Job 21
McGeeCHAPTER 21THEME: Job’s sixth answerJob is still able to come back with an answer. I think it would have been better if he had not tried to answer Zophar’s brutal accusation, but he is going to defend himself again. He tells them that he is growing weary of their false charges. He appeals his case to a higher court. He agrees with them that the wicked will be punished but insists that this does not apply to his case.
Job 21:1
Job wants their attention and sarcastically says that he is going to console them.
Job 21:4
He is not taking his complaint to men; he is appealing to God.
Job 21:5
In other words, “Shut up!”
Job 21:7
Job is now going to point out a fallacy in their argument. The wicked do not always suffer in this life; in fact, they may prosper. They are not always cut off; sometimes they attain old age, their property remains intact, and their children are able to inherit it.
Job 21:11
They may have a whole flock of children. They dance and are gay and rejoice. They have a good time, and they live it up. You may say that their fall is going to be apparent, but you are mistaken. Like others, they go down to the grave but without catastrophe striking them before hand. Job had been a rancher, and he points out that some of the wicked people are very prosperous cattlemen with big, prosperous families. I can remember when I was a boy in West Texas that some of the biggest drunkards in the neighborhood were also the biggest ranchers in the area. Where are they today? They are gone. Their sons apparently are following right in their footsteps, and they are going to disappear also. But they do prosper. Job calls attention to that. You will remember that this was also an observation of David. He said, “I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree” (Psa_37:35). However, David found, too, that God finally moves in judgment against the wicked. We can look around in our own country today. We know certain family names that stand for money, and they have no reputation for godliness. We find them in politics and in high society. They don’t seem to suffer as other people suffer. Maybe sometimes this causes you to wonder. It is as Job is saying here, the wicked do prosper.
Job 21:14
They are godless. They don’t want God. They insultingly say that they don’t need God nor desire to know His ways. What could God give to them that they can’t get for themselves?
Job 21:16
Job is saying, “I don’t belong in that class. I am not one of the wicked. What you lay down as an inevitable truth does not always work out to be true. Besides, even if it were true, it does not apply to me!”
Job 21:17
Those exclamation marks should probably be question marksbut either way, he is saying that the wicked have no more problems than the average person has.
Job 21:18
However, death is no respecter of persons, and the time comes when death knocks at the door of the wicked. There comes a time of judgment when “he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.” So Job shows his friends that their proverbs are not always true, but that doesn’t mean that God is not going to judge the wicked someday. One time I heard a friend of mine say to a man who was apologizing for being drunk, “Don’t apologize. You go ahead and drink it up now, boy, because in this life is the only place you can get it. Where you are going, they don’t serve it. I don’t blame you for getting all you can here.” The wicked might as well enjoy every pleasure available to them, because this is their last chance. The wicked are going to be judged eventually. Job is confident that God will judge the wickedthere is no question about that.
Job 21:29
The judgment of the wicked may not be until the Great White Throne judgment, but judgment will come eventually. God will permit the sinner to live it up down here if that’s what he wants to do. You see, God is gracious. God is long-suffering. The goodness and the forebearance and the long-suffering of God should lead us to repentance. I know that today we look at the rich who are enjoying life. The jet set goes from the United States to Europe and to Mexico from resort to resort. My, they really live it up, and God permits them to do it. But remember this: “The wicked is reserved to the day of destruction.” We don’t hear much said about that in these days. This is the answer of Job to Zophar. May I say that it is a good answer. But we see that Job is still justifying himself. There is no thought of repentance in this speech by Job.