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not a machine

Job 21:1-34 (JDV)

Job 21:1 Then Job answered and said:
Job 21:2 Listen intently to my words; let this be the consolation you offer.
Job 21:3 Bear with me while I speak; then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.
Job 21:4 As for me, is my complaint against a human being? Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?
Job 21:5 Look at me and shudder; put your hand over your mouth.
Job 21:6 When I think about it, I am terrified and my body trembles in horror.
Job 21:7 Why do the wicked continue to live, growing old and becoming powerful?
Job 21:8 Their children are established while they are still alive, and their descendants, before their eyes.
Job 21:9 Their homes are secure and free of fear; no rod from God strikes them.
Job 21:10 Their bulls breed without fail; their cows calve and do not miscarry.
Job 21:11 They let their little ones run around like lambs; their children skip about,
Job 21:12 singing to the tambourine and lyre and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.
Job 21:13 They spend their days in prosperity and go down to Sheol in peace.
Job 21:14 Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone! We don’t want to know your ways.
Job 21:15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him, and what will we gain by pleading with him?”
Job 21:16 But their prosperity is not of their own doing. The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
Job 21:17 How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? Does disaster come on them? Does he apportion destruction in his anger?
Job 21:18 Are they like straw before the wind, like chaff a storm sweeps away?
Job 21:19 God reserves a person’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.
Job 21:20 Let his own eyes see his demise; let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!
Job 21:21 For what does he care about his family once he is dead, when the number of his months has run out?
Job 21:22 Can anyone teach God knowledge, since he judges the exalted ones?
Job 21:23 One person dies in excellent health, completely secure and at ease.
Job 21:24 His body is well fed, and his bones are full of marrow.
Job 21:25 Yet another person dies with a bitter throat, having never tasted prosperity.
Job 21:26 But they both lie in the dust, and worms cover them.
Job 21:27 I know your thoughts very well, the schemes by which you would wrong me.
Job 21:28 For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house?” and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in?”
Job 21:29 Have you never consulted those who travel the roads? Don’t you accept their reports?
Job 21:30 Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster, rescued from the day of wrath.
Job 21:31 Who would denounce his behavior to his face? Who would repay him for what he has done?
Job 21:32 He is carried to the grave, and someone keeps watch over his tomb.
Job 21:33 The dirt on his grave is sweet to him. Everyone follows behind him, and those who go before him are without number.
Job 21:34 So how can you offer me such futile comfort? Your answers are deceptive.

not a machine

Job’s therapists had been charging him with sin, and taking the calamity that had fallen upon him as evidence. Job replies – essentially – “what world do you live in?” In the world that Job knows about, justice does not happen mechanistically. Good men suffer, while the wicked are often spared any consequences to their depravity. They go to Sheol (where everyone goes at death to await resurrection and judgment) in peace. Justice is delayed until judgment day. This life is not a machine, dispensing out justice to those who need it. If it were, then people in Job’s condition would obviously be guilty of something to deserve their fate.

LORD, this world is not fair, but you are. You promise hope beyond this world. Thank you.