Does a Spider Web of Lies Have you Entangled?

Does a Spider Web of Lies Have You Entangled?

Job’s second friend named Bildad speaks in chapter eight. He asks Job if God perverts justice. He asks Job if God perverts what is right. However, I have to wonder if Bildad is basing justice and what is right on his own contorted web of understanding and experiences. It seems that way.

Bildad also tells Job that God gave his children over to the penalty of their sins. Bildad believes God’s justice is like the justice he follows in his culture. He does not understand God’s justice nor that God could display mercy. It seems to be black or white; good or bad. I think we do that sometimes too. We think God could never love us because of what we have done. We look at others and judge their appearance or actions and think badly of them as well. We think, “If they only turn to God, they would not do, say or look like that.” Isn’t that the same thing Bildad is doing? We cannot disipher God's Truth from our own sticky, tangled truth. Bildad must have known Job’s reputation and character as a man. We rush to a conclusion but don’t know someone at all.  

Bildad believes God is a God of justice and the punishment fits the crime. There is no mercy in the way Bildad or Eliphaz view God. Bildad instructs Job to seek council from the ancestors and forefathers, “Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?” Bildad asks. Does he want Job to conduct a séance to get their advice or what?

Here is the problem: Bildad relies on his own web of understanding. Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Bildad and Eliphaz and me and you, by the way, only know in part. Job was written between 2000-1000 B.C. and they did not know it all. Jesus had not even arrived on the scene yet. We live in 2014, about the same time after Jesus as they lived before. We are no closer to knowing the parts God does not want us to know than they were. I am just so glad I have the knowledge that Jesus’ blood covers me.

I do agree with something Bildad said. In 8:14, he says this about people who forget God, “What they trust is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web. They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it but it does not hold.” Is what you rely on like a spider’s web? Is it sticky? The more you struggle, the more you get entangled. Could it be taken at any moment? Your health, your wealth, your family, your reputation?

Don’t let your faith be like a spider web allowing anything and everything from society and culture to get stuck in your heart. It will weigh you down until you ultimately fall. Inquire of the Lord. Stand firm. Make deep roots for yourself that no man can dig up.