*Scripture: Job 8:1-22 (NKJV)* 1 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 "How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? 3 Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice? 4 If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression. 5 If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, 6 if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and prosper your rightful dwelling place. 7 Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly. 8 For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers; 9 For we were born yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. 10 Will they not teach you and tell you, and utter words from their heart?
11 "Can the papyrus grow up without a marsh? Can the reeds flourish without water? 12 While it is yet green and not cut down, it withers before any other plant. 13 So are the paths of all who forget God; And the hope of the hypocrite shall perish, 14 whose confidence shall be cut off, and whose trust is a spider's web. 15 He leans on his house, but it does not stand. He holds it fast, but it does not endure. 16 He grows green in the sun, and his branches spread out in his garden. 17 His roots wrap around the rock heap, and look for a place in the stones. 18 If he is destroyed from his place, then it will deny him, saying, 'I have not seen you.' 19 "Behold, this is the joy of His way, and out of the earth others will grow. 20 Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will He uphold the evildoers. 21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughing, and your lips with rejoicing. 22 Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing." *Devotion* Bildad the Shuhite assumes that God punishes the wicked for specific sins and rewards the righteous for their lifestyle. His is a prosperity gospel. "If you would earnestly seek God. If you were pure and upright," Bildad says. He tells Job that he is not as righteous as he thinks, otherwise God would be blessing him instead of being against him. "Behold, God will not cast away the blameless, nor will He uphold the evildoers." Since God afflicts Job, Bildad reasons that Job must have sinned terribly to deserve such a punishment. This is not the case, because the author writes of Job in the first chapter that Job "was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil." We can be sure that the Lord does not afflict us in wrath for our sins because "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) We do still feel the natural punishments for sins that are built into the created order. These punishments are meant to bring us to repentance for our sins. But we know that God does not afflict us as retribution for our sins, because Christ paid the entire price for the sins of the world by His death on the Cross. We can rest assured, knowing that our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west, they are buried at the bottom of the sea. The Lord has trod them underfoot in the absolution won for us by Jesus and received in faith.
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