Job to Eliphaz: 4. An answer wanted to a great question'
I. AS IMPORTANT PROPOSITION STATED. That the Almighty does not call wicked men before his tribunal on earth. "Why are not times," i.e. of reckoning or punishment, "reserved," or kept in store, "by the Almighty, and why do they who know him see not his days?" i.e. his doomsdays, or days of judicial visitation on the wicked (verse 1).
1. A caution. The language does not imply either that there should not be, or that there do not exist, such times of reckoning with the ungodly, and indeed with all men. On the contrary, it tacitly assumes that God both ought to have, and in point of fact does have, days of retribution which are appropriately described as "his." That men ought to be judged for their characters and lives, the moral instincts of humanity proclaim; that men will be arraigned before Shaddai's impartial tribunal, is explicitly asserted in Scripture (Job 21:30; Job 34:11; Ecclesiastes 12:14; Psalms 98:9; Daniel 7:10; Matthew 25:32; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 9:27).
2. An explanation. What the language asserts is that such court-days are not kept by the Almighty on earth, or at least that his people do not see them; in other words, that the godlessness of men is permitted to stalk forth on earth unchallenged and unavenged, without let or hindrance, pretty much as if there were no such tribunal in existence. And this fact, which Job so strenuously affirms, in addition to having been observed by Asaph (Psalms 73:5), David (Psalms 1:1-6 :21), the Preacher (Ecclesiastes 8:11), Jeremiah 12:1, Habakkuk 1:15, Habakkuk 1:16, and others, is likewise recognized in Scripture generally as correct.
II. A CONVINCING DEMONSTRATION OFFERED. That the Almighty does not hold a regular assize on earth established by two patent facts.
1. The most execrable wickedness is suffered to rage without either punishment or restraint. The special form of ungodliness depicted is that of ruthless oppression of the helpless and defenceless, exemplified in such crimes as:
2. The most extreme misery is allowed to go unnoticed and unrelieved. In three affecting pictures, according to one view of the poet's meaning, he sketches the calamitous fate of the unhappy victims of those remorseless destroyers. The first (verses 5-8) depicts the melancholy fortunes of the poor of the land (perhaps the aboriginal inhabitants), who being cast forth from their ancient possessions are obliged to "hide themselves together" (verse 4), or to slink away out of sight, disappearing, as inferior races have since done, because unable to stand before the violence of their invaders.
III. AN URGENT QUESTION ASKED. Why does not God call wicked men to account?
1. Not for want of power. Otherwise he would not be Shaddai, the Almighty, the all-powerful and all-sufficient Deity, whose ability to perform his counsel Job has just commented on (Job 23:13).
2. Not for lack of knowledge. Job's atheistical contemporaries supposed that mundane affairs were concealed from the gaze of him who walked upon the circuit of the heavens, and whose feet were wrapped about with clouds (Job 22:13); but Job and his friends alike admitted that times, i.e. at any rate the main events and circumstances of terrestrial history, were not hidden from Shaddai's omniscient glance (verse 1, Authorized Version).
3. Not for want of right. Both parties in the present controversy recognize that such appalling wickedness should not be suffered to go for ever unchallenged and unpunished, that such detestable criminals as above described ought to be arrested and brought before the tribunal of Heaven. Nay, on the theory of the friends, these workers of iniquity ought at once to be called to account. Yet notoriously, says Job, they are not. Hence it can only be:
4. For lack of will. It is not God's intention to hold a circuit court here on earth, and try men for their misdeeds. In other words, the Divine government is not, so far as this world is concerned, as the friends contended, strictly retributive.
Learn:
1. The impunity of sinners on earth is no proof that they shall enjoy like impunity hereafter.
2. That God's people do not now discern his judgment throne is no argument that such a throne does not exist.
3. Little faults are as really sins, and as certain to be punished, as great offences.
4. Criminals who start with stealthy and minute acts of transgression are in danger of proceeding to large as well as open works of wickedness.
5. "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn."
6. Mighty despots may deprive the poor of their estates by either fair means or foul; but God regards the deed as spoliation and robbery.
7. It is a wiser policy to prevent pauperism from being developed in a state than to provide for it after it has been developed.
8. Town and country are much the same in their moral characteristics.
9. It is a mistake to infer from God's silence that he neither sees nor cares for the wickedness and misery of man.