Job 18:10

Cleverness never saves the man who trusts himself instead of God; it only traps him. So his own feet carry him into the net, and he walks over the mesh without seeing what lies underneath. The trap, the snare and the cord meet him wherever he turns. Terrors alarm him on every side and follow every step he takes.

In these verses Bildad tells Job that the wicked do not see the danger, because they are ignorant, so evil traps them easily. The snare may be a noose hidden on the ground, perhaps covered by leaves, and pulled tight when a man steps into it. Bildad thought that Job had not expected the evil that came to him, so he had not guarded against the snare, and had walked straight into it. Of course this was not the case with Job, though it is commonly true of the wicked.

Bildad again takes his place in the contest (Job 18). He means well, but his words are poisoned arrows. "The light of the wicked is put out." Yes, every word is perfectly true of the wicked; but how crushing to Job! Circumstances seemed to favour the charge.

He declares that the wicked man, without knowing it, walked over a snare that would catch him when he least expected it: "The wicked is snared in the works of his hands." Bildad says it again and again, painfully. He assures Job that the heel will certainly be caught in a trap, and that a noose will tighten around him — that is how verse 9 has been translated. The snare lies skilfully covered in the earth, ready for him. The net in his path is ready to close on him like an unwary bird. Bildad chose words rich in poetic imagery, to force on Job what is untrue!

"For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks on its mesh. A trap seizes him by the heel; a snare lays hold of him." "Judge not, that you be not judged."

Is it not humbling and solemn that we can be utterly sincere in what we believe, and still be completely wrong? We are just as responsible for our convictions as for what we do or say. Only One can give us the right thought or feeling — the same One who alone gives the wisdom and strength to carry it out. It is God Himself.

What a man sows he reaps: if evil, ruin; if good, blessing. But Bildad has not a word to say about blessing. Did he know what grace works through faith? Faith can not only remove the rock, but cast a mountain into the sea.

Job rejects the charge that he was caught in his own snare. He says, "Know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed His net about me." He traces it back to God, but cannot see any reason for it. Yet through all this probing of the wound, and his growing sense that God was afflicting him more than he deserved, his spirit is still growing stronger in hope.