Job 18

Words can hurt, but God heals

_{“Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. The sparks of their fire will not glow. ~ Job 18:5}

This passage feels kind of harsh at first glance. Bildad, one of Job’s friends, speaks sharply, describing the downfall of the wicked in vivid detail. His intent was to correct Job, but instead, he adds to Job’s pain by wrongly assuming Job’s suffering must be due to sin. It’s a painful chapter to read because it reminds me how careless or misinformed words can deepen wounds rather than bring healing.

I remember a season when I was struggling through a season that others didn’t fully understand. Well-meaning people that loved me said things like, “Everything happens for a reason,” or “You just need to trust more.” Even things like “you are making a mess of your life.” Even though some of their warnings may have been the truth, they didn’t help me when I was hurting so badly.  Instead, they actually stung and caused me to isolate myself from the people who cared most about me. Like Job, I wasn’t looking for explanations. I needed someone to simply be there. To listen. To sit with me in the hard place I was in, even if it was self-inflicted.

What’s powerful in Job 18 isn’t Bildad’s speech, but the contrast it created. It helps me see what not to do. It calls me to be a person who brings light instead of snuffing it out. When someone is suffering, my role is not to diagnose or fix. It’s to care, pray, and walk beside them with compassion. In a world where it’s easy to speak quickly and judge harshly, God invites us to speak life and offer grace when people are hurting.

Here are some simple ways we can put this principle into practice each day:

1. Check your words before you speak. Ask yourself: Will this build up or tear down? (Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that life and death are in the power of the tongue.)
2. Show up for someone. You don’t need the perfect words. A note, a text, or simply your presence can mean everything to someone who is hurting.
3. Pray before you respond. Ask God for wisdom to be gentle and Spirit-led in your conversations, especially when others are going through pain or loss.
4. Choose grace over assumptions. Just because someone is struggling doesn’t mean they did something wrong. Be slow to speak and quick to listen.

You can start today by following these steps:

• Think of someone who might be going through a hard time. Reach out with kindness. You don’t need a reason, just love them right where they are.
• In your quiet time, ask God to make you someone who brings light into dark places, not with empty words, but with sincere love and humility.

Today I want to encourage you that even when others misunderstand you, or when words wound, God sees the full picture. He knows your heart. Bildad tried to speak as if he had all the answers, but God reminds us throughout Job’s story that He alone is the ultimate Judge, Healer, and Comforter. Let this chapter inspire you not to fear the judgment of people, but to lean into the mercy of God.

Today’s scripture reading: Job 18

1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:

2 “How long before you stop talking? Speak sense if you want us to answer!

3 Do you think we are mere animals? Do you think we are stupid?

4 You may tear out your hair in anger, but will that destroy the earth? Will it make the rocks tremble?

5 “Surely the light of the wicked will be snuffed out. The sparks of their fire will not glow.

6 The light in their tent will grow dark. The lamp hanging above them will be quenched.

7 The confident stride of the wicked will be shortened. Their own schemes will be their downfall.

8 The wicked walk into a net. They fall into a pit.

9 A trap grabs them by the heel. A snare holds them tight.

10 A noose lies hidden on the ground. A rope is stretched across their path.

11 “Terrors surround the wicked and trouble them at every step.

12 Hunger depletes their strength, and calamity waits for them to stumble.

13 Disease eats their skin; death devours their limbs.

14 They are torn from the security of their homes and are brought down to the king of terrors.

15 The homes of the wicked will burn down; burning sulfur rains on their houses.

16 Their roots will dry up, and their branches will wither.

17 All memory of their existence will fade from the earth; no one will remember their names.

18 They will be thrust from light into darkness, driven from the world.

19 They will have neither children nor grandchildren, nor any survivor in the place where they lived.

20 People in the west are appalled at their fate; people in the east are horrified.

21 They will say, ‘This was the home of a wicked person, the place of one who rejected God.’”

Journal:

• When have someone’s words hurt me in a time of pain?
• How can I be someone who brings life and healing into someone else’s dark season this week?