Job Says God Will Deal With The Wicked
February 5, 2023
Commentary
This chapter centers around a debate between Job and Zophar concerning prosperity. After appealing for their understanding and sympathy Job refutes Zophar’s idea that evil people never experience wealth and happiness (vv. 1-6). But first, he says, “If you really want to console me, just keep quiet and listen” (vv. 1-2). Now he turns his full attention to Zophar (v. 3). Job’s condition was so pathetic that men were shocked (vv. 4-5). As he contemplated about what he was going to say it stirred him to the depths (v. 6). I really think it would have better if he had not tried to answer Zophar’s brutal accusation, but he tells them that he is growing weary of their false charges. Still troubled by what he believed to be injustice in his own case, Job raised the issue of the prosperity of the wicked (vv. 7-16). The wicked had rejected God and refused to practice His ways (v. 14) yet they have security on every side. Their children and homes are safe (vv. 8-9.11-12), their business prospers (v. 10), and they have long lives in which to enjoy their prosperity (v. 13). (v. 16). Job could not understand this.
Following his discussion of the prosperity of the wicked, Job raised a question that the godless rarely, if ever, seem to suffer (vv. 17-22). Bildad had stated that the wicked would be afflicted but Job asks how often any have seen this happen (vv. 17-18). It was believed that the fathers’ sins would affect the children for generations, but Job questions this also (v. 19). If the wicked were punished, the wrath of God would have to fall on them (vv. 20-21). The wicked die just like other people (vv. 22-34). The rich man dies, the poor man dies, the believer dies, the unbeliever dies; and side by side they lie in the dust and worms cover them (v. 26). Job charges that his friends had him in mind all the while as they described the fate of the wicked (v. 27). Job is confident that God will judge the wicked (vv. 28-34). Their judgment may not be until the Great White Throne judgment.
Application
What is important is how I view God in prosperity or poverty, not the prosperity or poverty itself.
Job 21:1– 34 (NET)
1 Then Job answered:
2 “Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you offer me.
3 Bear with me and I will speak, and after I have spoken you may mock.
4 Is my complaint against a man? If so, why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled; put your hands over your mouths.
6 For, when I think about this, I am terrified and my body feels a shudder.
7 “Why do the wicked go on living, grow old, even increase in power?
8 Their children are firmly established in their presence, their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe and without fear; and no rod of punishment from God is upon them.
10 Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
11 They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about.
12 They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.
13 They live out their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.
14 So they say to God, ‘Turn away from us! We do not want to know your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we were to pray to him?’
16 But their prosperity is not their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked extinguished? How often does their misfortune come upon them? How often does God apportion pain to them in his anger?
18 How often are they like straw before the wind, and like chaff swept away by a whirlwind?
19 You may say, ‘God stores up a man’s punishment for his children!’ Instead let him repay the man himself so that he may be humbled!
20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.
21 For what is his interest in his home after his death, when the number of his months has been broken off?
22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges those that are on high?
23 “One man dies in his full vigor, completely secure and prosperous,
24 his body well nourished, and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 And another man dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted anything good.
26 Together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover over them both.
27 “Yes, I know what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28 For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house, and where are the tents in which the wicked lived?’
29 Have you never questioned those who travel the roads? Do you not recognize their accounts —
30 that the evil man is spared from the day of his misfortune, that he is delivered from the day of God’s wrath?
31 No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done.
32 And when he is carried to the tombs, and watch is kept over the funeral mound,
33 The clods of the torrent valley are sweet to him; behind him everybody follows in procession, and before him goes a countless throng.
34 So how can you console me with your futile words? Nothing is left of your answers but deception!”
Illustration: Half The World Goes to Bed Hungry Every Night
James Reston was a syndicated columnist for the New York Times for more than thirty years. In his final column for the newspaper, he wrote: “In America, we have learned something about how to deal with adversity since the great Depression, but not much about how to deal with prosperity. We are very rich, but we are not having a very good time. We are producing so much food that we don’t know what to do with the garbage, while half of the human race goes to bed hungry every night.” (Encyclopedia of Illustrations – #13167)