Job 21:34

Job insists that the prosperity of the wicked is somehow not in their own hand but God's, yet he hates their plans and their ways. How often, he asks, does their lamp go out, and destruction break on them, as God chooses to deal it out in His displeasure? It may happen now and then, but not often; it is false to say always... Appearances prove nothing but the haste and folly of those who judge before the time.

Job's friends certainly did not think that Job's end would be with such fanfare, but many of the wicked would end in this way. So Job could rightly ask them, "How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood." They had compared Job to the wicked, but not to the wicked who prospered in the world. They had never even considered that the wicked do prosper.

Job concludes a very complete answer to all the grand speeches of his friends. Their "comforts" are indeed empty, and their replies lack the sincerity that marks a real seeker after truth.

They press the teaching that God's government on earth fully measures and displays His righteousness, and the righteousness in man that would match it. Such a teaching proves total ignorance of what God's righteousness is, and of His ways... Their argument is a false and cold estimate: it treats the exact justice of His government as a full display of His relationship with man. Yet they say many true and ordinary things, which even the Spirit of God accepts as just.

"Have you not asked those who travel the roads? Do you not know their signs, that the wicked is kept for the day of destruction?" That is the reason why they flourish now. He grasped this great truth in a very fine 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 adequate proof of what God thought about men. If He thinks we are walking well, we flourish. If we come into trouble, it is because we are bad people. That was their theory, an utterly wrong and corrupt theory.

We have reached the end of the second round of the debate... his friends have clearly reached the limit of their ability to force a conclusion, though they will make one more effort. On the whole, we may say the debate has moved forward, and the advantage is with Job. But the riddle remains: "Why does God afflict the righteous?" Job has yet to learn the answer — not from men, but from God Himself.

We are told to act as He did Whose mission it was to comfort those who mourn: "Jesus wept." We are to "weep with those who weep", and not to pretend we know too much about the mysterious causes of their suffering. We may be mistaken in our judgments.

They approach the sufferer with an airy cheerfulness, and with pleased smiles tell him that it is all for the best. "This is sent for his good" (imagine a man consoled by the thought that, for instance, his sons are struck down for his good!)... Solomon knew these people and said it was like taking away a garment in winter to sing songs to those who have a heavy heart.