Ray Stedman, in a sermon, “Why Doesn’t God Intervene?”:
In Chapter 21 we get Job’s very reasoned reply. There are times when Job speaks rather testily, rather sharply, to his friends, and other times, perhaps when the pain is not as intense, he is able to speak more calmly and dispassionately. And here, in Chapter 21, you see a careful attempt on his part to answer these arguments. He begins with his appeal for a hearing.
Then Job answered:
“Listen carefully to my words,
and let this be your consolation.
Bear with me, and I will speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.
As for me, is my complaint against man?
Why should I not be impatient?
Look at me, and be appalled,
and lay your hand upon your mouth [i.e., with astonishment].
When I think of it I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.” (Job 21:1-6 RSV)
Basically he is saying here, “If you can’t help me, at least listen to me; that can be your consolation. You’re trying to console me, and that’s not helping a bit, but if you would listen to what I have to say, that would be some help from you. You are not a problem; it is God who is my problem,” he suggests. “Not man, but God. I don’t understand him.” Then he says, “It is my condition, my pain and anguish, that forces me so to search and try to come to answers.” With that as an introduction, he now examines the argument of these friends, that punishment is always the result of sin.
In Verses 7-13 he says that the facts contradict what these friends say. In fact, he says, the whole lives of the wicked are often untroubled.
“Why do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
Their children are established in their presence,
and their offspring 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 cast her calf.
They send forth their little ones 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.” (Job 21:7-13 RSV)
Their whole life is lived, Job argues, and nothing ever seems to trouble them. They are outwardly and openly wicked, and yet they are happy, their families grow up well, and they seem to be free from difficulty.
Many of us have felt this way. We see those we think ought to be under the judgment of God, but they are not; they seem to be untroubled. We are faced with this question of the fairness of God. His second argument is that they even defy God, and they prosper, Verses 14-16:
“They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We do not desire the knowledge of thy ways.
What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.” (Job 21:14-16)
“I do not agree with this,” he says, “but that is what they actually say. They defy God; they ask him to get out of their lives; they resist him, and God lets it be. Nothing ever happens to them, they seem to live untroubled lives, and God does not strike them down.” He goes on to point out that God’s judgment is very infrequent, Verses 17-18:
“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God distributes pains in his anger?
That they are like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?” (Job 21:17-18 RSV)
Many people who deserve punishment from God’s hand seem to live without ever being touched, he says. Then he argues, God’s judgment is delayed (Verses 19-21), and, finally, God’s judgment is very uneven, Verses 22-26:
“Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those that are on high?
One dies in full prosperity being wholly at ease and secure,
his body full of fat and the marrow of his bones moist.
Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.” (Job 21:22-26)
Life seems to be unfair. There is a basic unfairness at the root of things, and this is what causes many people to be troubled by the claims of Christians about a loving, faithful, just, and holy God. You often hear the question raised, “If there is a good God why does he let this kind of thing happen?” Job is raising the same question. He says to these pious, respectable friends, “Your arguments do not square with the facts. You say God always visits wrath upon the wicked. What about these wicked people who live without a touch? God never does a thing to them. What about the fact that he seems to treat people very unfairly? Folks who seem to deserve nothing but the grace of God, who are loving, gentle, kind people, have endless problems, and die forsaken. And some who are selfish and cruel and self centered are the ones who seem to be able to live without struggle. What about this?”
Then he turns to examine his friends themselves, and points out the falseness of their friendship, Verses 27-28:
“Behold, I know your thoughts,
and your schemes to wrong me.
For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked dwelt?’” (Job 21:27-28 RSV)
They were referring, of course, to Job. He says, “I know you’re thinking that I am a good example of the truth of your argument because God has taken away my wealth, my family. my possessions, and you’re saying to yourself, ‘Ah! Where is all the wealth of this man? Here is proof right here that what we say is true.’” And, though they were not saying it quite as baldly, Job says, “I know what you are thinking, your hidden surmisings. I know also your unsupported convictions here.” Verses 29-33:
“Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony
that the wicked man is spared in the day of calamity,
that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
Who declares his way to his face,
and who requites him for what he has done?
When he is borne to the grave,
watch is kept over his tomb.
The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
all men follow after him,
and those who go before him are innumerable.” (Job 21:29-33 RSV)
He tells his friends, “If you’ll just inquire around among the traveling salesmen, the people who get around and see life, you’ll find that they support what I’m saying. The wicked often escape the day of calamity. It’s not just true around here, this is true everywhere. The wicked live above the law, and nobody says to them that they’re doing wrong. They get by with it. They die highly honored in their death and their graves are adorned and guarded and God does nothing about that.” So he says at last, Verse 34:
“How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.” (Job 21:34 RSV)
If you intend to argue with Job you had better get your arguments well in hand. This man is able to see through the error of logic in these people’s position. They have a theology that does not square with experience, and that is where the problem lies.
These friends represent people — and there are many around today — who have God in a box. They have what they think is a clear understanding of all the ways of God and they can predict how he is going to act, but when he acts in a way that they do not understand and do not expect, they have no way of handling it because it is their creed they have faith in and not in God himself.
This is what Job is learning. His creed has been demolished by his experiences. He has had to file his theology in the wastebasket because it did not fit what he w as going through.Someone has well said that a man with a true experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. These men are unable to answer Job because his experience rings true. That concludes the second round of addresses, and in Chapter 22 we begin the third and final round where only two of these friends speak.
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