Job 4:18
If in His servants,
God puts no trust,
If He sees folly,
even in His angels,
In an interesting twist, upon first review I thought it odd I put in “if” here with the number and background of my sources that did not. But upon a quick review using the surrounding verses for context, I was glad I did. No matter how perfect a verse of the Bible may be, it is only in its place with context.
The many sources use statements like “God does not trust his servants” or “Even His angels He charges with folly.” I just believe the flavor of the verses leads to the importance of the “if” in the comparison and not so much the content of the phrases.
“Courtiers” was an alternative for servants and while I like the heavenly court aspect of the prose sections, I do not see the benefit of using a less familiar term for the possible need for vagueness in who God does not trust. Also note that God is perfect and knows that He made no one else perfect whether they are in the heavenly court, a servant, angel, or any man, woman, or whatever. It is not that He would not want to trust us, but that He knows we are not worthy.
“Angles” could have also been “agents”, but “folly” could have been “error”, “reproach”, or “blame”. Folly was the most fun, so I stuck with it. In place of ‘sees folly”, some had “charges with folly”. I did not like the charging aspect so nearly as the observation aspect of “sees”.
This verse does repeatedly call to mind the aspect of Satan and his role in the prose of Chapters 1 and 2.
The lowlight of the day was our maid not showing up because she was in an accident in her truck and had to go to the hospital. She is never late, so we feared all sorts of things until her son called to update us. It is sad to think how quickly our minds can settle into a routine and shut out the folly, errors, health issues, financial issues, and death that fill the world around us. Astroworld will have a renewed sense of loss in the minds of all of us after the events of the weekend. We went to a live music event this weekend and I did not see a single security person or police officer. It went off without a hitch. It had a little folly, but apparently it had a little trust also.