Justice (Job 27)

Though it may not always occur in this life, is justice part of God’s eternal plan? Let’s begin in Job 27.

Does Job now accuse God? Does he maintain that his conscience is clear?

Job said: I am desperate because God All-Powerful refuses to do what is right. As surely as God lives, and while he gives me breath, I will tell only the truth. Until the day I die, I will refuse to do wrong by saying you are right, because each day my conscience agrees that I am innocent. (Job 27:1-6 CEV)

Did Job call his accusers enemies, godless hypocrites, who should suffer the fate they predicted for him?

Let my enemy be as the wicked, and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the godless [hypocrite] when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times? (Job 27:7-10 ESV)

Is Job frustrated with his friends’ vain talk about God?

I will teach you about God’s power. I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned. All of you have seen this for yourselves, why do you keep up this empty talk? (Job 27:11-12 HCSB)

Did Job generally agree that judgment from God would eventually come to the wicked?

This is what a wicked person inherits from God, and what the ruthless will receive from the Almighty: If he has many children, their destiny is to die by the sword, and his descendants won’t have enough food. Those who do survive him disease will bury, and his widow won’t even weep. Though he hoards silver like dust, and stores away garments like clay, whatever he stores up, the righteous will wear, and the innocent will inherit that silver! (Job 27:13-17 ISV)

Though he declares his own innocence, does Job agree with the general idea that the wicked will eventually be punished?

He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh. The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not. Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place. (Job 27:18-23 KJV)

Does God plan the eventual punishment of the self-indulgent rich who have effectively condemned and murdered the righteous man by a greedy lifestyle?

Come now, you rich, cry, howling over your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. You have stored up such treasure in the last days! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields—that which has been withheld by you—cries out against you; and the outcries of those who did the harvesting have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and lived in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous man; he does not resist you. (James 5:1-6 LSB)

Though it may not always occur in this life, is justice part of God’s eternal plan? You decide!