"It Seems..." Job 24:1-25

Does God care?

Sometimes it "seems" that He does not.

From all appearances, it may seem that Deists are correct in their theology. Deists believe that there is a God, but that He keeps Himself more or less aloof from His creation. “Deism pictures God as the great ‘Clockmaker’ who created the clock, wound it up, and let it go…Deism pictures God as ambivalent, uncaring, and uninvolved.” (From www.gotquestions.org/deism.html).

Sometimes it feels like God has wound up the clock of our lives and then faded into the background. God’s “seeming” inactivity may cause us to conclude that we serve a Detached Deity.

24:1 “Why are times not stored up by the Almighty, and why do those who know Him not see His days?”

Francis I. Anderson writes, “The claim of (Job’s) friends, that God regularly enforces justice in the world, is not born out by the facts.”

Translation of verse 1? “Why doesn’t God publish His docket (a list of His court cases against the wicked), and post His schedule of judgments on Facebook? And why doesn’t He send out a cadre of angelic law enforcement personnel to serve subpoenas on all of the criminal sinners in the world? And when will He begin to defend those who have been wrongfully charged?”

The bulk of the chapter is simply an inventory of crimes against the world’s downtrodden. Hartley divides the chapter between civil injustice (verses 2-11) and criminal injustice (verses 12-17). Francis I Anderson states, “What makes the list disturbing is that most of the evils, such as removing a landmark, are things forbidden again and again in the laws that the Lord gave to Israel. Hence the question...’Why doesn't He enforce them?’”

24:2 “Some remove the landmarks; they seize and devour flocks."

The wicked craftily move the property lines – something so abhorrent that Deuteronomy places those that do so under a curse. With brazenness (and seeming impunity), the boundary-movers then pasture the stolen sheep on the stolen property!

24:3 “They drive away the donkeys of the orphans; they take the widow’s ox for a pledge. 4 They push the needy aside from the road; the poor of the land are made to hide themselves altogether. 5 Behold, as wild donkeys in the wilderness they go forth seeking food in their activity, as bread for their children in the desert. 6 They harvest their fodder in the field and glean the vineyard of the wicked. 7 They spend the night naked, without clothing, and have no covering against the cold. 8 They are wet with the mountain rains and hug the rock for want of a shelter. 9 Others snatch the orphan from the breast, and against the poor they take a pledge. 10 They cause the poor to go about naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaves from the hungry. 11 Within the walls they produce oil; they tread wine presses but thirst."

The catalog of wrongs done to society’s less fortunate is quite striking:
Vs 3 Orphans are stripped of their only means of support.
Vs 3 Widows also lose their means of livelihood.
Vs 4a The needy are driven to the back roads.
Vs 4b The poor are under such oppression they need to hide themselves.

The next few verses are how the version of the Bible “The Message” sees the misery of the Unfortunates:
Vs 5 The poor, like stray dogs and cats, scavenge for food in back alleys.
Vs 6 They sort through the garbage of the rich, eke out survival on handouts.
Vs 7 Homeless, they shiver through cold nights on the street; they’ve no place to lay their heads.
Vs 8 Exposed to the weather, wet and frozen, they huddle in makeshift shelters.
Vs 9 Nursing mothers have their babies snatched from them; the infants of the poor are kidnapped and sold.

And the oppressed toil under back-breaking conditions and yet never have enough to make ends meet:
Vs 10 They carry the sheaves -- yet are hungry.
Vs 11 They press out the grapes -- yet are thirsty.

Francis I Anderson states, “At some point the description of the plight of the dispossessed changes to the wretchedness of overworked laborers, exploited with low wages, clad in rags, hungry for the harvest that they gather for the well fed owner.”

Barnes writes in his commentary, “Injury done to an orphan is always regarded as a crime of special magnitude.” God takes special note of the poor, the widow, and the orphan – the “Unfortunates” that are often exploited by the rich and the powerful.

Brutal and miserable working conditions, low wages, inhumane treatment of exploited workers – if God’s laws were formulated to prevent such social oppression, then why doesn’t the God of those laws do something?

We are left with the impression that God has vacated the galaxy. It "seems" that God doesn't care.

Job continues in verse 12, "From the city men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out; Yet God does not pay attention to folly.”

Adam Clarke writes in his commentary, “I (visited) a district in London, to know the real state of the poor. (We) found each dwelling full of people, dirt, and wretchedness. Neither old nor young had the appearance of health: some were sick, and others lying dead, in the same place! Several beds, if they might be called such, on the floor in the same apartment; and, in one single house, sixty souls! These were groaning under various evils; and the soul of the wounded, wounded in spirit, and afflicted in body, cried out to God and man for help! It would have required no subtle investigation to have traced all these miseries to the doors, the hands, the lips, and the hearts, of ruthless landlords or to oppressive systems…”

24:13 “Others have been with those who rebel against the light; they do not want to know its ways Nor abide in its paths. 14 The murderer arises at dawn; He kills the poor and the needy, and at night he is as a thief. 15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, ’No eye will see me.’ And he disguises his face. 16 In the dark they dig into houses, they shut themselves up by day; they do not know the light. 17 For the morning is the same to him as thick darkness, for he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness."

Job moves from an inventory of wrongs done to societies lowest to the activities of the criminals themselves – the murderer, the thief, and the adulterer. In all of their activities, the night is their ally and midnight is their morning. (Verse 16 has an interesting phrase – “In the dark they dig into houses…” It was believed that the demons of the house protected the doorway so the thief would literally dig through the mud wall rather than antagonize a supernatural being.)

Yet God just "seems" to stand by – nothing appears to be rectified, wickedness does not seem to be restrained and wrongs don’t seem to be righted.

Verses 18-24 from The New Living Translation: “But they disappear like foam down a river. Everything they own is cursed, and they are afraid to enter their own vineyards. The grave consumes sinners just as drought and heat consume snow. Their own mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm. They cheat the woman who has no son to help her. They refuse to help the needy widow. God, in his power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life. They may be allowed to live in security, but God is always watching them. And though they are great now, in a moment they will be gone like all others, cut off like heads of grain.”

Job concludes, 24:25 “Now if it is not so, who can prove me a liar, and make my speech worthless?"

Job still trusts God, but he is baffled by His silence. And for all appearances, it seemed that the right would fail and wrong would prevail.

On Christmas Day, 1864, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of America’s best known poets, penned the words to his poem, “I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day.” The words were born out of the devastating circumstances of Longfellow’s life and the terrible cost of the Civil War. His wife had died as the result of a tragic fire in their home, their son was severely wounded in the war, and the end of our nation’s terrible conflict seemed no where in sight. For this beloved poet, it seemed that the right would fail and wrong would prevail. But, as the old Christmas carol states, he concluded otherwise:

"Christmas Bells"
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

As Christians, we reject "Deism." We firmly believe in a God that intensely loves His creation and in a God Who is actively involved in the affairs of this world today. We believe in the God "Whose eye is on the sparrow, and Who watches over me." In just a few chapters and in a dramatic way, Job will find that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep!”
(Lyrics from www.whatsaiththescripture.com)