In effect, Bildad is telling Job, "Look back into history. The ancients were wise and had many experiences that can help you. If you would just study the wisdom of the past, you would find answers to your situation." He is basically correct. The ancients of which he spoke lived for hundreds of years—they had a lot of time to learn the lessons of life. They probably passed a lot of wisdom on to their descendants. "Job," he says, "all you have to do is to mine the past, and you'll solve your dilemma."
Jesus Himself interprets the parable for us. We ought to use spiritualwisdom just as shrewdly as the steward used his secular wisdom. He tells us we should "be wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16). "Unrighteousness mammon" signifies wealth or money gained by unrighteousness, that is, by sinful ways. Money becomes a power for evil in the hands of sinful people. James warns us not to make friends of those who are worldly and unconverted (James 4:4). We can make friends by means of money that the unconverted covet, thereby helping God to witness to them and eventually convert them.
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