Golden evening over a rich camp of black tents: smoke rises from cooking fires, flocks come in and a few children run, all small with distance, under a calm, warm, empty sky.

The Book of

Job 21

Job speaks, closing round two. All three friends have said the wicked always fall. He looks around and asks the question they have avoided.

34 verses≈ 4 min2 peopleBSB

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In this chapter

Where we are

1–3The testBlameless, stripped of everything, and his cry
4–14Round oneThe friends speak; Job answers
15–21Round twoMy Redeemer livesChapter 21
22–31Round threeThen wisdom, and Job's last defense
32–37ElihuA younger voice
38–41The LORD speaksOut of the whirlwind
42The endJob prays and is restored

Job: God Will Punish the Wicked

Job

Then Job answered:

“Listen carefully to my words;

let this be your consolation to me.

Bear with me while I speak;

then, after I have spoken, you may go on mocking.

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Job

Job

Is my complaint against a man?

Then why should I not be impatient?

Look at me and be appalled;

put your hand over your mouth.

When I remember, terror takes hold,

and my body trembles in horror.

Job

Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone!

For we have no desire to know Your ways.

Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,

and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

Still, their prosperity is not in their own hands,

so I stay far from the counsel of the wicked.

Reflect

What would we gain?

The wicked ask, “what would we gain if we pray to Him?” Satan said Job served God only for what he got. Why do you pray? Be honest. Write down what you would still pray if nothing in your life changed.

Job

At dusk on a threshing floor a lone man tosses grain with a wooden fork, the chaff streaming away gold on the wind, under a calm, wide evening sky.

How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?

Does disaster come upon them?

Does God, in His anger, apportion destruction?

Are they like straw before the wind,

like chaff swept away by a storm?

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?

0:29

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Job

Can anyone teach knowledge to God,

since He judges those on high?

Job 21:22

Job

Question

Quick question

Two men, two very different lives.

What does Job say both men have in common at the end?

Job

Behold, I know your thoughts full well,

the schemes by which you would wrong me.

For you say, ‘Where now is the nobleman’s house,

and where are the tents in which the wicked dwell?’

Job

Job

Have you never asked those who travel the roads?

Do you not accept their reports?

Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity,

delivered from the day of wrath.

Job

A fine rock-cut tomb in a sunlit valley, its plain stone door shut and unmarked, a watchman seated beside it with a staff, and far down the valley a long line of mourners walking away.

Who denounces his behavior to his face?

Who repays him for what he has done?

He is carried to the grave,

and watch is kept over his tomb.

The clods of the valley are sweet to him;

everyone follows behind him,

and those before him are without number.

Job

Pray

Thank God that He sees what we cannot explain. Ask for honesty about what you actually see, and for no easy answers. Pray for those who watch the cruel prosper. Ask for patience to wait for the day of God’s justice.

The rule and the roads

Whiteboard

Three speeches, one rule. Job does not say God will let the wicked go forever. He says the rule is not what anyone sees. The end of the matter is still ahead, and neither side has it.

You’ve experienced

Job 21

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A verse to carry with you

Can anyone teach knowledge to God, since He judges those on high?

Job 21:22

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