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“What About The Wicked!?” • 3.21.21 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- Chapter 20 opens on the heels of a wonderful and dynamic statement of faith. Job has declared that he knows that His Redeemer is living and that He will be the last to stand on the Earth.
- With the eye of a prophet, Job sees Jesus from His pre-Incarnate state to His post-Tribulation glory, when He alone stands on the Earth as the final Judge of Mankind!
- That knowledge brings comfort to Job and a warning to his friends. They need to be careful of what they say on God's behalf, lest they fall into judgment before Him.
- Apparently, that warning didn't penetrate Zophar's heart. He comes in hot and will usher in the final part of "Round Two." Listen carefully, as these are also his final words in the book! Verse 1.
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• Job 20:1-3 : "Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: 'Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, because of the turmoil within me. I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer." : Job's rebuke has hit a nerve with Zophar. He has been emotionally stirred and is compelled to respond.
- He is moved by a compulsion to reply, not because he wants to comfort Job, to ease his pain, but because he has been personally insulted! "I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me!"
- "The spirit of my understanding." Zophar is speaking of his commitment to his worldview. Job's resistance forces Zophar's hand. He must speak again on behalf of his understanding.
- This is a recipe for disaster! If you are one who is easily insulted, it is better for all involved if you stay to the side until you have recovered your self-control! Zophar will have none of that.
- His dignity and theological honor force him to rage against Job again. Verse 4.
• Job 20:4-11 : "Do you not know this of old, since man was placed on earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment? Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens, and his head reaches to the clouds, yet he will perish forever like his own refuse; Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ He will fly away like a dream, and not be found; Yes, he will be chased away like a vision of the night. The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place behold him anymore. His children will seek the favor of the poor, and his hands will restore his wealth. His bones are full of his youthful vigor, but it will lie down with him in the dust." : "Don't you know!?"
- Zophar is accusing Job of ignoring the lessons of Earth's history! The wicked hypocrite will succeed but only ever for a moment!
- The "wicked" is a moral criminal, one who is committed to enjoy what God terms to be wrong. The hypocrite is one who is soiled with sin. He's defined by being "profane" and "impious."
- These words are related and are synonymous with one another in this passage.
- I'd be careful in thinking however, that wickedness or hypocrisy is repulsive merely because of the degree. This person is a wicked hypocrite because he is a murderer or adulterer or kidnapper.
- These are undeniably great degrees of wickedness, but the wicked and the hypocrite are so by virtue of their failure to honor God as God.
- A man who is thoroughly moral, loves his family, but rejects God's authority is wicked as well.
- In that arrogance, he might suceed for a while. His head will grow toward the clouds, but in the end, his life is a waste! He's no better than his own trash, the word may also refer to his dung!
- People will wonder at him, but he'll eventually only exist as a distant memory or a fragment from a dream. Nobody will be able to find him! Society forgets him and his family is left in a mess.
- His children think that they are set for life, but they are set up for failure! They will fall from having it all to seeking help from the poor around them!
- The wicked man might be in the flower of his youth, full of strength. What will that matter if his healthy bones are buried with him? Zophar continues in verse 12.
• Job 20:12-22 : "Though evil is sweet in his mouth, and he hides it under his tongue, though he spares it and does not forsake it, but still keeps it in his mouth, yet his food in his stomach turns sour; It becomes cobra venom within him. He swallows down riches and vomits them up again; God casts them out of his belly. He will suck the poison of cobras; The viper’s tongue will slay him. He will not see the streams, the rivers flowing with honey and cream. He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down; From the proceeds of business he will get no enjoyment. For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor, he has violently seized a house which he did not build. Because he knows no quietness in his heart, he will not save anything he desires. Nothing is left for him to eat; Therefore his well-being will not last. In his self-sufficiency he will be in distress; Every hand of misery will come against him." : Some have suggested that the wicked man hides his evil in his mouth. He is unwilling to disclose his wickedness. He keeps from confessing it.
- Those that practice such a thing will eventually see that hiding evil only eats one alive!
- This is true as many in the legal profession see men get away with murder until they confess!
- "Nobody ever gets away with the big ones," they say! This is entirely true. I might offer a different perspective and interpretation here. Evil, sin of any kind, is initially sweet.
- It seems to me, that the wicked are seeking to prolong their enjoyment. They don't chew their sweet. They let it slowly dissolve in their mouths.
- When it finally goes down into their spirit, that wickedness begins to turn from sweet to sour and inevitably, from sour to deadly poison! Zophar is right in what he says about wicked men!
