Job 21

Job 21 is the halfway mark in the 42 chapter drama of Job.

The structure of the book has been a speech by one of Job's three friends with a response by Job and it is a back and forth between them.

Here Job speaks again ...

Then Job replied:
Listen carefully to my words;
let this be the consolation you give me.
Bear with me while I speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.

Job is exasperated! He has essentially given up trying to argue his case to his friends. All he can do is ask them to listen even if in the end they aren't convinced and decide to poke fun at him.

Is my complaint directed to man?
Why should I not be impatient?
Look at me and be astonished;
clap your hand over your mouth.
When I think about this, I am terrified;
trembling seizes my body.
Why do the wicked live on,
growing old and increasing in power?

The friends had been arguing that the wicked falter. And by implication, since Job's life had gone down the drain, then he must have been wicked.

Job continues to argue, it isn't that simple, the wicked often do very well in this world.

He elaborates with the following examples:

They see their children established around them,
their offspring before their eyes.
Their homes are safe and free from fear;
the rod of God is not upon them.
Their bulls never fail to breed;
their cows calve and do not miscarry.
They send forth their children as a flock;
their little ones dance about.
They sing to the music of tambourine and harp;
they make merry to the sound of the flute.
They spend their years in prosperity
and go down to the grave in peace.

And not only are they, the wicked doing well, they mock god while they are prospering ...

Yet they say to God, 'Leave us alone!
We have no desire to know your ways.
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
What would we gain by praying to him?'

Yet, though the wicked prosper, Job doesn't want anything to do with them ...

But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
so I stand aloof from the counsel of the wicked.

However, its a struggle for Job. Even if he doesn't want to be a part of the ways of the unrighteous, he wonders what is God up to? He wonders why doesn't God strike them down?

Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?
How often does calamity come upon them,
the fate God allots in his anger?
How often are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff swept away by a gale?
It is said, 'God stores up a man's punishment for his sons.'
Let him repay the man himself, so that he will know it!
Let his own eyes see his destruction;
let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what does he care about the family he leaves behind
when his allotted months come to an end?

Despite his obvious frustration, Job still allows God to be God.

Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
since he judges even the highest?
One man dies in full vigor,
completely secure and at ease,
his body well nourished,
his bones rich with marrow.
Another man dies in bitterness of soul,
never having enjoyed anything good.
Side by side they lie in the dust,
and worms cover them both.
I know full well what you are thinking,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
You say, 'Where now is the great man's house,
the tents where wicked men lived?'

Job saw that in the end, death is the great equalizer. But somehow, it seems not quite right to Job that good people and bad people wind up dead and that the bad people didn't seem to receive their just punishment while they were alive.

He challenges his friends, grab some people on the road and ask them if I am right about this?

Have you never questioned those who travel?
Have you paid no regard to their accounts-
that the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,
that he is delivered from the day of wrath?
Who denounces his conduct to his face?
Who repays him for what he has done?
He is carried to the grave,
and watch is kept over his tomb.
The soil in the valley is sweet to him;
all men follow after him,
and a countless throng goes before him.
So how can you console me with your nonsense?
Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!

Indeed, if the grave is the very last stop and calamity and wrath and payment for sin must take place in this present life then one would be quite stuck: life is truly totally unfair.

If we believe that justice is an absolute concept and we look at our life experience then we have to conclude either (1) we are incorrect in our beliefs because the wicked can prosper in this life or (2) there must be an afterlife where the scales of justice are righted.

On the other hand, if there is no God to right the scales of justice in the afterlife then we have to say that justice is not an absolute concept but merely what those with power can enforce.

God, there are terrible injustices in the world today. It is horrible to know that people are bought and sold in human trafficking. Help those who are fighting that evil. Strengthen our poor power to fight such wickedness. In addition to strengthening the hands of those who stand against such wickedness, move in the hearts of those who do perpetrate such sin. Just as you opened the eyes of slave ship captain John Newton, open the eyes of today's slave traders to see they are wrong and need to make it right by stopping what they do. Lord, have mercy! Amen.