Day 23: Job 18-21

Bildad (one of Job's "friends") says to Job:

When will you end these speeches?
   Be sensible, and then we can talk.

Then he goes on to describe in poetic detail a wretched and miserable existence...much like Job is experiencing...then closes with this:

Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man;
   such is the place of one who does not know God.

In other words - "Face it, Job, you're an evil man. If you weren't this would never have happened to you."

I read an interesting and convicting blog post the other day by Zach Nielson who started with this quote from Charles Spurgeon:

"Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth."

It's a good reminder when dealing with people who criticize you. The truth is that there is evil in all of us. The point Bildad and the rest of Job's buddies miss is the one that Job makes in ch. 21 when he says:

One person dies in full vigor,
   completely secure and at ease,
well nourished in body,
   bones rich with marrow.
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
   never having enjoyed anything good.
Side by side they lie in the dust,
   and worms cover them both.

Jesus said it this way in Matthew 5:45:

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Steve Taylor said it this way in Meltdown at Madame Tussaud's:

"Good, bad, there they go down the same drain."

Seems to me that we're all evil...just in different ways. That's why we all need God's grace offered through Jesus. We have no reason to expect life to be easy for the "righteous" and hard for the "wicked" because there really has only been one righteous person in all of human history...and life wasn't that easy for Him.