Job  

Chapter  21  

"Job's replay to Zophar's second address."  

Job  21:1   "But Job answered and said,"

One of the lessons that we can learn from the address that Zophar gave to Job is that we are not to listen to man's wisdom, but seek the truths from God's Word.  Are you allowing men to do your research and study for you?  If you are, than how many facts from the Word do you have straight?  It is simple to get the facts when you go to the Word of God for your instructions.  God has a plan, and when you vary from God's plan, your feet are going to be caught in one of Satan's six traps, until you are so entangled in Satan's web of 6-6-6 that there is no escape.  The lesson to us from the last chapter is that we are not to listen to words that have no truth.  Now Job is going to give his answer to Zophar.

Job  21:2   "Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations."

The more Job and his three friends speak to one another, the more irritated they become with Job.  It is beginning to show up in their speech through these debates.  Not one of these men have listen to what Job has said in trying to understand Job's side of the issue, but instead they have used Job's own words to entrap him.  These debates are of our purpose, and they are delivering a message to each of us today.  Within each chapter there is one specific lesson or moral for us to learn from.  All Job wants these three men to do now is to just sit and listen, and stop speaking.  When you hear me, let that be your consolation of your counseling me.  In other words, just keep quiet.

Job  21:3   "Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on."

Allow me to speak and listen to what I have to say, and then you can go on mocking me.  

Job  21:4   "As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?"

Job is asking them just why they are getting so upset with him, for Job has said nothing against them.  Job is telling them that his complaint is with God.  Job is not seeking advice now from them, but only that they sit and listen to his complaint. 

Job  21:5   "Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth."

To lay your hand upon your mouth is to tell someone to be quiet. 

Job  21:6   "Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh."

Even when I remember the things of the Father, I am afraid.  This is speaking of God's judgment on earthly sin, in reference to Job's earthly body. 

Job  21:7   "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?"

Job's friends have been telling Job that the wicked live in darkness, and God smites them with boils and all sorts of sickness.  To them, this was the way that you distinguish the wicked from the just.  Then with this reasoning they have determined that Job was very wicked, for he was covered from head to toe with boils and stripped of wealth and family. 

Now Job is telling these three that he has some news for you, the wicked are very prosperous.  They live a long life and they are mighty in power.  This is in reference to this earth age of the flesh only, for Satan is the prince of this world age.  When you do his bidding, he will greatly reward you for it.  So Job is now going to show them that the example that they have used to show that he was the wicked one is not true.  Stop and look around you, look at all the wicked ones, and the health and great wealth that they have.  Though many words have been spoken, yet they have all missed the point as to what is really happening.

Satan is the one that has destroyed Job's family and caused these boils to cover him.  They are all pinning the blame on God, and they have missed the facts completely.  This should be the over-riding message that we should learn from this.  If you are looking for a solution to the problem, and all the facts are incorrect, of course there can be no correct solution.  This is exactly what is going on today.  The facts of God's Word has been polished over to where all that is coming forth are words that don't go along with God's Word.   

Job  21:8   "Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes."

The wicked ones around him are well established and their children are also well off.  The wicked ones are well blessed, and it is just as true today as in Job's day.

Job  21:9   "Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them."

They arn't suffering, they don't sit with boils, and have no food on the table.  If you say that what is happening to me is a sign of wickedness, the proof that it is not is in the life of those wicked ones and their houses. 

Job  21:10   "Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf."

Everything that they have turns to "good luck", their cattle bring forth the calves and their flocks multiply greatly.  They are successful in everything that they do. 

Job  21:11   "They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance."

The households of the wicked are happy and joyful from the wickedness that caused them to prosper.  Their children don't have a care in the world as they dance. 

Job  21:12   "They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ."

Job  21:13   "They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave."

Their time is taken up with things of enjoyment and music, and they spend their time enjoying their prosperity.  When they die, their entire life has been full of enjoyment and when they die they go to the grave just like the righteous man.  However, look at me, look at what God has done to me.  Job still hasn't figured out that it is not God doing this to him.  It is to bad that Job could not have understand that this prosperity is only common to the age of the flesh, which is a very short time.  It appeared to Job that the wicked were favored by God as he sat covered in boils and destitute.

Job  21:14   "Therefore they say unto God, `Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways.' "

This is what the wicked say to God, "we do not want your religion."  They take pride in telling others that they are non-religious people and that they simply don't believe in God.  Look around you in the world today and see the attitudes of the wicked ones.  God is being weeded out of the lives of our people and it is starting from the earliest school aged children.  They are being taught that it is wrong to pray, for it give an unequal advantage to those that do.  Even those that claim to be religious are still ignorant of the most simplest teachings of God's Word.   

Job  21:15   "What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?  and what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?"

