Job

Job Chapter 24

Job continues to speak:

• Job 24:1  Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? 

God knows all things that is done by man, good or evil. Yet, we are not always aware of it. We do not know why God seems not to judge the wicked but allow them to continue on.
It may seem that way at times but in light of eternity they will stand before God condemned if they do not repent and change in this life. My speculation is that perhaps He waits because He knows in eternity they will suffer pain forever so how they live here and now is temporary and He just gives more time here. We just don't know all the answers about this unless God reveals it to us.

I did see a movie based on a true story about a man and wife that decided to hold a bunch of school children and their teachers hostage to extract money from the government. The man strapped a bomb on himself and threatened to set it off while his wife gathered everyone in the room. In the end he put his wife on the bomb while he took care of something else. She accidently moved the wrong way and set off the bomb. Miraculously the teachers got the children safely out but the man and wife died in the blast. So in their case judgment was swift. Later the kids said they saw angels surrounding them. Some resembled their relatives that had died years previously. I don't know if that part was true but something was in that room that kept the children from being hurt. Everyone of them got out safely.

• Job 24:2  Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. 
• 3  They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge. 
• 4  They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together. 

Until the return of Jesus to set up His righteous kingdom, there will be evil people that have no compassion but think only of themselves as they do evil to gain instead of working for a living. That is why God set up law and order. The system is to be set up to protect the innocent and keep law and order fair. Law and order is necessary and ordained by God. When someone in authority becomes corrupt then the innocent suffer. Good leaders are a real blessing. I personally love good cops that do the job they are trained to do and are not just out to throw their weight around unfairly. A good working system that sees a crime and then investigates to find the criminal is the way things should be. When they just go after a person they don't like or that opposes their political agenda, and looks for a crime that they can prosecute, that is when the system becomes corrupt. We see that a lot when politics are involved.

Removing landmarks is stealing land that was oringinally settled by those that buy the land or those that oringinally settled on the land in the past. It was forbidden by the law God gave to Moses for Israel.

• Deuteronomy 19:14  Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it. 

When the original owners worked hard to clear the land, plant crops, build houses and provide for their families, it is evil to go in and just take it away from them. God sometimes allows that when those that dwell on the earth become unjust and evil themselves to the point where they harm innocent people especially children, but to take land away unfairly because of greed and selfishness is not pleasing to our Lord. Over taxing property by governments is not right either. They can take their land away if they can't pay back taxes.  WRONG

• Job 24:5  Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. 
• 6  They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. 
• 7  They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. 
• 8  They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. 
• 9  They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor. 
• 10  They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;

People that rob and steal cause much suffering and hardships to those that they steal from. They have no compassion on the children or people they steal from that sometimes leave them without clothing, food and basic human needs. This probably is what happens to thieves some time in the future when God sends judgment. We reap what we sow. This is actually what Job's visitors assumed about him. They don't see Job as innocent but reaping what he sowed. In his case they were wrong but sometimes that does happen and sometimes it seems like the wicked get away with things because we don't see their end. Yet in all things God sees everything and in Him we must trust.

• Job 24:11  Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst. 

The innocent are made to work without pay to provide oil for light and wine to drink but are not allowed to drink themselves and they suffer thirst.

• Job 24:12  Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them. 
• 13  They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof. 
• 14  The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. 
• 15  The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. 

Much crime is done at night hoping they will get by with it. To some it may seem as if God is silent but He sees it all and will bring about judgment in His timing. Yet these people never are satisfied or happy. They do not get to enjoy what they steal. The adulterer never enjoys living the way they live. If they seem to be happy it's only temporary. They are never satisfied. Unless that turn to God they will eventually die in misery.

• Job 24:16  In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. 
• 17  For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. 

They fear the morning when the light will reveal who they are and what they have done. That is why fear will often strike someone when they see a policeman. They know they have done something wrong so even if the police are unaware just seeing one of them will cause fear to surface in them. People know when they do evil.

• Job 24:18  He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards. 
• 19  Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned. 

This grave is the place of the soul, not where the body is buried. Hell or Hades the place of the dead. A bad place to be if one is evil and has not repented or changed. This is their final end.

• Job 24:20  The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree. 
• 21  He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. 

A woman that can't have children was once considered to be unhappy. People would make her feel like a failure in life. Children were considered a blessing. That has changed in the world of abortion and not respecting the life of a little child as much as they use to. I'm talking of modern history, not of primitive times when little babies were sacrificed to idols in ignorance when they worshipped false gods.

• Job 24:22  He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. 
• 23  Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways. 
• 24  They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. 

Job is describing death as it seems to most people. The end of all things with no hope. We know now and I believe Job knew that there is life after physical death, there is a hope beyond the grave. There is life everlasting. Right now though he has his ups and downs as his body suffers pain and his soul is grieved by his well meaning visitors that he once thought was his friends. DC

• Job 24:25  And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?

Job Chapter 25