- God did not create men to be so committed to evil. What Zophar describes is the inevitable consequence that is attached to sin.
- Sin always begins sweet, but when it is taken in, it always turns sour. When it is allowed to remain in our systems, it will poison the person that God intends us to be!
- The writer of Hebrews tells us that sin is pleasurable for a season. (Hebrews 11:25) It begins with a sweet temptation but will end with sudden death! (James 1:15)
- Sin isn't bad because it's forbidden. It's forbidden because it is bad! This is why Jesus came to this Earth, to free us from this awful, destructive reality that would enslave us.
- Ultimately, the wicked one will die from his own self inflicted addiction. The viper, the serpent, Satan will have slain him! Everything that he was promised himself will vanish from before his eyes.
- Sinfulness always looks like the Promised Land! "Look at those streams! Oh, the river of cream and honey!" That will never be the destination.
- Either he will be caught and forced to restore all that he has stolen or he will be robbed of his enjoyment by another entity. Why? Because of how he received it.
- Zophar sees that he came against the poor. He oppressed or crushed them. He deserted them. Or he outright plundered, stole, from a home that wasn't his.
- God will not allow us to enjoy that which we gain through unseemly means. In the case of the wicked, whatever they think that they will gain will be of no use to them.
- Don't miss that Zophar is insinuating that Job's wealth came from taking advantage of the poor. Somehow, without any external witness, Zophar has come to believe this about his friend.
- He must account for the tragedy that has befallen Job. He assumes that his vast financial success was built by oppression of the poor.
- In verse 20, you hear this proclamation from Zophar, that the wicked one has no quietness in his heart. The word reflects a lack of ease. He can never simply sit and be without care.
- Because of that he is restless to spend and is soon left without anything. "In his self sufficiency, he will be in distress!" The CSB translates this first part, "at the height of his success." - He will have attempted to build his empire using every shortcut, but his ventures can only end in misery. He describes that miserable road beginning in verse 23.
• Job 20:23-29 : "When he is about to fill his stomach, God will cast on him the fury of His wrath, and will rain it on him while he is eating. He will flee from the iron weapon; A bronze bow will pierce him through. It is drawn, and comes out of the body; Yes, the glittering point comes out of his gall. Terrors come upon him; Total darkness is reserved for his treasures. An unfanned fire will consume him; It shall go ill with him who is left in his tent. The heavens will reveal his iniquity, and the earth will rise up against him. The increase of his house will depart, and his goods will flow away in the day of His wrath. This is the portion from God for a wicked man, the heritage appointed to him by God.'" : You've heard of the phrase "raining on one's parade?" We come close it here in verse 23.
- You can feel the excitement of the wicked man. He's about to have his cake and eat it too, when God allows the rain of His wrath to fall right on him! This is the inevitable end!
- Wicked people believe that they will escape and just when their out of reach of the iron weapon, a bronze bow pierces through their liver. They live in constant terror of this reality.
- Somehow, someway, someone is going to get them! That's the lot of the wicked! Their wealth will fare no better. They are scheduled for utter darkness!
- Zophar says that a flame will come out of nowhere to bring ill upon the people that associate with him. "You know Job, just like your employees!" All of creation will rise up to witness this!
- Everything that he has "worked" for will run from him like a flood when God pours his wrath out upon him. That's the inheritance that God has kept ready for the wicked.
- Much of what we have just read is an apt description of what happens to the wicked, but keep in mind that none of it applies to Job! He responds in chapter 21.
• Job 21:1-6 : "Then Job answered and said: 'Listen carefully to my speech, and let this be your consolation. Bear with me that I may speak, and after I have spoken, keep mocking. As for me, is my complaint against man? And if it were, why should I not be impatient? Look at me and be astonished; Put your hand over your mouth. Even when I remember I am terrified, and trembling takes hold of my flesh." : Job only has a little more to share with his friends. They can take comfort in the fact that they only have to put up with him a little while longer and then they can continue their mockery.
- Job has no expectation that they will give in. They have heard his words, but haven't listened to his heart. His objections are their ammunition against him!
- He's not there to lodge a complaint against them or any other man. If that were the case, he wouldn't have to wait long. He knew how to settle an account with a human being.
- His issue is with God, the One who he believed responsible for treating him this way.
- "Just have a second look. You'll be unable to comprehend what has happened!" These men haven't looked much at their suffering friend. They have only sought to argue their point!
- It would be a great benefit to take a second look at your friend from time to time. Don't look at them through the lens of how they speak. Look at what they have endured!
