Job 18 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 18 Short Summary:

Bildad previously spoke in Job 8, where he was very critical of Job. He speaks again in Job 18 but offers nothing new to the conversation. As he did in his first discourse, Bildad’s second discourse consists of him accusing Job of being a sinner and blaming his wickedness for his current misery. He thought Job’s state perfectly fit that of a wicked man who was being punished by God.

Job 18 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• Bildad – Job’s friend who previously spoke in chapter 8.

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• BILDAD REHASHES HIS WRONG CONCLUSIONS (18:1-21):

  • Bildad previously spoke in Job 8, where he was very critical of Job. He speaks again in Job 18 but offers Hardly anything new to the conversation.

  • As he did in his first discourse, Bildad’s second discourse consists of him accusing Job of being a sinner and blaming his wickedness for his current misery.

  • He thought Job’s state perfectly fit that of a wicked man who was being punished by God.

  • Bildad thought it was again important for him to describe the fate of wicked men, as if Job hadn’t heard it the first time.

  • Bildad went on to discuss how God extinguishes the light of the wicked, throws down their schemes, catches them in nets, traps them with snares, and terrifies them wherever they go.

  • God strips them of their strength and humbles them.

  • A wicked man has his security torn away from him. His name and reputation are destroyed. His posterity vanishes.

  • Bildad concluded that this was the fate of all who did not know and respect the Lord of Heaven.

  • Sense Job’s life fit Bildad’s assumed pattern, he concluded that Job must not respect the Lord.

APPLICATION

• Let’s practice our logic skills on Bildad’s argument. This will hopefully help us reason through the bad logic we encounter in our everyday lives.

• Bildad’s Premise 1: Wicked men are always punished by God on earth.

• Bildad’s Premise 2: Job was being punished.

• Bildad’s Conclusion: Job was a wicked man who was being punished by God.

• Problem #1: Bildad assumed that wicked men are always punished, but many wicked men don’t suffer while on earth.

• Problem #2: Bildad assumed Job’s suffering was a punishment from God, but in truth it was neither a punishment nor was God its origin (the suffering came from Satan).

• Problem #3: Bildad assumed the only reason a man would suffer was due to wickedness. He failed to consider that there could be other factors that could lead to suffering.

• Bildad’s faulty logic led him into all kinds of bad conclusions.   

• Sometimes laying out an argument into neatly arranged premises and conclusions is helpful to discover the argument’s strengths and weaknesses. You can do this with just about any claim or argument someone makes.