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I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are John 9; 2 Kings 14; Job 21; Psalm 66; Proverbs 15.
Job 21:17-26
“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?
18 That they are like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
19 You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
20 Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what do they care for their houses after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?
22 Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those who are on high?
23 One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24 his pails full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
25 Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of prosperity.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.
Job is one angry and discouraged man. He has every reason to feel that way. According to God himself, Job was a righteous man. But given permission, Satan visited Job and the members of his family with devastating calamity, pain, suffering and loss. On top of that, his friends prove to be totally unhelpful, moralizing, scolding, and accusing.
So on the one hand it’s not surprising that his comments here in chapter 21 are so very vitriolic. He is angry and he’s not going to take it lying down. He’s going to shout it from the mountaintops. It’s just not fair! The unrighteous and unjust don’t ever seem to get their comeuppance. They live the life of ease and seem to enjoy a life free from the just desserts due them.
Job is saying, don’t wait to punish their children. Do it now. Let their heads ache with the consequences of their wanton ungodliness.
I get it. Who owns the super yachts? Who has three vacation homes that are nicer than even the people in the top 1% of the economic food chain? Who eats Almas Caviar (Iranian Beluga) at $25,000+/kg? Not me. Maybe Job did at one time. Perhaps that’s why he’s so upset. But that’s not the bent of his tirade.
We may wish for the demise of the human traffickers, or yearn for the silencing of voices that incite harm and call upon heaven to bring low those who abuse their power with impunity.
But where will God draw the line? Might it cut a little more close to home than we deem comfortable?
God has drawn the line for us. For us and for our salvation, God drew a line in the sand and put everyone who has sinned on one side (that’s all of us), and Jesus on the other. Then Jesus – the light of the world – stepped into the total darkness of sin, suffering, and death in our place. Those who look to him will discover a universe of pure light and perfect righteousness and a place of untainted justice. It’s not fair. It is grace.
David Bahn - Reflections 
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