- When Job thinks about what has happened, he can barely hold it together! He can hardly believe what has become of him. His own story is a horror to remember!
- What makes matters worse is that his friends have gone from believing him to be righteous to believing him to be wicked. They say that his situation is a result of his wickedness.
- As Job has been enduring that line of thinking, he's come to want them to explain a few realities to him. Verse 7.
• Job 21:7-10 : "Why do the wicked live and become old, yes, become mighty in power? Their descendants are established with them in their sight, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull breeds without failure; Their cow calves without miscarriage." : All of this time, Job's friends have asserted that the wicked are dealt with swiftly. That has become a much more insistent motif in this second round.
- Yet, as Job thinks about their position, he sees an interesting contradiction. The wicked do not always die prematurely. Some live and some actually live to become old and powerful!
- This is the opposite side of a mystery that has to be reckoned with and has often been pondered by philosophers and scholars.
- Eliphaz and company believe that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. This is Kindergarten Theology 101. Our world is much more complex.
- In real life, there are bad things which happen to good people and good things which happen to bad people! Even this consideration is flawed, as there are no good people.
- All of humanity exists in a fallen state before God and all of mankind are consigned to being slaves to sin naturally, until the supernatural work of regeneration is applied through belief in Christ.
- That being said, in our day, there are untold numbers of wicked people who fit into this category of "powerful old" men or women.
- What about the "dirty politician?" What does one say about the drug kingpin who eludes capture? Has anyone every wondered how dictators maintain a foothold for decades at a time?
- These were realities that were evident in Job's day. Their lives are seemingly secure and their children are following in their footsteps, often inheriting the family business!
- Their homes are located in gated communities or are along unpassable roads.
- The rod of God, the emblem of God's discipline isn't anywhere to be found. In fact, the Bible will later make it clear that God only disciplines His children. (Proverbs 3:11,12)
- If we do not receive chastening of the Lord, it proves that we are not His! (Hebrews 12:5-8) Is it any wonder then that their animals breed successfully? It is their best life now! Verse 11.
• Job 21:11-16 : "They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the flute. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’ Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand; The counsel of the wicked is far from me." : I know that many of us have wondered about the homes of the wicked. Surely, they are dens of misery! Not so fast! The children of the wicked live a charmed life.
- They are tended to as if they were a flock of sheep. They are surrounded by joy and entertainment. Their parties are legendary!
- Whatever money can buy, it buys for them all of their days. When their days are up, they die suddenly, in a moment. The word "moment" refers to a wink of the eye.
- To add insult to injury, many of the earlier manuscripts use the phrase which indicates that their death is a peaceful one. How can that be?
- It doesn't seem to Job that they linger long toward death. They just pass without experiencing any suffering! Ah, but there must be terror in the final moments? Not according to Job!
- They reject God's presence. They don't want anything to do with Him. They have no desire to know His ways!
- It has long been suggested that there is a God shaped hole in the heart of men. That part is true. God made men to worship Him. The part that is not true is that men seek to fill it with God!
- We lie to ourselves and to others when we exclaim that there are people that are "close" to coming to God. That is highly unusual! The World is better represented here, as being dismissive.
- They die with the words "depart" from me. They die with an unjustified arrogance. "Who is the Almighty that we should serve Him?" Is this not reminiscent of the Pharaoh's statement to Moses.
- "Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?" (Exodus 5:2) The wicked will die in ignorance and then raise in the sheer terror of knowledge when they discover who He is!
- Remember this statement. Let this ring in your ears: Eternity is a long time to be wrong!
- For those who would put off knowing about the Lord in this life, please let this be a sober warning: It's better to get to know Him now while you have the chance!
- Know who He is now and joyfully enter into eternity. Fail to make that your priority and you will enter eternity with great and unrelenting sorrow. It's your choice today!
- What a sad commentary on a human life, not to know one's Maker, nor to care for the wisdom and comfort of a prayer life! The wicked regard any spiritual discipline as a waste of time!
- Job doesn't share in their counsel or subscribe to their feelings. He is telling Zophar not to lump him in with these folks. Verse 17.
• Job 21:17-21 : "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? They are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that a storm carries away. They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’; Let Him recompense him, that he may know it. Let his eyes see his destruction, and let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what does he care about his household after him, when the number of his months is cut in half?" : When you think about it, how many times have you heard in the evening news of a sudden outbreak against any of Hollywood's elite?
- Who can you say was destroyed suddenly? It's not that they are made of indestructible material. They are like straw and chaff, vulnerable, but not seemingly ever destroyed.
