20240703

a plea for vindication

Job 24:1-25 (JDV)

Job 24:1 Why does the Almighty not keep times for judgment? Why do those who know him never see his days?
Job 24:2 The wicked displace boundary markers. They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.
Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey owned by the fatherless and take the widow’s ox as collateral.
Job 24:4 They push the needy off the road; the poor of the land are forced into hiding.
Job 24:5 Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, the poor go out to their task of foraging for food; the desert provides bread for their children.
Job 24:6 They gather their fodder in the field and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
Job 24:7 Without clothing, they spend the night naked, having no covering against the cold.
Job 24:8 Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks, shelterless.
Job 24:9 The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral.
Job 24:10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry sheaves but go hungry.
Job 24:11 They crush olives in their presses; they tread the winepresses but go thirsty.
Job 24:12 From the city, men groan; the pierced throats cry for help, yet God pays no attention to this crime.
Job 24:13 The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its paths.
Job 24:14 The murderer rises at dawn to kill the poor and needy, and by night he becomes a thief.
Job 24:15 The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight, thinking, “No eye will see me,” and he covers his face.
Job 24:16 In the dark they break into houses; by day they lock themselves in, never experiencing the light.
Job 24:17 For the morning is like darkness to them. Surely, they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!
Job 24:18 They float on the surface of the water. Their section of the ground is cursed, so that they never go to their vineyards.
Job 24:19 As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow, so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
Job 24:20 The womb forgets them; worms feed on them; they are remembered no more. That is how injustice is broken like a tree.
Job 24:21 They prey on the childless woman who is unable to conceive, and do not deal kindly with the widow.
Job 24:22 Yet God drags away the mighty by his power; when he rises against them, they have no assurance of life.
Job 24:23 He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it, but his eyes watch over their ways.
Job 24:24 They are exalted for a moment, then gone; they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else. They wither like heads of grain.
Job 24:25 If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar and show that my speech is worthless?

a plea for vindication

Job’s therapists insist that he is going through a time of judgment, but Job argues that people usually do not see that kind of judgment. Job wants to have his time before God, and is assured that his righteousness will be vindicated. Instead most of the innocent will have to wait until the resurrection to see vindication. From God’s standpoint, judgment day is not far off. But most of us will have times where we wish it were here already. We see the helpless being exploited, and we cry out for vindication.

“he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31).

LORD, give us patience to wait for the time of judgment.