The Atheist's Complaint in a Believer's Mouth Text: Job 21:7-16
Introduction: The Vending Machine Theologians
We live in an age that desperately wants reality to be neat, tidy, and transactional. This is true of the secularist, who believes if he just gets the inputs right, education, legislation, technology, he can produce a utopian output. And it is tragically true of many Christians, who treat God like a cosmic vending machine. If I insert enough quarters of piety, prayer, and good behavior, God is obligated to dispense the blessings of health, wealth, and happiness. When the candy bar doesn't drop, our first assumption is that the machine is broken, or that we used the wrong coins.
This was precisely the problem of Job's friends. They were the original vending machine theologians. Their system was simple: God is just, therefore the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. Since Job was suffering horrifically, the conclusion was inescapable. Job must be a secret, unrepentant sinner. They had a tidy syllogism, and they were willing to beat Job senseless with it. They were defending God, you see. But the God they were defending was a small, predictable idol, a God who fit neatly inside their theological box. The real God, the one who speaks from the whirlwind, is not so easily managed.
In this chapter, Job answers them. And his answer is a frontal assault on their entire system. He does not argue theology with them; he simply holds up the mirror of reality. He forces them to look at the world as it actually is, not as their tidy theories say it ought to be. Job's speech here is raw, it is honest, and it is profoundly unsettling, because it sounds for all the world like the complaint of an unbeliever. He is making the case that the wicked, far from being punished, are often the ones who are living high on the hog. And in doing this, Job is not abandoning his faith. He is demonstrating a faith that is robust enough to wrestle with the facts on the ground, a faith that refuses to sing hymns to a theological system when the observable evidence is screaming a different tune.
This passage is a bucket of cold water in the face of all simplistic piety. It forces us to ask what we really believe. Do we believe in the God of the Bible, the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth whose ways are not our ways? Or do we believe in the tidy god of the transactional formula, the god of the health and wealth pulpiteers, the god of Job's miserable counselors?
The Text
Why do the wicked still live,
Continue on, also become very powerful?
Their seed is established with them in their presence,
And their offspring before their eyes,
Their houses are safe from dread,
And the rod of God is not on them.
His ox mates and does not fail;
His cow calves and does not miscarry.
They send forth their little ones like the flock,
And their children skip about.
They lift up the tambourine and harp
And are glad at the sound of the pipe.
They spend their days in prosperity,
And suddenly they go down to Sheol.
They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways.
Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him,
And what would we profit if we entreat Him?’
Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand;
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
(Job 21:7-16 LSB)
The Uncomfortable Observation (vv. 7-13)
Job begins with a question that has troubled the saints for millennia. It is the same question that almost caused the psalmist Asaph to stumble (Psalm 73).
"Why do the wicked still live, Continue on, also become very powerful?" (Job 21:7)
Job is not asking a theoretical question. He is pointing out the window. Look around, you miserable comforters. Your theory says the wicked get zapped. My eyes tell me they get promoted. They don't just survive; they thrive. They don't just continue on; they become powerful. They are the ones running the corporations, sitting in the seats of government, and shaping the culture. This is an empirical observation. To deny it is to deny reality.
And their success is not a flash in the pan. It is dynastic. It is generational. "Their seed is established with them in their presence, And their offspring before their eyes" (v. 8). They build legacies. They enjoy their children and their grandchildren. Their houses are safe, and the disciplinary "rod of God is not on them" (v. 9). While Job, the righteous man, has had his family destroyed and his house blown down, the wicked are secure. Their livestock is fertile and productive (v. 10). Their children are happy and carefree, dancing and playing (vv. 11-12). They live out their lives in "prosperity," and then, after a long and happy life, they die peacefully, going "suddenly" or peacefully "down to Sheol" (v. 13). There is no long, lingering judgment, no dramatic, cautionary tale for everyone to see. They live well and die easy.
This is Job's case. It is a brutal, photo-realistic portrait of the world as we often experience it. And we must have a theology that is big enough to handle this reality. If your faith requires you to deny what your eyes can see, then your faith is not in the God who created your eyes. Job's friends had a system that was clean and simple, but it was also false. Job's description of the world is messy and complicated, but it has the virtue of being true. This is the same observation Asaph made: "For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pains in their death, and their body is fat" (Psalm 73:3-4).
This is not a denial of God's justice. It is a challenge to the timing and methods of God's justice. Job is saying that God's accounting is not done on our schedule, using our preferred currency. God is playing a much longer game.
The Wicked Man's Creed (vv. 14-15)
Job does not merely describe the actions of the wicked; he gets inside their heads and articulates their worldview. He gives us their defiant creed.
"They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, And what would we profit if we entreat Him?’" (Job 21:14-15 LSB)
Here is the heart of wickedness. It is not merely a matter of breaking the rules. It is a fundamental rebellion against the Ruler. Their prosperity has not led them to gratitude; it has led them to arrogance. They have concluded that they are self-made men, and they want nothing to do with the God who gave them the breath in their lungs and the very ground they build their empires on.
