job 21 and 22

Read Job 21 and 22 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions for each man’s speech are like the divisions in the Psalms that we studied in 2014. There is an understood {s} division at the end of each numbered line, with an {n} marking where a new line begins within a numbered line.

Job 21:1-22:30 {s} Division at the end of each numbered line; with these {n} divisions within lines:
Job 21:17a “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, {n}

In the discussion Job is having with his friends, his friends continue to repeat their same mantra: that good always comes upon the innocent, and evil always comes upon the wicked. Eliphaz even crosses over into shocking territory, and blatantly accuses Job to his face of being wicked – of maliciously crushing widows and the fatherless while he was in a position to help them. Job continues to maintain that evil sometimes comes upon the innocent, and good oftentimes comes upon the wicked. Job’s answer to this conundrum is that the wicked, while they may seem to have nothing but a life of comfort now, are reserved for the day of wrath.

Scripture bears Job out:

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more.
But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Psa 37:7-11

“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’
Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’
And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’
But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’” Luk 16:19-31

We are also beginning to see references to the true early history of the earth:

Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod, who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood? Job 22:15-16

Ah, this is why the insistence that the wicked will come to ruin is so persistent with the friends. They are recalling the time not so far distant from themselves, when it did happen just that way. Jesus said they were eating, drinking, and giving in marriage until the day the Flood came and took them all away, having no clue that anything was coming upon them (Mat 24:37-39). What they may not realize, that Job realized, was that the day of the Flood was the day of the Lord’s wrath. This day does not come in every generation, but once by flood, for the world that perished, and once by fire, for our world on a day yet to come. Two days, and two judgments, because by the history of the Flood, God is prophesying to the world of what will come, so that no one is without excuse. This is why educated fools in white coats make a mock of the day of the Flood: it is a mighty worldwide witness of the truth that speaks to every culture and society in every time.

And don’t believe them when they tell you that from the deep recesses of the past, until about 250 years ago when the light of reason dawned upon mankind, the childish adherents to religion and myth believed the earth was flat. From ancient days man has always known the earth was a sphere, but during the late Middle Ages only, when Bibles were scarce and not available to men, did such a belief exist among the ignorant:

And you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the deep darkness? Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, and He walks above the circle of heaven.’ Job 22:13-14