk into a pitfall." In other words, God loves you, God forgives you, but sometimes you are your own worst enemy.
3. The consequences we bring upon ourselves for bad behavior are described as "traps." Traps, by nature, come suddenly, as a surprise. You may have created the trap for yourself, but you can't see it because you are distracted by all the wrong things you are pursuing down that path. You can get out of a trap, but if you don't change your behavior, there will be another one waiting for you, and another, and another. Pretty soon, getting in and out of traps becomes a pattern, and that's where things begin to take a turn for the worse. Verse 11: