Job 17--Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?

Job Continues: Where Then Is My Hope?​
17 “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
    the graveyard is ready for me.
2 Surely there are mockers about me,
    and my eye dwells on their provocation.

3 “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
    who is there who will put up security for me?
4 Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
    therefore you will not let them triumph.
5 He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property--
    the eyes of his children will fail.

6 “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
    and I am one before whom men spit.
7 My eye has grown dim from vexation,
    and all my members are like a shadow.
8 The upright are appalled at this,
    and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
9 Yet the righteous holds to his way,
    and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
10 But you, come on again, all of you,
    and I shall not find a wise man among you.
11 My days are past; my plans are broken off,
    the desires of my heart.
12 They make night into day:
    ‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
13 If I hope for Sheol as my house,
    if I make my bed in darkness,
14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
    and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope?
    Who will see my hope?
16 Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
    Shall we descend together into the dust?”

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Job has now gone on to full on despair and hopelessness.  He has gone from saying that death is near to saying that it is imminent and he is not even sure that his soul will be at peace in death, because all of his enemies will still live and continue to curse his name and speak lies about him long after he is dead.

Job only wants this from his friends--that they will at least stop people from tarnishing Job's name and reputation in death.  Even if they don't understand, that they will not let the wicked triumph, and that they will keep the greedy vultures away from his property.  The thing is though, I think he's talking about what he thinks these friends will do when he's dead and gone.  He thinks they can't wait to divide the spoils of his estate now that he has no living heir (whichever marries his wife would probably take over what was left of the estate, though it is in shambles after the disasters that Job has faced).  It seems Job has come to think very little of these friends.

Job then continues to be vexed by how things that seem to be impossible still happen such as light and darkness existing so close together.  The light should drive out the darkness.  And there seems to be a lack of wisdom, even among those who have had a long life (like his friends)--we know from the Bible that's the natural result of a godless culture--wisdom begins with the fear of the LORD.

Job had been putting some hope in death before, but now he's not even sure that will help because he knows that injustice will still exist and maybe even thrive after his death.  Even in death he may have to deal with those who mock and revile him if his friends end up in Sheol with him and there is a common end for the righteous and the unrighteous, and it weighs heavily on Job's heart that God apparently lets injustice happen in the here and now even though Job knows that God will ultimately judge all mankind in the final judgment.  Is that enough though?  Is that consistent with God's nature and character?

We'll continue to see Job's friends emphasize that "God punishes the wicked" as we continue but Job, like David and many others will say that he sees the righteous suffer and the wicked go unpunished.  This is one of the fundamental questions that we must ask ourselves.  The only answer I can come up with is that if God punished all sin fully and swiftly then none of us would survive.  Adam and Eve would have dropped dead as soon as they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and we would have never experienced or known God's plan of redemption and forgiveness nor of his grace and mercy nor of his patience and kindness that lead us to repentance.  We cannot just focus on one attribute of God at the exclusion of all others.  Likewise we make a mistake when we try to form a God that is so loving and merciful and patient and forgiving that He is unjust and permits all sin to go unpunished or we make God out to be a liar and say that what He promised as the punishment for our sin isn't really so and that we won't spend an eternity in the lake of fire along with the devil and his angels but will simply be annihilated (this is one of the false teachings that is still popular at the time that I'm writing this article).  God will not let the sin go unpunished, but in a way that is both consistent with his justice and mercy, He made a way for His Son, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.

it is for this reason that we will one day be able to enter God's Sabbath rest.  For a while we may still ask "How long Lord will you let the wicked go unpunished?" (See Revelation 6:10)


Revelation 6:9-11
English Standard Version9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

One day all sin will be punished whether on the cross or in the lake of fire, but it will be our choice as to if we wish for God's Son to pay for our sin as only He can or if we will spend an eternity trying to pay for it ourselves and never making any headway (like the man thrown in debtor's prison until he can pay off everything he owes).  You see, even in death, those souls will continue to curse God and continue to sin so there be an infinite amount of sin leading to an infinite confinement in hell because they have chosen to never repent (and God has chosen to never let them repent after death)--"It is appointed to man once to die and after that the judgment."