Hello everyone! Welcome to today’s Bible study on Job 21 – Job talks about the wicked man. According to Bible scholars, the events of the book of Job took place approximately before 2100 B.C.
I encourage you to turn to Job 21 in your Bible. Kindly invite the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read and study Job 21 with me. I mention this in all the Bible Studies because it is through the Holy Spirit that we get fresh revelation and knowledge to understand the word of God. I am using the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible, just in case you want to know. All the scriptures that you find highlighted in purple in this post are from the NKJV.
In the Bible Study on Job 20, we read about Zophar’s sermon on the wicked man. Well, in this Bible study on Job 21, we will read about Job’s discourse on the wicked. As I have already mentioned before, most of the chapters of the book of Job are conversations between Job and his friends. They go back and forth.
Without any further delay, let us study together and see what is Job’s point of view on the wicked man, shall we?
Job Calls For Careful Attention To His Speech
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Listen carefully to my speech,
And let this be your consolation.
3 Bear with me that I may speak,
And after I have spoken, keep mocking.
In Verses 1-3 of Job 21, Job answers his friends in response to Job 20 and calls them to pay careful attention to what he is about to say. He invites them to listen to him and gain satisfaction from his answer. He told them that they could mock him all they want after he had done with his discourse on the wicked.
Job, in hindsight, knew that no matter how much he would try to explain himself, his friends were going to mock him anyways.
Job’s Complaint Is Not Against Man
4 “As for me, is my complaint against man?
And if it were, why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be astonished;
Put your hand over your mouth.
6 Even when I remember I am terrified,
And trembling takes hold of my flesh.
In Verses 4-6 of Job 21, Job said that his complaint is not against man and even if it was, he was justified in being impatient given his situation and condition. Job is terrified of God and all the impending suffering that he has yet to go through before he dies. However, he does not understand why all that happened to him happened in the first place.
The Wicked Live A Long and Prosperous Life
7 Why do the wicked live and become old,
Yes, become mighty in power?
8 Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without failure;
Their cow calves without miscarriage.
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
13 They spend their days in wealth,
And in a moment go down to the grave.
In Verses 7-13 of Job 21, Job talks about how the wicked prosper in all their ways. To begin with, they live a long life until old age and they are mighty, influential and wealthy. They see their descendants prosper infront of their eyes. No evil touches their house. The rod of God’s correction is not upon them even though they are wicked. Their cattles mutilply and produce offsprings and they do not suffer miscarriages. The wicked have many children and they are filled with joy. The wicked’s children sing and dance and spend their life being rich and happy. After having lived a full and long and prosperous life they go to the grave at a ripe old age.
Observation
Job is right in saying that the wicked live in health, wealth and prosperity. They rarely suffer and their offsprings are wealthy and prosperous filled with joy. It is true even to this day if you look at the wicked around you or the wicked on television. They are filthy rich and joyful and prosperous. This makes us question, how can that be? Why is God quiet?
You see, the wicked men in doing wicked deeds are teaming up (partnering) with satan. Satan does not attack his own kind as long as they satisfy him and do his bidding. Firstly, we must remember that wherever you see poverty or illness or lack of joy or suffering it is not of God but of satan. The wicked prosper and their children prosper because they are partners with satan knowingly(most of the times) or unknowingly. Hence, satan does not attack or touch them. They are not blessed of God but they are blessed of the enemy.
There is a price to pay
Since they are so blessed inspite of being wicked they see no need for God and continue in their wickedness because it blesses their lives and that of their children. BUT!!! There is a heavy price to pay for that because satan does not give anything for free! We may not see the wicked being punished while they are alive on the earth. God’s justice comes in God’s divine timing and God is long-suffering and patient even until the last moment because He does not want any of His creation to perish.
Hence, if they do not repent of their wickedness and choose God through Jesus Christ the Saviour, be assured that they have a place in hell waiting for them for all eternity from which there is no escape. That is a big price to pay for a short time (no matter how old you are compared to eternity) of happiness on the earth. If they belong to satan they must go to his place (hell) when they leave the earth and spend all eternity with him. And hell is such a bad place that not even satan is there yet. He is on the earth using people who readily yield to him.
The Wicked Hate God
14 Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
16 Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand;
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
In Verses 14-16 of Job 21, Job talks about how the wicked hate God and ask Him to depart from them. They question their need to serve Him and question God Himself. They do not see any profit in praying to God. Their prosperity does not come by their own means (by the works of their hands). And Job does not understand how God deals with the wicked and how could they prosper despite being wicked. Hence, he does not seek any counsel from the wicked.
Let God Punish The Wicked
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their destruction come upon them,
The sorrows God distributes in His anger?
18 They are like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that a storm carries away.
19 They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’;
Let Him recompense him, that he may know it.
20 Let his eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care about his household after him,
When the number of his months is cut in half?
