Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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.
“Is my complaint directed to a human being?
    Why should I not be impatient?
Look at me and be appalled;
    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?
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 on 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 timbrel and lyre;
    they make merry to the sound of the pipe.
They spend their years in prosperity
    and go down to the grave in peace.
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?’
But their prosperity is not in their own hands,
    so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked.
“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 the punishment of the wicked for their children.’
    Let him repay the wicked, so that they themselves will experience it!
Let their own eyes see their destruction;
    let them drink the cup of the wrath of the Almighty.
For what do they care about the families they leave behind
    when their allotted months come to an end?
“Can anyone teach knowledge to God,
    since he judges even the highest?
One person dies in full vigor,
    completely secure and at ease,
well nourished in body,
    bones rich with marrow.
Another 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 house of the great,
    the tents where the wicked lived?’
Have you never questioned those who travel?
    Have you paid no regard to their accounts—
that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity,
    that they are delivered from the day of wrath?
Who denounces their conduct to their face?
    Who repays them for what they have done?
They are carried to the grave,
    and watch is kept over their tombs.
The soil in the valley is sweet to them;
    everyone follows after them,
    and a countless throng goes before them.
“So how can you console me with your nonsense?
    Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”

• Job 21:1-34

Job 21:29-30 ”If the Lord does not in this world visit the ungodly with wounds, this is but surer evidence that in the world to come there is a solemn retribution for the impenitent. If present affliction is not the punishment of sin, we turn to Scripture and discover what that punishment will be, and we are soon informed that it is something far heavier than any calamities that occur in this life. It was a fable of the old Jewish rabbis that when the angel Gabriel flew, he used both wings because he always came with good tidings; but when Michael flew, bearing God’s sword against kings, he always flew with one wing. Michael arrives as surely at his destined goal as Gabriel himself. Though the feet of retribution may seem to be shod with lead for tardiness, they are as sure as the feet of mercy. When God comes to bless, the axles of his chariot are hot with speed, and his steeds are white with foam; but when he comes to curse, he travels slowly, with many a sigh, for he does not will the death of any but had rather they should turn to him and live.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from his sermon notes

The Message

Job replies to Zophar.  He begs to be heard, but there is a twist in his plea.  As we have endured two attacks each from Job’s three friends, Job has resigned to the idea that they have come to mock, and they will continue to mock.

Since Zophar used the description of how God treats the wicked, Job counters with his description.  The wicked prosper.  They get richer and more powerful as they get older.  Nothing bad happens to them nor their livestock.  They dance.  They sing.  And when they go to the grave, they mock God.

He drives his point home by asking how often do the wicked have anything bad happen to them.

But God judges the highest.  There is no way that we can judge the ways of God.  One person dies while wealthy and healthy, in full vigor.  Another person dies with every calamity put upon him.  But both will lie side by side in the dust and worms will eat them both.

But really, the wicked die in such a state that the grass is green over them and people flock to them.

But as for his three “friends” what more can they say other than more falsehood?

And now let us sing.

The following song is I Will Wait.  This is from Cisterns of Peace.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, we suffer.  The wicked do seem to prosper.  We know what the ultimate outcome is.  They may laugh as they are put in the ground, but they do not have the last laugh.  But Lord, we often make the mistake of comparison.  You give us what we need, and we do not have to hurt others in the process of getting what you give us.  Rather than seeing what we do not have, Lord, help us see what we do have, and at the center, it is You.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.