Job 24

¹ “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days? ² Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. ³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. ⁴ They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves. ⁵ Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children. ⁶ They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man. ⁷ They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. ⁸ They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter. ⁹ (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.) ¹⁰ They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves; ¹¹ among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst. 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. ¹³ “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths. ¹⁴ The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief. ¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he veils his face. ¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light. ¹⁷ For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness. ¹⁸ “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards. ¹⁹ Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned. ²⁰ The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.’ ²¹ “They wrong the barren, childless woman, and do no good to the widow. ²² Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life. ²³ He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways. ²⁴ They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like the heads of grain. ²⁵ If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

On his 2003 American V album, Johnny Cash recorded and made famous his own version of the an old song entitled, “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” Wikipedia says that the song has sold 672,000 copies as of January of 2016. A unique and stark video of Cash’s rendition of the song aided its popularity. The lyrics speak to the human desire for the wicked to be punished and our sense that ultimately they will be.

You can run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down

Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news

My head’s been wet with the midnight dew

I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee

He spoke to me in the voice so sweet

I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet

He called my name and my heart stood still

When he said, “John go do My will!”

Go tell that long tongue liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut ’em down

You can run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand

Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man

But as sure as God made black and white

What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light

You can run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Run on for a long time

Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Sooner or later God’ll cut you down

Go tell that long tongue liar

Go and tell that midnight rider

Tell the rambler, the gambler, the back biter

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down

Tell ’em that God’s gonna cut you down[1]

It is a compelling song and a chilling one, especially as performed by Johnny Cash. Even so, the fact remains that the Job of Job 24 would have questioned the basic premise of the song. He would have asked whether or not it really is true that the wicked ever face judgment, for, to look at the earth anyway, it seems that the wicked avoid it.

In this chapter, Job continues to grapple with the realities of sin, innocence, and the justice of God.

Job expresses frustration that wicked do not appear to receive divine judgment and the poor do not appear to receive divine aid.

Job 24 is a most intriguing chapter. It is, Steven Chase says, “one of the most controversial in Job” because “even those affirming coherent unity and lyrical beauty in the poem disagree radically about its meaning.”[2] There are numerous translation problems and conundrums with this chapter, but we are going to proceed as if the entire chapter consists of Job’s words except for where he is quoting others.

¹ “Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?

Here is a summary statement of Job’s complaint: the wicked do not appear to receive divine judgment and the righteous (depicted as the poor in the words that follow) do not appear to receive divine aid. Next, Job sets up the basic conflict of this chapter: the wicked oppress the poor.

² Some move landmarks; they seize flocks and pasture them. ³ They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. ⁴ They thrust the poor off the road; the poor of the earth all hide themselves.

Robert Alden has pointed out that the crime of moving landmarks and the crime of seizing another’s flocks are possibly interconnected, for “by moving the boundaries while the flock grazed near the border, the thief thus brought them over to his side of the line.”[3] The poor receive the animosity of the powerful and are driven “off the road” and must “hide themselves.” Job next launches into one of the more powerful and disturbing depictions of the life of the poor.

⁵ Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert the poor go out to their toil, seeking game; the wasteland yields food for their children. ⁶ They gather their fodder in the field, and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man. ⁷ They lie all night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. ⁸ They are wet with the rain of the mountains and cling to the rock for lack of shelter. ⁹ (There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast, and they take a pledge against the poor.) ¹⁰ They go about naked, without clothing; hungry, they carry the sheaves; ¹¹ among the olive rows of the wicked they make oil; they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

The imagery is unsettling and effective. Consider:

• The poor are like “wild donkeys in the desert” scavenging for food.
• The poor feed their children from the scraps of the wasteland.
• The poor are the slaves of the wicked, gleaning their vineyards.
• The poor are naked.
• The poor are cold.
• The poor are “wet with the rain of the mountains.”
• The poor desperately cling to cold rocks in a futile attempt to get warm.
• The poor lose their children to the wicked who take them.
• The poor are hungry yet labor and oil.
• The poor are surrounded by food but cannot eat it.

When I was a student at the University of South Carolina I was first introduced to Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I remember feeling righteous indignation at the scene in which the Okies and other poor workers were forced to watch as the excess produce from the massive farm on which they worked was poured out in the road and doused with fuel to make it inedible.

I felt then what I feel now hearing Job’s description: sheer outrage.

The mighty and the wicked oppress the poor and the weak! So it was. So it is. “And so,” Job seems to be asking, “will it ever be?” This is the question. It is the question because of what Job says next: the wicked do not seem to receive judgment.

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. ¹³ “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths. ¹⁴ The murderer rises before it is light, that he may kill the poor and needy, and in the night he is like a thief. ¹⁵ The eye of the adulterer also waits for the twilight, saying, ‘No eye will see me’; and he veils his face. ¹⁶ In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves up; they do not know the light. ¹⁷ For deep darkness is morning to all of them; for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

“Yet God charges no one with wrong.”

There is the crux of the matter for Job: God’s silence, God’s indifference, and God’s seeming absence.

Job’s description of the wicked is no less unsettling than his description of the poor.

• They get away with their crimes.
• They operate in the light, killing and stealing and committing adultery.
• They think they are unseen and will never have to answer for their crimes.
• They are ignorant of the light and the truth.
• They dwell in darkness “for deep darkness is morning to all of them.”
• They like “the terrors of the deep darkness.”

It is not terribly clear what is happening in verse 18-20.

