Job 18:5
In due course, the light of the wicked will fail,
The flame of their fire ceases to shine.
Many years ago, I got tired of carrying more than I needed to meetings, and I developed a system in which I only needed a small notebook and a pen. I found a little thin notebook cover, and I went through a period of minimalism. Until one of the kids decided they liked my notebook cover, and it became theirs. I found it last night going through their discards, and I am so happy to not have to go to meetings.
‘In due course’ was also ‘yea’, ‘indeed’, ‘no’, and ‘yes’. I wonder if AI incorporates these pauses (whatever their real term is). ‘Will fail’, was also ‘is putout’, ‘is snuffed out’, ‘goes out’, ‘shall be put out’, and ‘gutter’ (a very specific term for a dying light).
‘The flame of their’ was also ‘the spark of their’ and ‘the hearth’s’. ‘Ceases to shine’ was also ‘does not shine’, ‘stops burning’, ‘does not glow’, and ‘will/shall not shine’. Interestingly, shine seems to mean reflect vs. burn.
The overriding impact of this verse on me is that not everything in the Bible is directly actionable. In this chapter, Bildad is presenting the way he thinks God works in the world. He is wrong, and this verse while true in the big picture is not true in the sense that Bildad is right that we should live our lives thinking the wicked will suffer on earth for their deeds. One application of the verse is that we should leave punishment or even apprehension of criminals up to God. This is not the optimal outcome as we should establish a government to protect us from criminals, but it doesn’t really tell us how to step in when the government isn’t doing what we want because of the people in it.
I am not sure I got this right, but I may have heard about a person who changed the whole projection of their lives based on an non-lethal allergic reaction to a bee sting. As I understood it, years of planning and saving and preparing were all thrown out the window in a moment. I understand changing your mind, but bees are everywhere.
My greatest vision of the Kingdom of God is people living without sin. The hard part of this is that everyone now living has to die before that can happen, kind of like the wandering Jews going into the promised land. People want to live with their own people, but often times this takes on racist or other similar negative biases. But people also want to live were they want to live regardless of who might be there now. Bildad was jealous of Job and was happy to see him suffer and wanted to rejoice that the wicked were being punished. Bildad was the one who was doing wrong, and God calls him out for it. I’m just happy that God is merciful with me when I am wrong.
Written 9/22/25, Posted 10/15/25, Job 415/~1070