Job 21
Job answers Zophar, dismissing his words as empty and false. (Job 21:34) Most of this chapter directly challenges the friends’ notion that disaster inevitably befalls the wicked. Just listen to how Job depicts the prosperity of the wicked, in stark contrast to the assertions of his friends:
Why do the wicked live,
Job 21:7-13
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Their offspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.
Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and does not miscarry.
They send out their little boys like a flock,
and their children dance.
They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
We know the friends were not just thinking “theoretically” about the wicked in general. All had Job directly in mind when describing the fate of the wicked, and they used their assertions as accusations against him. So although Job does not say so explicitly, I have a strong suspicion that Job might just have Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar directly in mind in presenting such contrasting prosperity. Is he watching their children doing well? Does he see their houses, safe and sound, in the distance? Is he observing their herds of cattle expand? Is he looking on while their grandchildren play? I am sure that, as his friends and peers, he originally considered them to be upright “citizens in good standing”, but now he knows for certain that prosperity does not imply righteousness, and he has seen their cruelty toward him, so maybe he need go no further than them to find examples to prove his point.
Regardless of whether Job is referring specifically to the prosperity of his friends or whether he has other examples in mind, his observations destroy the “conventional wisdom” and raise questions for how God really operates. Who is this God, anyway? Why does He work this way? Job is wrestling with these issues. His friends, on the other hand, do not really seem to be. In fact, Job charges them with scheming against him (Job 21:27), using their “conventional wisdom” as a weapon, presumably in an attempt to ultimately get whatever might remain of Job’s property. So much for their concern for the poor…
There is much more in this chapter, but I’ll leave it there for now.
John rightly points out Job’s dismissal, not only of Zophar but also of all three friends in their second round of comments regarding the wicked getting their just deserves – or NOT, as Job points out!
Two sets of verses were interesting to me – the first in particular because Job seems to be quoting some conventional wisdom: It is said that God lays up one’s punishment for his children. Let God repay the man himself, so he will know it. Let his eyes see his own destruction; let him drink for himself the wrath of the Almighty. For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months has run out? (vv. 19-21) Job is suggesting that God punish people in their “here and now” rather that waiting to visit their just deserves upon their children. Although scholars argue that Job was written well before any other books of the Bible were penned, God’s words on this matter, essentially agreeing with “conventional wisdom” are found in Deuteronomy 5:9, I am a jealous God, and I will bring the curse of a father’s sins upon even the third and fourth generation of the children of those who hate me… (See also Numbers 14:18.) So there may be “conventional wisdom” out there that Job is citing. Strangely, Job’s three friends are also hearkening to “wisdom”, but their “wisdom” is seriously misguided.
The second set of verses is less theological, but still quite interesting: One man dies full of vigor, completely secure and at ease. His body is well nourished, and his bones are rich with marrow. Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity. But together they lie down in the dust, and worms cover them both. (vv. 23-26) Both the rich and the poor, the wicked and the righteous, the happy and the bitter all come to the same end – they die! Yep!
I think we should note that the LORD Himself refutes the notion that He punishes children for the sins of the parents. (See Ezekiel 18 and Jeremiah 31:27-30.) So “visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation” in Deuteronomy 5:9 and Numbers 14:18 cannot mean what some have taken it to mean.