Job 18:14
They are torn from their tents, their strongholds,
They are paraded before the king of terrors.
I am often reminded of the many ways I am not perfect. One of my issues is needing every drawer and cabinet closed when not in use. It is compulsive, but I do not believe it is a disorder. Another is needing all my stuff in its place. Again, compulsive, but not a disorder. But when someone misplaces my stuff, I get angry. That might border on a disorder.
‘Torn’ was also ‘uprooted’, ‘rooted’, and ‘ripped’. Again, I am not sure the speaker has kept to the flow of the wicked causing themselves harm. ‘Tent’ was once also ‘tabernacle’ which makes some sense. ‘Strongholds’ was ‘where they felt secure’, ‘in which they trusted’, ‘from the security of’, ‘from the shelter of’, and ‘his confidence’.
‘Paraded’ was also ‘marched, ‘brought’, and ‘sent off’. One source had that ‘Terror marched them off to the King’. That feels better.
As I look at this verse and my life, I want my stronghold to be in my faith in God. If I tried to rearrange this verse to fit that image, I would end up with something like ‘They are torn from their churches where they felt secure, Terror parades them ‘naked’ before the world’. I threw in the naked to make it feel right, so maybe that is not the idea.
One of the many joys that the evil media has is to point out where churches get caught being bad. Many of these churches getting caught doing wrong are cults of personality where the leader is evil or lost and leads the group astray so they can live the sinful life they desire. Many times, it is just about sexual perversion of the leader. Right now, a church in our midst is fighting over the pastor’s lust for power and money. No matter what these leaders claim God told them, God did not tell them to sin and go against His Biblical principles. If it was my church, I would be gone.
That brings me to another new topic for the week: home church. So, people get so fed up with poor leadership at church that they start their own church in their house. Naïve people like this because they avoid the wrong ideas of others. But wise people see that they are ripe for being led astray with no higher authority to verify ideology. I like the idea of having smaller churches where you can get to know everyone and where you can learn about their needs. But when a pastor does not have training to lead and checks on their authority, people go their own way, and it might not be God’s calling.
I switched out my mouse this morning and realized it may be an issue with the software and not the hardware. This may be how we lose connection to our church. I am mad about the sound levels in worship, the lack of connection in adult Bible study, and the lack of a program to focus on teaching new believers what it means to be a Christian. It does not mean I should start my own church at home where I am the pastor. Maybe I should start my own Bible study at home with a different group from Friday morning, but even if I have the spiritual gift to pastor, I have not been trained and would never pursue that without obtaining the training and having a system in place to help me follow the Bible. Hard to believe that so many can get that so wrong.
Written 10/8/25, Posted 10/27/25, Job 424/~1070