In Verses 17-21 of Job 21, Job talks about how the wicked’s lamp is not put out. Their life is not cut short nor do they suffer. No destruction comes upon them. God does not seem to punish them or be angry with them, in Job’s eyes. They are not like chaff or straw that are easily moved and carried away with the winds and the storms.
Job recounts how people often say that God lays up a wicked man’s punishment for his children. If that were to be true, he says let God punish them so that the wicked man and everyone around him shall know that there is punishment for wicked deeds. Let the eyes of the wicked man see destuction and drink up the wrath of God. Why does the wicked man have to care about his household that is left behind after his death when his life is cut short? After death, he cannot even see or hear or feel what his family or those left behind are feeling. Hence, he has nothing to worry about if he were to die before his time.
No One Can Teach God
22 “Can anyone teach God knowledge,
Since He judges those on high?
23 One dies in his full strength,
Being wholly at ease and secure;
24 His pails are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is moist.
25 Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul,
Never having eaten with pleasure.
26 They lie down alike in the dust,
And worms cover them.
In Verses 22-26, Job tells that no one is able to question God on why He punishes one man and not the other. No one can teach God. One man dies while he is healthy, prosperous and full of joy, while another dies while he is suffering, never having seen joy in his life and full of torment. Both lie down in the dust eventually. Both go in the same way – the way of no return to the earth. Worms cover the prosperous man and the poor man alike when they are in their graves.
Job’s Knows That His Friends Seek To Find Fault In Him
27 “Look, I know your thoughts,
And the schemes with which you would wrong me.
28 For you say,
‘Where is the house of the prince?
And where is the tent,
The dwelling place of the wicked?’
29 Have you not asked those who travel the road?
And do you not know their signs?
In Verses 27-29 of Job 21, Job tells his friends that he knows their intentions and their schemes to find fault with him so that they could justify his suffering. They ask where is the house of the prince and the dwelling place of the wicked. The house of the prince and dwelling place of the wicked are a direct reference to Job because Job’s was as rich as king in his entire region. And Job understands that they are referring to him.
Job’s friends were ignorant of the means by which Job became wealthy. They thought that he had oppressed the poor to become rich. They weren’t as rich as Job. Little did they know that God put a hedge aorund Job and blessed Job in everything he did and his prosperity came from God. And now that he is suffering they have concluded that Job is wicked and God is punishing him thereby self-justifying their conclusions about Job being a wicked man and of the means by which he became wealthy.
Job tells his friends to ask the travelers in their region about the wicked man for, even though they are mere strangers who travel, even they will show his friends the way to the wicked man’s dwelling place.
Observation
In my point of view, Job was telling his friends to speak to him directly instead of using indirect speech to call him the wicked man. For, now, his situation was the talk of the town and people passing by came to know about Job too and they all together wrongly assumed that Job was a wicked man, by judging his illness and cirumstances. Hence, his friends needn’t have to pretend to Job as if they didn’t know who was the wicked man for even mere travelers would show them that Job is the wicked man facing tribulations.
According to them, only a wicked man suffers as much as Job. They judged a person’s character based on what happened to them in their lives. If a person was happy and prosperous they assumed the person was blessed of God. If the person suffered and faced losses and if he was tormented or ill, then they assumed that surely God is making the person pay for his/her wicked deeds.
The Wicked Are Reserved For Doom’s Day
30 For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom;
They shall be brought out on the day of wrath.
31 Who condemns his way to his face?
And who repays him for what he has done?
32 Yet he shall be brought to the grave,
And a vigil kept over the tomb.
33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him;
Everyone shall follow him,
As countless have gone before him.
In Verses 30-33 of Job 21, Job tells that the wicked men and their punishment are reserved for doom’s day – the day of God’s judgment. There is no one the earth (no man) to condemn him to his face or challenge his wicked deeds. There is no one to repay him or pronounce justice for the wicked deeds that he has done. Yet, he shall die and he will have many followers even when he is dead just as all the wicked men before him who were always glorified. A watch shall be kept over his grave to safeguard him. The valley in which he is laid down will be sweet to him and men shall be sad for him.
Job’s Friends Speak With Falsehood
34 How then can you comfort me with empty words,
Since falsehood remains in your answers?”
In Verse 34 of Job 21, Job tells his friends that they speak with falsehood and he is not comforted by their answers because they speak falsely about the wicked. They tell Job that the wicked are punished. But Job knows that it is not true and the wicked are rarely punished. What Job says will resonate with most of us reading because we see the wicked rarely punished and even if they are punished their punishment is not as harsh and they manage to live a long and prosperous life on the earth and are glorified by all men.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of the bible study lesson on Job 21. This was quite a long study. If you have read until the end, thank you! I couldn’t help but agree with Job about the wicked. I have seen in my own life how the wicked prosper in all their ways and they are almost ustoppable. What are your thoughts about this? Kindly, leave them in the comments box below so that we could open up a discussion. I hope you learnt something from this free bible study and found it helpful in your Bible study journey.
Until Next Time!