Tag: Why do the wicked prosper? Job 20-21

Job 21:9-13
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 miscarry.
They send out their little boys 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.

Tag:  Why do the wicked prosper?

The prophet Jeremiah asked God the following question:

Jeremiah 12:1
Righteous are you, O Lord,
when I complain to you;
yet I would plead my case before you.
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all who are treacherous thrive?

Job is sitting in his ashes, with boils and sores covering his body like bark on a tree.   He is being accused by one of his friends, Zophar, as being a wicked man.  Zophar believes that those who are suffering are doing so because of their wickedness.   Job, on the other hand, speaks what we read in the above passage.   Job points out his observations in life and they are in stark contrast to Zophar's optics.   Job and Zophar seem to be looking at the same mountain but from two different sides.  Compare with Job 20:29.  Zophar and Job are looking from different perspectives.  Here is the view from Zophar's vantage point.  Zophar believes wicked men will get their just due from God:

Job 20:29
This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God."

However, Job is talking about those he sees, though wicked and caring nothing for God, rejoice and dance and accumulate (see also Psalm 73).  Notice the picture Job paints.  This is what his picture was in chapter 1.   His children were dancing and singing and a whirlwind came and destroyed them.   Job was looking at the here and now, because he is in the here and now.  Both men are right.  Jeremiah was right.  The wicked do prosper.  Yet, only for awhile.  There days look like Job's point-of-view, but their end looks like Zophar's point-of-view.  We can get jealous and envious of their prosperity.   Job failed to rejoice in his suffering that it was a gift from God.  Zophar failed to point Job in that direction.   The righteous suffer, but not in the way the wicked will!  One is a gift - the others is a punishment.