- The argument then will be, "Well, at the very least, God will make their children pay for their sins." Job's problem is that God doesn't take out his wrath upon the ungodly in their lives!
- They blaspheme the Name of Jesus! They persecute His people. They act as if there will be no retaliation and for Job, it's not sufficient to allow them to die peacefully!
- Why doesn't God recompense them? Why don't they see their own destruction? The wicked aren't worried about what will take place after they die!
- Why would God's judgment upon their families post mortem be effective? Job argues here that it isn't. He pushes the issue further in verse 22.
• Job 21:22-26 : "Can anyone teach God knowledge, since He judges those on high? One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and secure; His pails are full of milk, and the marrow of his bones is moist. Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure. They lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them." : I love verse 22. "I'll teach God a thing or two!" You can't!
- Job is essentially admitting that he doesn't have a clue! He's in over his head. He knows he's out of his league. Of the things that God cannot do, the chief among them is learn!
- The most powerful cases are easily considered in His presence. But can't someone teach Him this? Job has two men in mind. They both go the way of the Earth.
- Death is the great equalizer, though there are diverse circumstances as in his case study.
- The first man dies, as the CSB translates, "in excellent health." The second man dies is abject poverty. He's never even had a great meal! The first man has rarely had a bad meal!
- He has plenty of milk, a luxury item in the time of the ancients, stored away. The NLT adds that he is "vigorous and fit." Both men share the same fate. Both lie down in the dust.
- The end of each man's journey was to be covered in worms that ate their flesh. Verse 27.
• Job 21:27-34 : "Look, I know your thoughts, and the schemes with which you would wrong me. For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince?' and where is the tent, the dwelling place of the wicked?’ Have you not asked those who travel the road? And do you not know their signs? For the wicked are reserved for the day of doom; They shall be brought out on the day of wrath. Who condemns his way to his face? And who repays him for what he has done? Yet he shall be brought to the grave, and a vigil kept over the tomb. The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him; Everyone shall follow him, as countless have gone before him. How then can you comfort me with empty words, since falsehood remains in your answers?" : None of their insinuations are being missed. Job is hearing them loud and clear. He understands that they are talking about him. He knows what they are thinking.
- In their minds, he is wicked and what has happened has been deserved. He sees their scheme all too clearly. They keep offering their proof that God deals this way with the wicked.
- "Princes live in houses. The wicked dwell in tents." Job wants to know if they have asked the people who actually travel the roads, the merchants who look for their addresses!
- No friends, the wicked rarely taste the wrath of God in this life. God's grace is such that He waits and waits, lovingly offering repeated opportunity to repent.
- God calls out the church of Thyatira for their tolerance of a false teaching prophetess, who was herself guilty of sexual immorality. God didn't just wipe her out.
- He tells them that He gave her time to repent even though she did not. (Revelation 2:21)
- God's greatest testimony in history is that He makes family out of enemies! His family room will testify to a grace and mercy that none of us can truly comprehend.
- But when that grace and mercy is spurned, there is only one reality left. The wicked are reserved for a day of doom and God's wrath. They shall be brought out on the day of wrath!
- The word "brought out" refers to being conducted or carried along with violence. They will be "escorted" to their judgment and that without gentleness! This takes great faith to see!
- What we see are men who are committed to great wickedness and nobody stands up to them in life! Who condemns him or seeks to repay him for his crimes? Most of us stay clear of such men!
- Consequently, when they die, they are accompanied by great crowds and, as the NLT says, "an honor guard keeps watch at his tomb!"
- "The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him." The wicked man can afford the nicest plot of dirt. It will fall upon him softly while a giant procession mourns at his resting place.
- Job has seen this countless times! There are many wicked who have died in this way. How is any of this a comfort to Job?
- These are merely empty, vain cliches. Their answers are fraught with falsehoods.
Conclusion
- Job's friends insist that God deals swiftly with wickedness. Job sees
a different story. God endures the wicked, offering them chance after chance to
repent, to know His Name and His life.
- He stretches out His hand toward the wicked and promises to forgive him of his sin if he will look to Jesus Christ, the innocent Lamb who has taken the sin of the world upon His shoulders.
- God's grace is greater than our sin and He saves to the uttermost those that will humbly turn to Him for salvation! Unfortunately, there will be men and women that will reject His offer.
- "Who is the Lord that we should serve Him? Depart from us!" Some will utter this on their final day, only to awaken to a full knowledge of God, who will tell them to depart from Him!
- God's love will be vindicated and God's justice will be served! Let us be grateful that we can experience His love and never know His justice!
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