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karma

Job 20:1-29 (JDV)

Job 20:1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
Job 20:2 This is why my disquieting thoughts compel me to answer, because I am upset!
Job 20:3 I have heard a rebuke that insults me, and my insight makes me reply.
Job 20:4 Don’t you know that ever since antiquity, from the time a human was placed on the land,
Job 20:5 the joy of the wicked has been brief and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?
Job 20:6 Though his arrogance reaches the sky, and his head touches the clouds,
Job 20:7 he will vanish forever like his own dung. Those who know him will ask, “Where is he?”
Job 20:8 He will fly away like a dream and never be found; he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
Job 20:9 The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will no longer see him.
Job 20:10 His children will beg from the poor, because his own hands must give back his wealth.
Job 20:11 His frame might be full of youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in dust.
Job 20:12 Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue,
Job 20:13 though he cherishes it and will not let it go but keeps it in his mouth,
Job 20:14 yet the food in his stomach turns into cobras’ venom inside him.
Job 20:15 He swallows wealth but must vomit it up; God will force it from his stomach.
Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; a viper’s fangs will kill him.
Job 20:17 He will not enjoy the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and curds.
Job 20:18 He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it; he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
Job 20:19 For he oppressed and abandoned the poor; he seized a house he did not build.
Job 20:20 Because his appetite is never satisfied, he does not let anything he desires escape.
Job 20:21 Nothing is left for him to consume; therefore, his prosperity will not last.
Job 20:22 At the height of his success distress will come to him; the full weight of misery will crush him.
Job 20:23 When he fills his stomach, God will send his burning anger against him, raining it down on him while he is eating.
Job 20:24 If he flees from an iron weapon, an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
Job 20:25 He pulls it out of his back, the flashing tip out of his liver. Terrors come over him.
Job 20:26 Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. A fire unfanned by human hands will consume him; it will feed on what is left in his tent.
Job 20:27 The sky will expose his iniquity, and the ground will revolt against him.
Job 20:28 The possessions in his house will be removed, flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
Job 20:29 This is the wicked person’s due from God, the inheritance God ordained for him.

karma

Zophar argues that reversal of fortune is always God’s doing.

Those who are exalted (6) he brings down to the depths.
Those experiencing sweetness (12) he poisons.
The full he devours (22,26).

A world in which our condition is always the result of our past actions is comforting to the rich, and sometimes the poor prefer it as well, because it challenges them to take command of their own destiny. No one is comfortable being a pawn in the game of life. But the book of Job reminds us that there are more players than just ourselves. Sometimes our best efforts are trumped by those with better hands. In the end, the purpose of the game is not to win. It is to walk away still being friends with all the players. Job knew that. His therapists did not.

LORD, no matter what happens to us, help us to hold on to our relationship with you.