It is not obvious in this world age of the rewards to be given in the world age to come.  There is great scorn in this as Job is presenting it to these three friends.  Prosper means to take short cuts and get the extra buck.  It means to flaunt your pride and show off your wealth.  In most cases prosperity comes from deceiving and theft.  To a person that will not except the Word of God, wickedness is alright if it brings prosperity.   Forget about trying to prove anything to them from the Bible, for they don't believe the Bible, nor do they have any respect for the truths within God's Word.   

Job  21:16   "Lo, there good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

The counsel of the wicked is far from what I am going through.  If I am so wicked, than what of their counsel? 

Job  21:17   "How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in His anger."

Remember that Job is answering Zophar's address to him, and he is even going back to answer Bildad statement in Job 18:5 "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine."  Job is saying here in the seventeenth verse that it is all quite the opposite.  When they live in their wickedness, they are not snuffed out, but blessed with all sorts of joyful activities.  However they do not have the light of light.  At Job's time Jesus Christ had not appeared on earth yet, and the freedom that we have in Christ was not available to them then.  Job is telling them that they are presenting a case that is just the reverse as to what you are saying. 

Job  21:18   "They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away."

This is speaking of the wicked's flesh bodies. 

Job  21:19   "God layeth up his iniquity for his children: He rewardeth him, and he shall know it."

In the Hebrew text, you have to add, "do you say...".  "Do you say that God layeth up his iniquity for his children:..."  Are you saying that the sins of the father are going to be taken out on his children.  God is not going to take out the sins of anyone on their children.  Before it is all over, each person will pay for the sins of themselves only.  If the child continues in father ways, that the child will receive the punishment for what he has done, not for his father.  Even if this continues for many generation. 

Job  21:20   "His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty."

This shall happen, you can count on it.

Job  21:21   "For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst?"

Once a person is dead, how can that dead body enjoy any good home?

Job  21:22   "Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing He judgeth those that are high."

God judges both the wicked and the just.  Is there any one that can teach God anything that will add to his justice?  Job is asking these three, are you taking the place of God, for you have said that I am the wicked and the just are not like me.  Are you greater than God in justice?

Job  21:23   "One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet."

Whether you are wicked or just, rich or poor, when the time comes you die.

Job  21:24   "His breasts are full of milk, and his bones are moistened with marrow."

"Breasts" as used in the Hebrew text is "milk pales".  When one dies his milk pales are full and he is healthy.

Job  21:25   "And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure."

Yet to another he is bitter and starving, down and out.

Job  21:26   "They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them"

When death comes on a person, whether he is rich or poor, healthy or starving, both shall lie in the dust alike.  All of mankind is equal in death, and it doesn't matter what the condition of the person's physical life.  Here is a peak beyond that veil as to what shall take place when we leave our physical bodies behind.  It doesn't matter what happens to this body of the flesh, for it will be nothing by dust of the earth after death.  The thought is that all mankind is alike regarding earthly things following death.     

Job  21:27  "Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me."

Job is telling them that he knows what they are thinking.

J0b  21:28   "For ye say, `Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked' "

I know you are going to ask, where is this tyrant nobleman? where is this wicked man with the big palace? 

Job  21:29    "Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens,"

Job is telling the three to talk to the next traveler that passes by and ask them about the wicked in the big house.  Their story of ruins from ages gone by [token] will be just as what I am telling you.  They have experience and know how it is abroad in the world. 

Job  21:30   "That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath."

The wicked is always taken out and protected just before the house falls in upon them, because the wicked are lucky people.  However they are also reserved to the day of Judgment, for that is the time where all the just rewards will be given to them.    

Job  21:31   "Who shall declare his way to his face? and who shall repay him what he hath done?"

When the wicked are all powerful and have their own protection and armies, who is going to stand face to face and tell him of his sins? 

Job  21:32   "Yet Shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb."

Ye can have all the power in the world, but when he goes to the grave, he is not going to come out of there under his own power.  When the dead flesh body is placed in the tomb, that is where it stays as it returns to dust. 

Job  21:33   "The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him."

He could have the biggest funeral in town, and every person in town come to see his dead body being laid in the grave, yet in death he will have it sweeter than I am having here in life.

Job  21:34   "How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?"

Job is telling them; you are saying that a wicked man is full of sores and boils as I am, but that does not ring true; for the wicked sin and live their lives in comfort.  When that wicked man dies, he does not go through what I am going through, but is laid to rest in the sweetness of his grave site.  The one point that we should draw from this chapter, is that words, many words can be spoken, yet they are all based on a falsehood.  Though mankind gives all sorts of reasons that sickness and problems come into ones lives, yet when those words are based on a false information and lies, there can be no solution to the problem.