When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb.
Job's friends said that ruin always exposes a wicked man, so Job points to the opposite: the godless man often dies rich, and his burial is a public honour. So what does a splendid funeral and a guarded tomb prove about God's verdict on a man?
The Theory Job Is Demolishing
One commentator sums up the friends' reasoning, and gives his verdict on it:
William KellyThese friends were all looking at the present time as full proof of what God thought about men. If He thinks we are all walking well, we are flourishing; and if we come into trouble, it is because we are bad people. That was their theory, and it was completely wrong and corrupt.
Another writer points to the wording Job uses, and what an older translation got wrong:
Samuel RidoutHe throws their hints back with a bold question. Have they not learned from observers everywhere that the wicked man is "spared" in the day of calamity (not "reserved," as in our older version), "to the day of destruction"? He is so powerful that no one dares charge him with his sin, or give him the punishment he deserves. Sadly, all of this is far too common in our own day.
The Grave That Flatters Him
Death ends the run of prosperity. Even so, the tomb and the guard over it still serve the dead man's name:
Samuel RidoutFor many ungodly people, only death brings their prosperity to an end. Even at the burial, outward pomp and display go with him as far as they can. He is buried with all the honour that wealth can buy, and a watchman guards the tomb where his body is laid. In this way the very clods of earth on his grave flatter his pride, and his magnificent tomb still declares what a great man he was.
Pomp That Mocks the Dead Man
The crowd behind the coffin is no verdict in his favour:
Leslie M. GrantHis burial may include a vigil and an outward display of great honour. Large numbers may follow his coffin to the grave. But all that pomp and ceremony is only a mockery, since he has "died without mercy."
Another writer takes the point further: nothing arranged at a graveside changes what death is.
C. H. MackintoshMan may try to hide his humiliation in various ways… He may dress the funeral procession and the grave with the look of pomp, pageantry, and glory. He may raise a splendid monument over the crumbling ashes, engraved with the records of human shame. He may do all these things. But death is still death. He cannot hold it off for a moment, or make it anything other than what it is: "the wages of sin."
Judging Before the Time
Job does not say the wicked escape. He says the account is not settled yet:
William KellyThe friends judged too early. They fixed their eyes (blinded, sadly!) on the present, like much of the Christian world, instead of waiting, like Job, for the resurrection and the kingdom… Look at these two men, each with a full cup — one of happiness, the other of misery. Both lie dead together. Appearances prove nothing except the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.
What Comes After the Tomb
Job could not see past the grave. The Lord later gave the picture of a rich man's end:
William KellyBut there is the awful end that awaits them — the awakening, like the rich man… "in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes." That was a solemn thing, but it was the Lord who gave us that picture. Nobody could speak with certainty about it till the Lord came. And this does not describe what will be after the resurrection. This is what happens straight after death… he was a man whom people might think highly respectable, but there was no faith, no repentance, no looking to God.
Summary
- Spared, not acquitted. The wicked man is spared in the day of calamity — held back from trouble now, and kept for a day of destruction later.
- Spared, and flattered. Wealth buys him a guarded tomb and a fine monument, so that even the earth over him still advertises how great he was.
- Spared, and mourned. Crowds follow the coffin. The ceremony is a mockery, because the man has already died without mercy.
- Spared, and misread. His friends judged God's opinion of a man by his present circumstances. Job shows that theory is false: the happy man and the bitter man lie down in the same dust.
- Spared — until the accounting. Appearances only show the haste of those who judge before the time. The real end waits beyond the graveside.