¹⁸ “You say, ‘Swift are they on the face of the waters; their portion is cursed in the land; no treader turns toward their vineyards. ¹⁹ Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters; so does Sheol those who have sinned. ²⁰ The womb forgets them; the worm finds them sweet; they are no longer remembered, so wickedness is broken like a tree.’

The English Standard Version and others depicts this as Job quoting his friends: “You say…” If that is the case, then Job is pointing out that his friends think that justice befalls the wicked. This would be in keeping with their overall advancement of the theory of retributive justice. If, however, this is Job saying it, then it means that Job feels within himself the tension of two ideas: (1) that the wicked do not get punished and (2) that ultimately the wicked will be punished. If Job is quoting his friends then he is doing so to refute their idea that the wicked ultimately will be punished. Again, this is not terribly clear. Regardless, however, Job is struggling with the idea of justice and the need for the wicked to receive punishment.

In a similar way, there is confusion over what exactly is happening in verses 21 and following.

²¹ “They wrong the barren, childless woman, and do no good to the widow. ²² Yet God prolongs the life of the mighty by his power; they rise up when they despair of life. ²³ He gives them security, and they are supported, and his eyes are upon their ways. ²⁴ They are exalted a little while, and then are gone; they are brought low and gathered up like all others; they are cut off like the heads of grain. ²⁵ If it is not so, who will prove me a liar and show that there is nothing in what I say?”

Again, this can be read to mean that Job believes the wicked, in a sense, get away with it or it can be read to mean that Job is saying they ultimately will face judgment just like everybody else. Or is Job simply saying that the wicked get away with it then die like everybody else?

Verse 25 would seem clearly to be putting Job at odds with the alleged wisdom of his friends, and this would tend to suggest that he is speaking against their theory of neat and simple justice. Even so, Job has shown a fluidity and disjunction of thought in the midst of his pain before, and that may be happening here.

What does seem to be clear is this: Job objects to the notion that the good are blessed and the wicked are cursed on this side of death. In this, Job is correct. Sometimes justice comes on this side of death, but not always. However, justice always comes after death.

There is some truth in Job’s point as it pertains to this side of death, but Jesus has made it clear that Job’s point is not true on the other side of death.

Jesus made it abundantly clear that none of us “get away with it” in any ultimate sense. There will, one day, be a balancing of the books. For instance, in Matthew 13 we read:

⁴⁷ “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. ⁴⁸ When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. ⁴⁹ So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰ and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

There is a very important phrase in there: “at the end of the age.”

At the end of the age justice will come. And, when it does, “the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Justice will be served.

Steven Lawson tells a powerfully little story that well illustrates the coming of judgment and justice.

            An arrogant, irreligious farmer had developed a strong disdain for the religious faith of many people in his community. Most of the farmers there were godly men who gathered to worship the Lord on Sunday instead of working the fields. But this farmer chose to plow on Sundays, often saying, “Hands that work are better than hands that pray.” Part of his land bordered the church, and he would make a point of driving his tractor by during worship services. Weary of hearing how God had “blessed” so many of the other farmers, he decided to make a statement about his own abilities without God. He plowed, fertilized, and cultivated his field, all without God’s help – or so he believed.

            When October’s harvest came, this farmer had the finest crop in the county. When the bumper harvest was complete, he submitted a lengthy letter to the editor of the local paper, attempting to belittle the farmers who believed their harvests resulted from God’s blessings: “Sir, I have been trying an experiment with a field of mine. I plowed it on Sunday, planted it on Sunday, cultivated it on Sunday, harvested it on Sunday, even carted the crop home to the barn on Sunday. Now, Mr. Editor, what was the result? Well, this October I got more bushels to the acre from that field than any of my Sabbath-keeping neighbors got from theirs. Where is their God?”

            He expected enthusiastic support from the editor, a man also not known for his religious beliefs. But when his letter appeared in the local paper, the editor added this pithy comment: “God does not settle all his accounts in October.”[4]

Ah! “God does not settle all his accounts in October.” True enough. Meaning, “…but some day he will.”

The wicked will not forever get away with it. The powerful will not forever benefit from scales unjustly weighed in their favor. The wealthy will not forever be able to buy their way out of it. The kings of the earth will be brought low and the lowly of the earth, in Christ, will be made kings.

There will be a reckoning. There will be justice.

But here we as followers of Jesus must pause and step back from our clamoring for justice. May I remind us that we who are born again are so because the Lord God in Heaven sent His Son to pay a price for us. Even for us, there must be justice, but on the cross Christ took the punishment justly deserved by us onto and into Himself! The justice of God fell on His Son at Calvary and we in turn are offered grace! Grace! Mercy! Forgiveness!

So be careful your desire for justice. To be sure, there is a right and righteous anger we should have at the injustice we see in the world, at the oppression of the weak and the poor, at the unfairness of a system that protects the strong and crushes the lowly. It is right to call for justice! Even so, we should call upon the wicked to come to Christ and be saved, to come to Christ and receive the very same grace that we have likewise received!

Let us call for justice, but let us call for the justice of the cross to be embraced by all: Christ took our punishment and gave us His love. Let us call upon and pray for the wicked to come to the cross, to come the empty tomb, to come to Jesus and be saved!

 

[1] https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/johnnycash/godsgonnacutyoudown.html

[2] Steven Chase, Job. Belief. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), p.183.

[3] Robert A. Alden, Job. The New American Commentary. Vol. 11 (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishing Group, 1993), p.245-246.

[4] Steven J. Lawson, Job. Holman Old Testament Commentary. Vo.10 (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2004), p.210.