How Much Longer, LORD?

“They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.  And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?”  Job 24:24-25

Those of us who are born again and sick of all of the evil that is perpetrated and permitted across our nation wonder how much longer God will put up with His created beings.  Actually, one doesn’t have to be a Christian to be fed up with the craziness that is going on all around us, and the evil is certainly not diminishing.  Of course, evil has been with us since Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan, and every generation since then has suffered all sorts of wickedness, but now it seems like what is happening is worse than ever.  I remember back in high school when a boy got in trouble for having his shirt tail out of his pants, and now we have guns and murders in schools.

Job’s friends had tried to convince him that he was being punished for doing evil because they believed that evil was always punished fairly quickly after one committed an evil.  Job maintained that was not the case.  Not only did he believe he was still a righteous man, but that sometimes evil wasn’t punished until eternity.  But it caused him to wonder why God doesn’t always judge the wicked by man’s timetable.  He was suffering, waiting for God to hear his case while the wicked were living footloose and fancy free.  To prove his belief that the wicked escape judgment on this earth, he began to tell of some of the acts committed by evil people.  They would move landmarks to encroach upon their neighbor’s land, they would steal his flocks and forge papers to claim that the neighbor gave the sheep to them, take necessary items from widows for rent in arrears, and leave them destitute.

The poor would have no clothing or shelter, their children would be taken as collateral, even babies, and there would be no food for them.  Those who pressed out the olive oil or treaded the grapes to make wine were not allowed anything to drink.  Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar were adamant in their belief that the wicked are punished while still on earth, but Job didn’t see it that way.  He mentioned the evil people who come out at night to do their dastardly deeds.  They rob and murder.  They commit sexual sin thinking no one will see them at night.  They sleep during the day and commit their crimes in the dark when everyone else is sleeping.  Job then maintained that the wicked should be counted as something useless floating on water, that their portion should be cursed in the earth, and no one should even go into their vineyards.  In other words, Job is stating how the wicked should fare on earth, but he had not seen it happening that way.

Job compared the death of sinners as a grave which should consume them as drought and heat consume snow as it melts into a different form as it is slowing absorbed by the ground not to be seen any longer.  The mother of a wicked son should forget him, the worms will devour his flesh, no one will remember him, and he will no longer be able to do his evil.  It wasn’t just the weak on whom the wicked man preyed, but also those who were strong.  No one was safe around the wicked.  God allows them to do their evil, and because they seem to get away with it, they assume they will never be held to account for their sin.  However, God is watching them, taking note of every evil they commit, keeping a tally.

I have often wondered why those who commit evil are seemingly allowed to escape punishment and/or suffering, but in studying the book of Job, the commentator, Matthew Henry, put it into perspective.  He wrote that it was not because God doesn’t see their sin, but “because the measure of their iniquities is not full”.  By this he means that God is patient and using them to serve His own purposes, “while it ripens them for ruin”.  In other words, He is allowing their sins to add up against them because there is another “world of retribution” which awaits them.  Perhaps there are some folks so wicked that there is no punishment on earth that would satisfy God’s justice other than the death of the wicked, and that would mean eternal damnation in hell.  However, as folks say, “Where’s there is life, there is hope”.  I have not heard of very many extremely evil folks coming to a place of repentance and salvation, but with God all things are possible.

Job continued by stating that the wicked are on top of the world for a while until God puts an end to their evil eventually.  They will be cut off from life as the heads of the grain are cut off.  Job then asked his friends if what he said was not the truth.  Many of the wicked prosper in this life, but punishment will come in death.  Job said to prove him wrong.  Call him a liar but prove it.  Were Job’s words useless or was he right?

Next Week:  Bildad answers Job