We’ve all heard of theology’s threat of divine retribution against all folks who challenge the prevailing scheme of world rule.[1] It can be anything from eternal life spent away from the presence of God, vis-à-vis eternal life without God, to an eternity spent in the so-called fires of hell, which are hot enough to torture the unrepentant sinner, but not hot enough to destroy him. Thus, he is condemned to an eternity of pain without ever experiencing God’s mercy. Nevertheless, no one has ever been able to offer an adequate explanation for a world that exists completely without God’s mercy. Yet, such inadequacies never prevent the movers and shakers of the prevailing scheme of world rule from devising threats of such judgment upon the unrepentant sinner. Thus, in our present context, Bildad unleashes terrible consequences upon Job for his rebellion against the, then present, world order, which technically amounts to the friends’ worldview.
Thus, since Job has fallen into the divine net (Job 18:8-10), he has come to realize that he has come against an enemy far superior than himself. He runs, but the Enemy, vis-à-vis the Almighty, is at his heals and there is no escape (Job 18:11-12). Bildad’s proof that this is so (cp. Job 18:11-12) is Job’s present problems with his health. God, by means of the disease with which he inflicted Job, is now eating or devouring his flesh, and Job is presently at death’s door (Job 18:13). Fear is often a favorite tool of the movers and shakers of the scheme of world rule. The stronghold of prevailing theology must not be challenged!
However, if it is challenged, it becomes the duty of any self-respecting believer to preach the terrors of the Almighty in order to either silence the critic and his disciples or redeem them. In a modern context, the Gospel never seems enough to redeem the sinner. The movers and shakers of Christian theology also feel dutybound to preach the terrors of the Almighty to scare folks into following Jesus. What a sad commentary on the Gospel of the Kingdom!
According to Bildad, at the moment of death, the spirit of the wicked doesn’t merely leave his body to be judged by the Almighty. Rather, his spirit is dragged from the safety and familiarity of his tent (body) and marched off to appear before the King of terrors (Job 18:14). His body is then totally consumed and brought to dust (Job 18:15-16; cp. Genesis 3:19). His life would yield no lasting fruit—no family or disciple (Job 18:19), and every memory of his existence would be lost. It would be as though he had never lived, and thus, he would be driven from the land of the living (Job 18:17-18).
Indeed, all who would come after him would be shocked over such a terrible judgment (Job 18:20), and all who witnessed his destruction and gave him warning would be horrified by his fate. Such, according to Bildad. is the fate of all the wicked who oppose God and are ignorant of his world order (read: according to the scheme of world rule – Job 18:21). Nevertheless, Bildad, just as all the movers and shakers of this world order, offers nothing in the way of proof that his claims concerning what occurs after death is real. It is all supposition. None of it is based upon the word of God. The fact is: fear tactics **always** oppose the truth of the Lord’s relationship with mankind. The Lord tells us that the wages of sin is death, nothing more, but the heart of God, vis-à-vis his will, is in his gift of eternal life through his Son, Jesus, the Christ (Romans 6:23).
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[1] See my previous study: The Scheme of World Rule.
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