Monday, November 14th, 2016
Job 21:1-34
key verse: 26
Job answers Zophar. There is a gap between the principle of judgement of the wicked and the reality, which is that they enjoy life. Life is filled with paradoxes.
1. The paradoxal reality (1-26)
Job truly wants to be comforted. Yet, no consolation came from his friends. Their anwsers were falsehood and in vain (34). Job told his friends to turn, look at him and be astonished. A man who was for a long time upright is now suffering an inexplicable calamity. The lot of evildoers is contrasted with his own. The wicked are tranquil and very happy. The reality is that the punishment of the wicked is an exceptional phenomenon. In principle, evildoers should be punished, contemplate their misery and be filled with God's fury. But the principle doesn't hold true. Reality is quite different. One dies content, while the other dies in bitterness, though both return to dust.
2. Comfort in vain (27-34)
The friends want to comfort their suffering friend Job. But Job calls it comfort in vain. Why? Because evildoers are spared any misery. No one reproaches them and at death, they are buried peacefully. People just like them come before and after. So, if Job was wicked, it wasn't worth consoling him, since he will enjoy life like most evildoers. Neither is it worth consoling him if he is righteous, since the righteous ironically have an unhappy lot. But his friends think Job is a sinner and condemn him. Yet, they also console him saying that if he is righteous, he will be blessed on the earth. It's only nonsense.
Prayer: Lord, help me to understand that the lot of the wicked is not always unhappiness. Help me to give up my self-righteousness.
Bottom line: they lie down alike
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