Job 21:15

This title for God first appears in Genesis 17:1. In seven places the word for God, El, is joined with Shaddai, usually translated The Almighty. Some interpret the name as "Almighty in sustaining resources" (like a mother's breasts for her baby). It occurs 48 times in the Old Testament, and the Book of Job alone claims no less than 31 of them. In that Book one thought stands out above everything else: the Lord is Almighty.

"They say to God, 'Depart from us!'" Job's words are far more solemn and more true than the violent Zophar had painted. "We do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we get if we pray to Him?" They do not say that to man. That is what their conduct says to God.

First, Job here correctly diagnosed the attitude of the natural man to God. He did it about two thousand years before God inspired Paul to write his letter to the Romans. In the first chapter of that letter we read that men knew God, but "did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him"; and again, that "they did not see fit to acknowledge God." This is the tremendous fact that we have to face. Sin has cut man off from God so completely that he has not the least desire for Him. "No one seeks for God," as Romans 3 states.

And it is obvious that if men have to do with God, they will have to serve Him. So, in the second place, they look at the whole matter from the standpoint of profit here on earth. This is just what multitudes do today, when they ask, What is the good of being religious; what do we get out of it? They are only echoing the words we have here: "What profit do we get if we pray to Him?" We know that "godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come" (1 Tim. 4:8). But the world has no eyes to see profit like that.

All their days are in prosperity until the end comes. Yet these very men said to God, "Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of Your ways." Like Pharaoh, they ask what the Almighty is, that they should serve Him, and what profit they get if they pray to Him. Job describes their profane defiance of God, which goes unrebuked for so long. But he is careful to express his hatred of such impiety. All that they have is from God, not by their own hand. As he says, "the counsel of the wicked is far from me" (verse 16). All this is true, and it bears out the teaching of Psalm 73, where someone goes through the same struggle as Job.

Can we imagine that God is indulgent with such an attitude? Certainly not! He shows marvellous patience, but this does not mean indifference. Those who defy God are in far more danger than they realise. Future judgment is infinitely more terrible than Job's few years of suffering. They consider they have no profit in praying to God. Such is the self-centred pride of man! What they want is advantage now. In their ignorance they do not realise that even in this life they may find great profit in depending on God's grace.