It eats away parts of his skin; death's firstborn devours his limbs. – Job 18:13

Today's Scripture Reading (August 29, 2024): Job 18

I suffer from a skin condition. Actually, I have suffered from the condition throughout my lifetime. My skin condition is better now than ever, likely because there are better ways to treat the disease, but it is still there. And its existence can be very embarrassing. As a child, the inside of my elbows and knees were nothing but scabs, as was the area behind my ears and some other regions of my body. It was itchy and flaky and not something anyone wanted to look at.

I admit that I have often been thankful, as I have read through the stories of the Bible, that I live now and not two or three thousand years ago. There is nothing infectious about my condition; you can't catch it, but I couldn't have survived during Bible times, and I would have likely become an outcast because people would believe that I had leprosy.

If Bildad has a talent, it might be for taking the things that Job says and the conditions of his life and using them against him. In this case, he leaps on the agony of Job's skin condition, emphasizing that even his skin testifies to his sin. But here is the reality. The skin condition is a result of Satan's actions, but the stress that Job is enduring in this conversation is likely making the skin condition worse. Bildad's words continue to make an already bad situation a lot worse.

Bildad is taking the truth and misapplying it. If there is a warning here for us, it might be that we often do the same thing. We take a Bible verse, get into our echo chambers, and twist the words, although that is not always necessary, to make the Bible say things it really doesn't say. We can all find passages that seem to support whatever we have dreamed up, but we are really taking the truth and transforming it into a lie. We take something that should be life-giving and turn it into something that is life-taking.

It doesn't have to be that way. And our prayer should be that God will guide our words. He will guard our thoughts so that we do not become the Bildads of our modern society. The reality is that throughout my life, I have known several Bildads. Even now, I run into them every once in a while. And the life that they steal from those around them cannot be replaced. Their versions of the truth should never be celebrated.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 19