Job 18:16-17

16 His roots [sheresh] shall be dried up [yabesh] beneath, and above [ma`al] shall his branch [qatsiyr] be cut off [namal].

17 His remembrance [zeker] shall perish ['abad] from the earth ['erets], and he shall have no name [shem] in the street [paniym] [chuwts]. KJV-Interlinear

16 'His roots are dried below, And his branch is cut off above. 17 'Memory of him perishes from the earth, And he has no name abroad. NASB

In the non-spiritual world, that is the world which excludes the legitimate truths of scripture, the emphasis on life is directed to the things of the world. That should be obvious. And since the things of this world are nothing more than emptiness, or vanity, then any emphasis on the things in this world, are loyalties, even sincere loyalties, to nothing.

The roots and branch references in scripture generally refer to ones family line. The roots referring to ones ancestors, and the branches referring to respective lines within a family tree, or to ones children and future descendants.

They can also refer to ones own origins, namely the dust of the earth, and to ones production in life, namely to ones spiritual accomplishments, or even to ones earthly or carnal accomplishments.

Here there is a dual reference to ones entire relationship to life in this world, both in human relations and in carnal activities.

Your life is more than just your existing. Everyday of your life, you are creating a record of your life. That record is written in heaven. Heaven has the most complete set of books than anywhere in this universe. No earthy library can match it for content or accuracy.

Prov. 10:7

7 The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot. NASB

To have an origin and a future both brings memories, usually related to happiness, and to hope, or to ones dreams of having more and better in the future.

Both of these disintegrate into nothingness when a person ignores their spiritual life.

Bildad is explaining that the total existence of the wicked person eventually comes to nothing. Not his origin, not his future hopes and dreams, not his accomplishments will survive him in this life, at the end of his life.

The spiritually negative person in effect becomes historical filler, or meaningless content to history.

How would you like to live your entire life, and then when you die, discover that you wasted it all. That nothing you did, nothing you accomplished, nothing whatsoever in your life amounted to anything.

And that is the way of the negative persons life, in this life.

For unbelievers, their life ends up in the Lake of Fire and that is, as they say, that. They will be forgotten forever.

A very good example of that is the billions of people who have lived throughout history, to which you have no name, no face, no memory. You know certainly that history has seen billions of people born into this world, and those same billions have died, but you don't know nearly all of them.

If you have been through our study at the end of Isaiah and Revelation then you know that all references to human history will be destroyed along with this entire universe. Nothing of the old, will continue into the new. Why would God drag all of the current baggage into something new?

And as for believers who have decided to ignore their spiritual life, then their legacy will be one of imitation of unbelievers. They will go into heaven. Their name has been recorded forever in heavens record books, but their earthly accomplishments will fade into nonexistence.

Why would you care about this? Well as believers in Christ, your spiritual production is a direct reflection of your spiritual life. Your spiritual life is mandated by God, to follow His principles of truth, and so forth, not your own. This means that your are expected to be responsible in your life, and obedient to His mandates, because you are going to be held accountable.

Since everything that you have in your life comes from God anyway, then why not pursue the spiritual side more so than the carnal side? The spiritual side has infinite value, the carnal side amounts to zip.

And yet most folks boast at their accomplishments, boast at their beliefs, boast at their attitude in life, boast at even the things they want to have, or presume that they are going to have. And all of that is arrogance pure and simple, amounting to nothing in the long run. In the end, disappointment awaits them all.

If you have never been to a slaughter facility, you should really go visit and tour one. It is a great example of the very real realities of life, and of just what people are doing in their own spiritual lives. They are rejecting them and electing to joyfully stand in line waiting for their own destruction.

Now is the time to post a prayer.