Job 21:17

Zophar looked only at the particular cases where God deals in judgment with some especially wicked men. And there are such cases every now and then. A man takes God's name in vain and swears to a downright falsehood — perhaps about theft, or some other offence. Now and then such a man drops down dead after it. Well, that is a very unusual thing. Other people swear to it and keep their money, and try to keep their character. But all the while they are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath.

Against Zophar, he reminds him that verse 17 has also been translated "how rarely is the lamp of the wicked put out." How seldom does calamity break in on them, when God scatters "snares" or "lightnings" in His wrath! The psalmist tells us that the ungodly are "like chaff that the wind drives away" (Ps. 1:4). That is true. But Job reminds his hearers that this seldom takes place in the present life; it is kept for the "judgment."

"How often is the lamp of the wicked put out!" Here, as you can see, he acknowledges the other side; and it is no less true that God does not leave Himself without witness. He insists that the present world is no expression of God's moral government. But he acknowledges that a divine blow falls on men in the middle of their apparent prosperity. In a moment their lamp is put out. So he admits there are exceptional dealings.

They urge the doctrine that God's government of the earth is a full measure and display of His righteousness, and of the righteousness of man that would match it. That doctrine proves total ignorance of what God's righteousness is, and of His ways... He shows that God does make His disapproval of the wicked known. Yet the circumstances the wicked are often found in overthrow the arguments of his friends.

This was what Job found so hard to understand — how those who did evil prospered, while the righteous were persecuted. This is just because the time of judgment has not come. The time of mercy is going on now, and we cannot have mercy and judgment at once. So all is a riddle now.

How often, he asks, does their lamp go out, and destruction break on them, as God is pleased to deal out in His displeasure? It may be now and then, hardly often; it is false to say always... Let none then misjudge God's ways, or draw unfounded conclusions from His government at present. Look at these two men, each with a full cup, one of happiness, the other of misery; both lying dead together. Appearances prove nothing but the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.