Read Job 18
The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out; the flame of his fire stops
burning.
Job 18:5
In Bildad’s second speech, his weapon was fear. However, Bildad made
two mistakes when he gave this speech. To begin with, he preached
it to the wrong man, because Job was already a believer (Job 1:1, 8).
Second, he preached it with the wrong motive, because there was no
love in his heart. Dr. R. W. Dale, the British preacher, once asked
evangelist D. L. Moody if he ever used the element of terror in his
preaching. Moody replied that he usually preached one sermon on
heaven and one on hell in his campaigns, but that a person’s heart
ought to be very tender when preaching about the doom of the lost.
Bildad did not have a “very tender” heart.
Though Bildad was talking to the wrong man and with the wrong
motive, what he said about death should be taken seriously. Death
is an enemy to be feared by all who are not prepared to die (1 Cor.
15:26; Heb. 2:14–15), and the only way to be prepared is to trust
Jesus Christ (John 5:24).
However, none of the pictures Bildad used (Job 18:5–21) should
be applied to those who have trusted the Lord for salvation.
Something to Ponder
Has anyone ever tried to use fear as a motivator to scare you into being
a better person or a better Christian? How well did the attempt work?