“…God stores-up a man’s punishment…” Job 21:19a
/Continuing in his refute to Eliphaz’s conviction that bad things happen to bad people, Job challenged Eliphaz further with three questions:
“…how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out?” (v.17a) In other words, Job was asking Eliphaz, “When was the last time you witnessed the death of the wicked?” It was an outright challenge to the accusations of his three fiendish friends.
“How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in His anger?” Similarly, Job is requiring evidentiary support to his friends long-held belief (an assertion even Job himself actually believed, as shown in his questions to God; read 6:30; 7:20-21; 9:27-28; 10:13-14).
“How often are they like straw before the wind?” Job presented this question to make a point: his friends would be unable to provide sufficient support for their position – the very basis of their accusations against him.
Once Job’s superior challenge had been made, he presented his three friends with a possible alternative to how God’s punishment worked, and at the same time, Job reflected on how he would deliver appropriate punishment if he were God:
“It is said, ‘God stores-up a man’s punishment for his sons. Let Him repay the man Himself, so that he will know it! Let his own eyes see his destruction; let him drink of the wrath of The Almighty. For what does he care about the family he leaves behind, when his allotted months come to an end?” (vv. 19 – 21)
Job’s argument against his friends was only getting stronger. They were familiar with the precept of God punishing the sons of the wicked to the third and fourth generation (read Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:9; Psalm 79:8, and 109:14). Job was earnest in his efforts to expose his friends to the thin line upon which they stood – a balancing act between political correctness and condemnation; or, at the very least, between a façade of care and the truth of their covetousness over Job’s past success and wealth.
In a way, God did store-up man’s punishment… past, present and future. The sins of humanity were not laid upon the sons of the offenders, but they were laid upon The Son of The Father -Jesus Christ, Who endured the complete wrath of The Almighty against the darkness of sin. Job’s words may very well have been given as another challenge to God for enduring the loss of his children. Job desperately wanted an audience with The Creator.
We can thank God for providing a way of escape from the punishment our sins deserve because that wrath has already been fulfilled through our Savior, Jesus Christ. Think over your life… consider the broad swath of offenses you made against God and humanity. Thank God for his mercy and grace!
Have a blessed day…