July 8, 2025, Job 21:1-34
July 8, 2025, Job 21:1-34
Job
Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper
21 Then Job
answered and said:
2 “Keep
listening to my words,
and let
this be your comfort.
3 Bear with me, and I will speak,
and
after I have spoken, mock on.
4 As for me, is my complaint against man?
Why
should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be appalled,
and lay
your hand over your mouth.
6 When I remember, I am dismayed,
and
shuddering seizes my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live,
reach
old age, and grow mighty in power?
8 Their offspring are established in their
presence,
and
their descendants before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
and no
rod of God is upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without fail;
their
cow calves and does not miscarry.
11 They send out their little boys like a flock,
and
their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
and
rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
13 They spend their days in prosperity,
and
in peace they go down to Sheol.
14 They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We do
not desire the knowledge of your ways.
15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And
what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
16 Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
The
counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How
often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That
their calamity comes upon them?
That
God distributes pains in his anger?
18 That they are like straw before the wind,
and
like chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for
their children.’
Let him
pay it out to them, that they may know it.
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let
them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what do they care for their houses after them,
when the
number of their months is cut off?
22 Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing
that he judges those who are on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor,
being
wholly at ease and secure,
24 his pails full of milk
and the
marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never
having tasted of prosperity.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
and the
worms cover them.
27 “Behold,
I know your thoughts
and your
schemes to wrong me.
28 For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where
is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
29 Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do
you not accept their testimony
30 that the evil man is spared in the day of
calamity,
that he
is rescued in the day of wrath?
31 Who declares his way to his face,
and
who repays him for what he has done?
32 When he is carried to the grave,
watch is
kept over his tomb.
33 The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
all
mankind follows after him,
and
those who go before him are innumerable.
34 How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is
nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”
Job is keenly aware that prosperity accomplished by the
wicked is not always punished on earth but upon the final judgment.
It’s easy to look at others that seemingly “have it all”;
beautiful family, vacations, homes, etc. and feel a bit of
envy. Some of these individuals are in tandem with Christ and
seeking his will and purpose. Others obtain their status through
dishonest dealings, cut throat agendas,
etc. Thankfully, we serve a just God who sorts everything
out. I urge you to remain faithful and look to
kingdom matters and cling not to earthy treasures that come and
go. Instead cling to God’s promise that he is indeed in
control.
Robin Adams
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