Job 8:13

So in the rest of the chapter he summarised what tradition would teach. He illustrated his point with things in nature, like the rush and the spider's web. He claimed that all history showed that God repaid man according to what he deserved. If evil, he is cut off. If good, he is prospered. To tell Job that "the hypocrite's hope shall perish" was a cut this time not at Job's children but at Job himself.

In this section Bildad traces the way of the wicked; and there is much truth in what he says, though it is not all the truth. Can the water-reed, or papyrus, flourish without moisture? It grows thick and fast while water is around its roots. Once that water is gone, it withers faster than any other plant. So is the prosperity of the wicked, who for a time spreads himself like a green bay tree. The hope of the ungodly — not just the hypocrite — perishes. Changing his picture, Bildad compares the confidence of the wicked to a man leaning on a spider's web. What a pitiful state, clinging for nothing to something so frail!

There always was and always will be such a generation — people who mix in with the saints of God. They make a show of heaven, with heavenly speeches, while their hearts are lined with hypocrisy. By it they deceive others, and most of all themselves. Such people may be the world's saints, but in Christ's account they are devils. "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" And truly, of all devils, none is so bad as the professing devil, the preaching, praying devil.

Also he says that a reed may wither while still green, and he uses this as a comparison for those who forget God (vv. 11-12). True enough, but he was wrong to suggest that Job had forgotten God. He was also wrong to treat Job's hope, which seemed to be perishing, as proof that Job must be a hypocrite (v. 13). It is certainly true that the hypocrite's hope shall perish, but to apply this to Job was totally unfair.

So it is with the wicked, both in their rise and in their ruin: the paths of all who forget God end this way, surely and miserably, and the hope of the impure is just as fleeting... If Job really is a perfect man, God will not cast him away until He gives him the fullest grounds for thankful praise, confounds his enemies, and destroys the wicked for ever. (But neither does He grasp the hand of evil-doers.) But when he applied this to Job, there was no fellowship with God in Bildad's thoughts, and no gracious consideration for the sufferer. He judged by appearances, and so his judgment was unrighteous.

"The hypocrite's hope shall perish;" but the feeblest sheep of Christ shall never perish. But if he looks at his own imagined greenness — at his own boasted goodness — this will fade away; and so Satan gains the advantage. There may be much freshness of soul at conversion — like the green flag; but beware of trusting in this... Then showers of darts come: "Have I deceived myself?" "I do not feel as I did." "Perhaps I have no root in Christ." "The hypocrite's hope shall perish." Then, oh, what darkness of soul — what perplexity! The eye is off Christ; the heart is listening to Satan.