Job 18:16

Below, their roots are dried up,

   Above, their boughs cut off.

I had a dream in which the rule of actuarial risk had demanded no trees more than about 10’ taller than the surrounding house in order to prevent a limb or the whole tree from falling and damaging the house in a storm. It was absolutely horrifying how the most stately trees in the neighborhood were just trunks and how a beautiful place had been butchered. My oldest is about to embark on her career and might be an actuary, my spouse has been in insurance the bulk of her career, and I am an engineer who focuses a lot on risk management. So this imagery is based on what is happening in our society today as positive intentions are damaging the application of other positive intentions.

Other than ‘boughs’ being ‘branches’ or ‘foilage’, and ‘cutoff’ being ‘withered’, the intent of the verse is clear: nothing left to sustain the body.

With no roots and no branches, the tree dies, eventually. Our neighborhood is only about twenty years old, so the trees have yet to get much more than 10’ over the roofs, but the HOA rules demand we have two trees in our yard and we have to actively trim the trees every year to keep them off the house and healthily competing against each other. In reality the one closest to the neighbor should be removed, but without it we would not comply with the rules as the other tree would swamp the entire yard with one year of growth in that direction. We might be able to get an exception based on the size of our yard and the size of the tree, but HOAs are not set up to be practical.

Our Bible study is in chapter nine of Romans and my daily reading through the Bible got to Romans 9 yesterday. So, I read the whole chapter yesterday before I prepared my questions for today. I like to ask questions out of context to help our group remember that God uses context to teach and we miss the meaning if we ignore context clues. Today should be fun.

While I do not agree that the wicked will be punished on the earth, I do like this vision of them having no roots or branches to sustain their evil ways. But my life is not about hoping the unjust are saved. My life is about helping the unjust learn of their need for justification and helping them get it. I did not choose who gets saved, and I have no way to determine which evil person will be saved. So, I must love everyone that crosses my path, just as God directs me. Such a hard thing to do.

Written 10/10/25, Posted 10/29/25, Job 426/~1070