Chapter 24

Job continues his response to Eliphaz.

12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong. [Job 24:12 ESV]

Job spends many verses talking about how the poor are downtrodden by wicked men, yet the wicked men never seem to get what they deserve.  So his argument is first, that he has done nothing to be punished for by God, and that those who actually do deserve punishment don't ever seem to be punished.

2023 - So unfair!  Everyone else was speeding even worse than I am, but the cop stopped me!  I got the ticket and they were all doing worse than me.  How typical is this attitude!

Possible FB post here also...so many in Job.

2021 - This is also a direct refutation of what Eliphaz said.  Eliphaz accused Job of taking advantage of the poor and lots of other horrible things, and implied it was these actions for which Job was being punished.  Job says evil men do such things every day, and never get punished.  Even if there is some truth in what Eliphaz said, it isn't all true, because Job is not an evil man.  His lifestyle is not to oppress the poor.  "Why would God punish me instead of the truly and habitually evil?" seems to be the point Job is making.

2023 - Here:

12 From out of the city the dying groan, and the soul of the wounded cries for help; yet God charges no one with wrong. [Job 24:12 ESV].

Life was never fair, and we seem never to learn that fact, especially in this country.  America is built on pride.  America was built to make it fair.  As if man could ever pull that off.  We were faced with failure from the very start.

This is again the speech of a very discouraged man.  And he asks the questions that we all ask.  How is it that we can look all around and see that the wicked, the evil, the nasty, the downright mean people of the world are often successful.  They abuse the poor and the believing, take advantage of them, steal from them  - legally through the courts and with abusive loans and such - and yet they never seem to get caught or to fall.  Didn't Lenin, Stalin, and Mao die of old age?  After all the horror they brought to millions, they died natural deaths.  How is this right and fair?  If Job can ask the question are we surprised that the question is still being asked today?  And people who ask think they are original thinkers asking the question for the first time.

And it is almost impossible to answer the question.  Because the answer is, "You have no right to ask the question".  That's the real and only true answer.

In 18-20 Job "quotes" the words of his friends who have said over and over that Job's problems are because he has sinned, and that his calamity is the swift and sure justice and retribution of God.  But Job says their "cause and effect" is invalid.  His example is that he himself - without sin in his life - is made to suffer these things, while the evil can be observed in all directions living in the lap of luxury.  The principle DOES NOT bear scrutiny.  I think this is because cause and effect died with the first sin, and will not return until the Millennial reign.

25 If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?" [Job 24:25 ESV]