January 10
Justice and Wisdom
Job chapters 24 to 28 highlight Job’s deepening reflections on God’s justice, the limitations of human understanding, and the necessity of trusting in God’s wisdom.
In Job 24, Job continues his lament on the seemingly delayed judgment of the wicked. He questions why God does not act more visibly in His “times for judgment” (v. 1). Job implies that if God were to reveal His schedule for executing justice, people might feel less perplexed or disheartened by what appears to be divine inaction toward sin.
Job then continues his discourse on the prosperity of the wicked as he describes their crimes. They move boundary stones, pasture flocks they have stolen, drive away the orphan’s donkey, and take the widow’s ox in pledge (v. 2-3). “They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding” (v. 4). Meanwhile, the poor, like wild donkeys in the desert, forage for food; they gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked. They lack clothes, they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold, and they are drenched by mountain rains. The fatherless child is snatched away, and the infant of the poor is seized for a debt (v. 5-9).
But, in all of this, among the groans of the dying and the cries for help, Job says, it appears that “God charges no one with wrongdoing” (v. 12). This disturbed Job because he believed he was suffering for no specific wrongdoing, while others, who sinned openly and deliberately remained unscathed. He later resolves the lament, however, with the conclusion that even if the wicked evade justice in life, they will ultimately face death: “He may let them rest in a feeling of security, but his eyes are on their ways. For a little while, they are exalted, and then they are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like heads of grain” (v. 23-24). From a human perspective, God’s justice may appear delayed, but His ultimate purposes remain perfect.
In Chapter 25, Bildad delivers a brief and final response focusing on God’s majesty (v. 1-3). He emphasizes that no one can be righteous before God and highlights humanity’s relative insignificance (v. 4-6). The majesty of God, in contrast with the insignificance and iniquity of all men, is the theme of this speech. Rather than responding to Job’s concerns about injustice, Bildad simply repeated Eliphaz’s theme that man cannot possibly be righteous or pure. Possibly, this was a last-ditch effort to get Job to see how useless it is for an impure human to try to schedule a court hearing with the majestic God.
Bildad sought to humiliate Job, attempting to awaken him to his own unworthiness. While his perspective lacks compassion, it is true that no one can stand righteous before God apart from His grace. Instead of engaging with Job’s argument, Bildad accuses him of pride for claiming that his suffering is not the result of sin. Once again, he offers half-truths and misrepresents Job’s complaint. Job never claimed to be sinless, only that his sin could not have caused his present suffering. Bildad’s speech is brief and offers no new arguments, underscoring the friends’ diminishing ability to respond meaningfully to Job.
Job then counters in Chapters 26-31. In contrast with the shortest speech in the book (chap. 25), chapters 26-31 comprise the longest. These six chapters weave together pictures of God’s mystery and power in a beautiful poem of trust.
In Chapter 26, Job responds to Bildad’s accusations in a powerful speech emphasizing God’s majesty, wisdom, and power. Job first begins by sarcastically acknowledging that his friend’s theological explanations have offered no relief, implying that their arguments have been shallow and unhelpful (v. 2). He then delivers a majestic description of God’s power and sovereignty, focusing on His control over creation and the forces of nature: Job describes God as the one who holds the earth in place, covers the seas, and created the heavens (v. 7-13). The chapter concludes with Job acknowledging that God’s mysterious actions are ultimately beyond human understanding (v. 14). Job’s speech is a powerful declaration of God’s greatness and serves to remind his friends that God’s ways are far beyond their limited perspective.
In Chapter 27, Job continues his speech and again affirms his innocence. He said that as long as he lived, with God’s breath in him, he would not admit to wrongdoing; he simply could not accept his friends’ viewpoint or deny his integrity, which his wife had urged him to do (2:9). Job declares that his conscience is clear (v. 1-6). Job then shifts to a reflection on the fate of the wicked, noting that their prosperity is fleeting and that God will bring justice in the end (v. 7-23).
Finally, in Chapter 28, Job shifts the focus to wisdom itself, describing its elusive nature. In this chapter, Job affirmed people’s inability to ascertain God’s wisdom fully. Job describes the effort humans put into extracting valuable resources from the earth. He speaks of how people search for precious metals and gems deep underground, using advanced tools and techniques to find wealth (v. 1-11). However, in spite of all the resources available on the earth and man’s advanced technological skills, he cannot find, unaided, the greatest treasure of all: wisdom (v.12-19). The closing section of the chapter makes it clear that only God understands and knows wisdom and how it is acquired. He is the only one before whom both the earth and the heavens are fully revealed because he is the one who created them (v. 23–27).
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