Notice the three-fold nature of their rebellion. First, it is a rejection of God's presence: 'Depart from us!' This is the practical atheism that governs our modern world. It isn't a philosophical denial of God's existence so much as a settled determination to live as if He doesn't exist. They want God out of their schools, out of their government, out of their businesses, and out of their bedrooms.
Second, it is a rejection of God's revelation: 'We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways.' They do not want to be told what to do. They want to be their own lawgivers, their own source of morality. This is the essence of the sin in the Garden: "you will be like God, knowing good and evil." They want to define reality for themselves. To desire the knowledge of God's ways is to admit that you are a creature, and that is the one thing their pride will not allow.
Third, it is a rejection of God's authority based on a pragmatic, cost-benefit analysis: 'Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, And what would we profit if we entreat Him?' This is the ultimate utilitarian blasphemy. They look at their lives of prosperity, obtained entirely without reference to God, and conclude that serving Him is a bad deal. "What's in it for me?" they ask. They see no profit in piety. They are doing just fine on their own, thank you very much. Their balance sheet shows that rebellion is profitable. And from a purely worldly perspective, Job has just demonstrated that they are right.
Job's Standpoint (v. 16)
After this devastatingly accurate portrayal of the prosperous wicked and their godless philosophy, Job makes a crucial clarification. He states his own position, distancing himself from the men he has just described.
"Behold, their prosperity is not in their hand; The counsel of the wicked is far from me." (Job 21:16 LSB)
This is the pivot of the whole speech. Job may be describing the world from the atheist's point of view, but he is not adopting it. He is saying two critical things here. First, he affirms the sovereignty of God. "Their prosperity is not in their hand." They may think they are self-made men. They may attribute their success to their own skill and cunning. But they are deluded. They did not get their wealth by their own power. God gave it to them. The same God who took Job's prosperity away is the one who grants prosperity to the wicked. This is a profound statement of faith in the face of apparent injustice. Job understands the Creator/creature distinction. God is the potter, and He has the right to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor. He can raise up Pharaoh in order to demonstrate His power. He can give wealth to a godless man for His own sovereign purposes, which are far beyond our pay grade.
Second, Job affirms his own allegiance. "The counsel of the wicked is far from me." Even though it looks like their way is the winning way, Job wants no part of it. He is not tempted to join them. He is not saying, "Look how well they are doing, maybe I should try their approach." No. He is repulsed by their counsel, by their worldview, by their defiant creed. He would rather sit on an ash heap in fellowship with God than sit on a throne in rebellion against Him.
This is where Job's faith shines. It is a faith that does not depend on circumstances. His friends' faith was a mile wide and an inch deep; it worked only as long as God kept up His end of the transactional bargain. Job's faith is being forged in the fire. He is learning to trust God not for what He gives, but for who He is. He sees the apparent success of evil, he feels the apparent injustice of his own situation, and yet he clings to the two foundational pillars of sanity: God is sovereign, and I will not walk in the counsel of the wicked.
The View from the Sanctuary
So what is the answer to Job's agonizing question? The book of Job does not give us a neat, philosophical answer. God never explains the "why." When He finally speaks, He answers Job's challenge to His justice by overwhelming him with His majesty. He gives Job a tour of His creation, reminding him that the God who runs the universe is perfectly capable of running Job's life without Job's supervision.
But the rest of Scripture fills in the picture. Asaph, tormented by the same problem, found his answer when he went into the sanctuary of God. It was there that he "understood their end" (Psalm 73:17). He realized their prosperity was temporary and their foundation was slippery. "Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction" (Psalm 73:18). The wicked are like fattened turkeys in October, congratulating themselves on their good fortune, oblivious to what November brings.
Their life of prosperity followed by a sudden, peaceful death is not the end of the story. It is the preface. For the believer, death is a doorway into the presence of the Lord. For the unrepentant wicked, it is a trapdoor into judgment. They spend their days in prosperity, and then they spend eternity in torment. Their short-term profit results in an eternal loss. As Jesus asked, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
The ultimate answer to the prosperity of the wicked is the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, the world's injustice was put on full display. There, the only truly righteous man who ever lived suffered the most agonizing and unjust death imaginable. God the Father placed His rod not on the wicked, but on His own beloved Son. On the cross, it looked for all the world like wickedness had triumphed. The powerful were secure, and the righteous one was crushed. If the story ended on Friday, Job's complaint would be the final word on the nature of reality.
But the story did not end on Friday. On the third day, the righteous one was vindicated in the resurrection. God overturned the verdict of the wicked and demonstrated that His justice, though it may seem slow, is absolute and final. The cross and resurrection guarantee that there will be a final accounting. Every act of rebellion will be judged, and every act of faith, even faith that cries out from an ash heap, will be rewarded. Because of Christ, we know that the counsel of the wicked, no matter how prosperous it appears, leads to ruin. And the path of suffering, when walked in faith, leads to glory. Job declared that the counsel of the wicked was far from him. May it be far from us as well.