Job 18:9

A trap seizes them by the heel,

   A noose tightens upon them.

 

Two days left in the season and the Astros still have hope. We have come to expect them to be better and prepping for the playoffs, but the team has been a disaster in many ways since Jim Crane fired the GM, and we are just now reaping the woe. Assuming you are a fan, otherwise, who cares? I do, but I’m trying not to.

‘Trap’ was also ‘net’ and ‘gin’. Gin was from the King James and has a meaning lost on me. ‘Seizes’ was also ‘takes’, ‘grips’, and ‘catches’.

‘Noose’ was also ‘snare’, ‘trip-cord’, and ‘robber’. Robber seems odd. ‘Tightens’ was also ‘lays hold of’, ‘holds fast’, ‘seizes’, ‘closes’, and matching the oddity of robber ‘prevails against’.

This verse obviously follows from the previous one, but adds very little to the conversation. I actually had a work lunch yesterday and spoke to people at the water polo matches, so I was involved in conversations. Also had one involving the older kid since she was home. Lots of talking for me. I laid in bed a little longer to help recover, but I was not feeling like I was in a trap or a noose like I do sometimes after too much togetherness.

At lunch, it was refreshing to hear how a coworkers family is still dysfunctional, but he is still marching ahead, trying to follow Christ. Not so refreshing to hear how some of the repercussions of the assassination are impacting people we know in this small town of Houston. The ungodly actions of some people are shockingly close to home. I know God is working out His plan, but it is still a war we walk through.

I almost forgot yesterday was also Bible study day. We engaged in conversation there for sure. Those never seem to be a chore. We were in Romans 8, and discussing how nothing can separate us from God’s love. And Judgement Day. It was interesting to see how much or little others had put into wondering about Judgement Day. I read Romans 2 this morning and had forgotten (over the long road we are taking to study Romans) how Paul brought up Judgement Day early in the letter because the Jews spent so much effort on guessing about heaven and the last days during the 400 years they did not hear from God.

My memory tells me we also spoke about Satan and his role in Judgement Day, and it reminds me of our recent discussion of the Lord’s Prayer. I had memorized the Lord’s Prayer as asking for deliverance from evil, but it turns out the Greek has ‘from the evil one’ or Satan. I always like to think of evil as anything apart from God, and I always like to think of the evil one as Satan, who is not all powerful and cannot perform all the evil happening in the world. Maybe my vocabulary is too narrow. In the end, I want deliverance from evil and from the evil one, and I do not want my sin nature leading me into traps or nooses like the wicked in this verse.

Written 9/27/25, Posted 10/20/25, Job 419/~1070.