Job 24: Job Complains of God’s Indifference to Wickedness

“Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, Why do those who know Him see not His days? Job 24:1

Why are the wicked permitted to prey on the powerless? Oh, eventually the wicked die. But why does God permit them any “rest in a feeling of security,” since “His eyes are on their ways”? (vv. 18-25)

→ God’s judgements are mysterious and delayed.

Job Complains Violence on the Earth

“Times for judgment” (24:1).   This verse is the chapter’s key. Job does not question God’s justice, but only His timing. Eliphaz assumed a knee-jerk God – with sin He reacts immediately. But the NT reminds us, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Personal application. Remain firm in your conviction that God will right every wrong, but in His own time and in His own way.

24  They are exalted for a little while, Then they are gone. They are brought low; They are taken out of the way like all others; They dry out like the heads of grain. 25  “Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar, And make my speech worth nothing?”

[Problems with the approach taken by Job and his friends]

1. The reasoning of Job and his friends were faulty because they lacked sufficient information about God’s motives and actions. We must always remain humble in our claims to “know” or to be “right.” Because human knowledge is incomplete, conclusions reached by reasoning from what we know must always be open to question.
2. “Faith” does not require blind agreement to common ideas about God. Job’s experience forced him to challenge the concept of God held in his day, while Job’s friends rejected any evidence he presented. They felt they were defending God, but really were defending their ideas about God. Job’s honest questioning was later praised by God; the friends’ “blind” faith” required forgiveness (24:7)!
3. Our faith is to be placed in God himself, not in our understanding of him. We are invited to reason. And privileged to trust!