that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
Job's friends argued that what a man gets now shows what he is. Job points to wicked men who die old and rich, and asks when their reckoning comes.
The Theory Job Is Answering
Job's three friends worked from one rule: God settles every account in this life. One writer states their position plainly, then answers it.
William KellyZophar keeps up this idea. There is a righteous God above, there are unrighteous, wicked people below, and God always deals with these wicked people now. That was not true. God has always allowed a large part of the world to seem to prosper in their evil. The reason is that the time of judgment has not yet come.
Job does not deny that God sometimes strikes the wicked down. He denies that it happens now as a rule.
Samuel RidoutThe 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 it seldom happens in the present life. God reserves it for the "judgment."
Spared Now, Brought Out Later
The verse has two halves: God holds the wicked man back from calamity now, and leads him out to wrath later. One writer shows why the key word matters.
Leslie M. GrantThen Job speaks of what his friends had entirely missed, that is, the judgment of the future. "For the wicked are spared for the day of doom" (v. 30). "Spared" is the proper translation here. It shows that God now spares them trouble because of a later "day of doom." He allows them to hide from punishment now, but He will bring them out in the day of His wrath.
Job is not guessing. He points to what any traveller could confirm. The writer below quotes an older translation, which reads "reserved" for "spared" and "brought forth to the day of wrath" for "rescued in the day of wrath."
William Kelly"Have you not asked those who go by the way? and do you not know their signs, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction?" That is the reason why they flourish now. He grasped this great moral truth in an admirable way. "They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." Not a question of now! These friends were all looking at the present time as enough proof of what God thought about men. In their view, if He thinks we are walking well, we are flourishing. And if we come into trouble, it is because we are bad people. That was their theory, an utterly wrong and corrupt theory.
The Danger of Getting Away With It
If present ease is a sparing, the man who escapes trouble is not safe. One writer shows how ordinary this looks.
William KellyA man takes God's name in vain and swears to a downright lie — perhaps about a theft, or any other offence. Now and then, such a man drops down dead after it. Well, that is a very unusual thing. Other people swear the same lie and keep their money. They try to keep their good name too. But all the while they are heaping up wrath against the day of wrath.
Nobody Calls Him to Account — Yet
Job's next question presses the point. On earth, no one is in a position to call such a man to account.
Leslie M. GrantJob then asks, "Who condemns his way to his face? and who repays him for what he has done?" Job's friends were condemning him to his face. But there is only one answer to the two questions he asks. Only God has the right to condemn. Only God will recompense man's sin.
What Suffering Does Not Prove
The lesson runs both ways. If prosperity proves nothing, neither does suffering. That is where the friends went wrong about Job.
Samuel RidoutOne man dies in peace, surrounded by great prosperity. As the psalm says of the wicked, "they have no pangs until death." Another man is cut off in misery. Both alike reach the same end in the grave. Since this is so, it does not suit his friends at all to lay down a fixed rule. They said that judgment in this life was always a sign of sin in the person, and that prosperity was always a sign of righteousness.
Summary
- Spared. The wicked man's ease is not approval. God holds him back from the day of calamity and keeps him for the day of wrath.
- Delayed. What Psalm 1 says of chaff driven by the wind seldom happens in this life. God keeps it for the judgment.
- Deceptive. The friends read present circumstances as God's verdict. They were wrong twice over: about the prosperous wicked, and about suffering Job.
- Accumulating. The man who lies under oath and keeps his money and good name is not escaping. He is storing up wrath for the day of wrath.
- Deferred to God. Nobody on earth repays such a man to his face — only God has the right to condemn, and only God will recompense. So no one should read God's verdict off a man's circumstances.