Job 21:7 - Meaning and Application

Job’s three friends had spent a lot of time describing the misery of wicked people in this world. Job answers that it is true that God sometimes brings striking judgments on notorious sinners, but not always. In fact, there are many cases where people who are openly wicked keep prospering for a long time, even though their prosperity hardens them further in sin.

He first describes their prosperity in its height and full extent. If what his friends say is true, then, as he puts it, why do the wicked live? Job 21:7. The fact is plain, because we see it every day. They live on and are not suddenly cut off by God’s punishment. Those who speak against heaven are still alive, and those who raise their hands against God still act freely. They do not merely survive, they live in comfort, as in 1 Samuel 25:6.

They also grow old. They get the honor, ease, and advantage of a long life, long enough to build up families and wealth. Scripture even speaks of a sinner who is a hundred years old, Isaiah 65:20. And that is not all. They become powerful, rise to places of authority and trust, and do not just look important, they also exercise real influence. It is worth asking why wicked people often enjoy this outward success.

It is not because God has abandoned the earth, cannot see their sin, hates it less, or lacks power to punish it. It is because their measure of guilt is not yet full. This is the time of God’s patience, and he uses even their prosperity to carry out his purposes while it prepares them for judgment. The main reason is that God will make clear there is another world, a world of reward and justice, and that this world is not the final place of retribution.

Job then describes this prosperity as complete and settled. Their children multiply, and they have the joy of seeing their family established in front of them, Job 21:8. That is placed first because it brings both delight and a hopeful future. They are also at ease and calm, Job 21:9. Zophar had spoken of constant terror among the wicked, but Job says their homes are safe from danger and from fear of danger. They are so untouched by God’s sharp judgments that they do not even feel the sting of his lesser discipline.

They are also rich and successful in their property. Job gives one example, Job 21:10. Their cattle increase, and they meet with no loss in them. Not even a cow loses her calf, so their wealth keeps growing. This kind of blessing was promised in Exodus 23:26 and Deuteronomy 7:14. They are also cheerful and enjoy life, Job 21:11, Job 21:12. They send their children out among the neighbors like a flock, in large numbers, to play. They hold feasts and music gatherings where the children dance. Dancing suits children, since they do not yet know better ways to spend their time, and their innocence protects them from much of the harm that often comes with such pleasures.

The parents may not be young enough to dance themselves, but they take up the tambourine and harp. They play music, and their children dance to it. They know no grief that could sour their joy or silence their instruments. Some have also seen this as a sign of vanity, not only prosperity. There is no sign here of the kind of care Abraham showed for his household, teaching them the way of the Lord, Genesis 18:19. These children are not shown praying or learning God’s ways, but dancing, singing, and rejoicing to music. Worldly pleasure is the main delight of sinful people, and people usually raise their children in the same way they live themselves.

This prosperity also continues without interruption, Job 21:13. They spend all their days in wealth and never know want. They live in joy and never know sorrow. In the end, without warning and without pain, they go down to the grave. There are no bands in their death, no long suffering, no drawn-out struggle. If there were no life after this one, a quick death would seem the best way to die. If the grave were the end of the road, we would rather swallow the bitter pill at once than chew it slowly.

Job then shows how they abuse their prosperity and become more hardened in godlessness, Job 21:14, Job 21:15. Their gold and silver make them more stubborn, more arrogant, and more shameless in evil. He mentions this to show how strange it is that such wicked people still prosper, especially when they openly challenge God himself and tell him to his face that they care nothing for him. Their prosperity continues even while they use it as a weapon against God. Or he may mention it to lessen the difficulty, since God allows them to prosper, but that very prosperity destroys them by hardening them in sin, Proverbs 1:32; Psalm 73:7-9.

Job shows how lightly these successful sinners treat God and religion, as if having enough of this world means they need nothing more. They reject God and cast off thoughts of him. They dread God’s presence and say to him, “Leave us alone. We do not want to be troubled by the thought that we are under his eye, or restrained by the fear of him.” They act as if they do not need him at all. The world is the portion they have chosen, and while they have it, they think they can live without God. Those who tell God to depart will one day hear him say it to them, Matthew 25:41, and he now takes them at their word.

They also do not want to know God’s will or their duty to him. “We do not want to know your ways,” they say. People who are determined not to walk in God’s ways often avoid learning them, because that knowledge keeps accusing them of disobedience, John 3:19. They also argue against God and religion, Job 21:15: “What is the Almighty?” It is shocking that human beings could speak so proudly, and even more shocking that thinking creatures could speak so foolishly. The two great ties that hold us to religion are duty and self-interest, and here they try to break both.

They refuse to believe that it is their duty to be religious. They ask, “What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?” This sounds like Pharaoh in Egypt, who said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice?” (Exodus 5:2). Notice how lightly they speak of God. “What is the Almighty?” they say, as if he were nothing more than a name, or someone they do not need to think about.

They also speak badly of religion. They call it a “service,” and they mean a hard, tiring service. They think it is enough to keep some outward peace with God. They do not want to serve him, because they see that as work and burden. They also speak too highly of themselves: “That we should serve him.” They are rich and powerful, so they think they should not have to be answerable to anyone. They act as if they are masters and not subjects (Jeremiah 2:31).

They also refuse to believe that religion is in their own interest. “What profit shall we have if we pray to him?” they ask. Many people only care about what they can gain, so they ignore wisdom’s true riches because they think it brings no reward. They say, “It is vain to serve God” (Malachi 3:13-14). Prayer, in their minds, will not pay debts or provide dowries for their children. They may even think serious godliness could hurt their chances for advancement and bring losses.

But is nothing worth calling gain except money and public honor? If we gain God’s favor and receive spiritual and lasting blessings, we have no reason to complain that religion has cost us too much. If prayer brings us no benefit, the fault is our own (Isaiah 58:3-4), because we ask with wrong motives (James 4:3). Religion itself is not empty. If it seems empty to us, we should blame ourselves for staying on the outside of it (James 1:26).

Then Job shows how foolish this attitude is, and he separates himself from it completely. “Their good is not in their hand,” that is, they did not get their wealth without God, so they are ungrateful to despise him. It was not their own strength or power that earned their riches, so they should remember the God who gave them. And they cannot keep what they have without God, so it is foolish to throw away their friendship with him and tell him to leave them.

Some understand the words this way: their good is stored in barns and bags, hoarded up, and not in their hand to do good with. If that is all they do with it, then what good does it do them? So Job says, “The counsel of the wicked is far from me.” He means, “Far be it from me to think like them, speak like them, act like them, or take my guidance from them.” Their children may approve their words, even while their way is foolish (Psalm 49:13). But Job knows better than to walk in their counsel.