Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?
Job's friends have hinted for chapter after chapter that his suffering proves he is a fraud. He answers with their own subject — the end of the godless man — and one blunt question: does God listen when disaster catches a pretender?
Job turns the accusation around
A man under attack asks this question, and he aims it back at his accusers. One commentator reads the whole passage as Job's answer to a silenced opponent:
William KellyHe still stands by it that all their imagining was false. He now spoke more solemnly than ever — it was a kind of oath — as God lives, this is true... Now he turns on them; he says, "You are the culprits, not I." ... "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul?" It shows that he hated it deeply — just as much as they did, or more.
The moment when gain is worthless
The cry Job describes is not the prayer of a lifetime. It is the noise a man makes when the account closes and he has nothing left to bargain with:
Samuel RidoutJob now turns to the end of the wicked. What hope has he when God cuts him off and takes away his soul? What shall be the end of the man to whom God says, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you"? Will God hear his cry when it is too late? Or has He not given the solemn warning, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you" (Proverbs 1:26)? Is it too late to call on God when a man has put off today's opportunities for a "more convenient season" — which never comes?
Panic is not repentance
Scripture records a man who did this. Saul asked God for help when everything was lost, and another book of the Bible says he did not ask at all:
The Bible TreasuryLook for a moment at 1 Samuel 28:6: "And when Saul inquired of the Lord." Now compare 1 Chronicles 10:14: "And did not inquire of the Lord." Samuel records the outward act. The Holy Spirit in Chronicles pronounces God's judgment on the inward condition of his soul. The pressure of despair wrung a useless cry out of his heart, but there was no real turning to Him. He never shuts out the most desperate cry from a soul that is truly broken. All help was gone, and in his fear he inquires of the Lord whom he had habitually disobeyed and neglected.
(Older translations use "inquire" in both verses; the ESV has "did not seek guidance from the LORD" in 1 Chronicles 10:14.)
Why the answer is no
God's silence is not a random refusal. It matches the life behind the cry:
William KellyHe was at least as sure as they were that the hope of the hypocrite or profane man must perish when God summons his soul. He was equally sure that God does not hear his cry when the long-delayed trouble falls on him. Such a man neither delights in God at any time nor calls on Him at all times.
Job's own evidence — and its flaw
Job's friends could see the answer with their own eyes. All through his ruin he kept crying to God:
Leslie M. GrantJob's friends had accused him of hypocrisy, but he asks them about the hypocrite's end. Though he gained much in this world, what can he do when God takes away his life?... It is not in the character of such an evil man to truly call on God. Yet it was obvious to Job's friends that Job was crying out to God in his affliction.
But a clear conscience is not the same as seeing yourself in God's presence:
Samuel RidoutHis heart does not condemn him. Looking back over his past life, there is not a day whose record gives ground for reproach... But there is a sound of self-righteousness that does not fit with knowing oneself in the presence of God. Job is not there yet. It is the cry of an honest soul that does not fully see the light.
Summary
- Cry — The cry in this verse arrives only when trouble does. The man had no use for God until disaster forced the words out.
- Gain — Whatever the hypocrite has gained is worth nothing the moment God takes away his soul. Calling on God then can be too late.
- Character — God's silence answers a whole life, not one moment. This man never delighted in God and never called on Him.
- Contrast — Saul's cry was despair, not repentance. God never turns away a truly broken soul.
- Job — His friends could see him crying to God in his misery, and that is the one thing a pretender does not do. Yet his defence still has a self-righteous ring: he has not yet seen himself in God's light.