Job 21 Devotional

When the Wicked Thrive

“Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?”Job 21:7 (BSB)

Job asks his friends for one thing: listen (21:2). Then he challenges the heart of their argument. Why do the wicked live long and grow in power (21:7)? Their homes are safe, their herds multiply, their children dance to the lyre, and they go down to the grave in peace (21:8-13). Yet they tell God to leave them alone and see no gain in praying to him (21:14-15).

Job is not praising the wicked. He wants nothing to do with their way of thinking (21:16). He is simply refusing to pretend the world works the way his friends say it does. Their answers, he says, are full of falsehood (21:34). The writer of Psalm 73 wrestled with the same sight until he went into God's sanctuary and understood where the wicked end up (Psalm 73:16-17). God's justice is real, but it is not always visible within one lifetime. Faith does not have to deny what it sees in order to keep trusting what God has said.

To think about: What injustice have you seen that you need to bring honestly to God instead of explaining away?