Commentary - Job 27:7-10

Bird's-eye view

In this section of his continuing discourse, Job, having weathered the theological assaults of his friends, now takes up a prophetic oracle against the wicked. It is crucial to see that Job is not backing down from his central claim of personal integrity. Rather, he is demonstrating that he understands the doctrine of divine retribution better than his accusers do. They have been trying to jam him into the category of the ungodly man who inevitably suffers for his hidden sin. Job turns their own logic back on them, but with a crucial difference. He describes the ultimate emptiness and despair of the wicked man, not as a simple tit-for-tat equation that can be calculated in this life, but as a profound spiritual reality. The core of the passage is a series of rhetorical questions that expose the utter bankruptcy of a life lived apart from genuine fellowship with God. The godless man has no true hope, no access to God in prayer, and no delight in the Almighty. His religion, if he has any, is a fair-weather affair, a foxhole faith that evaporates as soon as the pressure is off. Job, in the midst of his own profound suffering, is defining true faith by what it is not.

This is a magnificent statement on the nature of hypocrisy. The hypocrite's life is a transaction; he tries to use God for his own ends. But when God, the great covenant keeper, calls in the debt of his very soul, the transaction is over. All the props are kicked out. There is no real relationship to fall back on, only the terrifying silence of a God who will not hear the cry of a stranger. Job, though bewildered and in agony, still calls on God. This is the fundamental difference between the afflicted righteous man and the prosperous hypocrite whose life is about to unravel.

Outline

Context In Job

Job 27 comes after a series of cycles of debate between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They have consistently argued from a rigid principle of retribution: God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked, therefore Job's immense suffering must be the result of some great, hidden sin. Job has steadfastly maintained his innocence, not in some absolute sense, but in the sense that he is not guilty of the kind of transgression that would warrant such a calamity. By this point, his friends have largely fallen silent, having exhausted their arguments. Job continues his discourse, and in this chapter, he takes on the character of a wisdom teacher himself. He is not, as some have suggested, quoting his friends' arguments or conceding their points. He is showing them that he affirms the biblical truth that wickedness leads to ruin. His point is that they have misapplied this truth to him. This section, verses 7-10, serves as the thematic core of his description of the wicked man's fate, which he will then elaborate in the remainder of the chapter. It sets up a stark contrast between the inner life of the godless and the inner life of a true, albeit suffering, believer like himself.

Key Issues

The Bankrupt Religion of the Godless

What is the difference between a suffering saint and a successful sinner when the bottom falls out for both? That is the question Job is tackling here. His friends have been operating on a flat, two-dimensional map of reality where suffering is always a direct result of sin. Job knows the world is more textured than that. But he also knows that there is a fundamental, qualitative difference between the man who knows God and the man who merely uses God. The difference is not found in the presence or absence of trouble. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. The difference is found in what a man has when everything else is stripped away.

The godless man, the hypocrite, builds his life on the sand of self-interest. His piety is a performance, a tool to get what he wants. He may look religious, he may even be successful for a season, but his relationship with God is entirely transactional. When God demands his soul, when the crisis hits, he has nothing. His hope is not a true hope anchored in God's character, but a foolish optimism based on his circumstances. His prayers are not the cries of a son to a father, but the panicked screams of a stranger in a burning building. And most tellingly, he has no delight in God. God is a means to an end, not the end itself. This is a searching passage that forces us to examine the very foundation of our own faith.

Verse by Verse Commentary

7 “May my enemy be as the wicked And the one who rises against me as the unjust.

Job begins with what sounds like a harsh imprecation, a curse. In our soft-handed generation, this kind of language makes us uncomfortable. But it is thoroughly biblical. This is not a petty, personal vendetta. Job is aligning his own cause with God's cause. He is saying, in effect, "Let the one who opposes me be treated as God treats the covenant-breaker, the wicked man." He is so confident in his own standing before God that he is willing to say that his enemies, by opposing him, have placed themselves in the category of the wicked. This is a profound statement of faith. He is not just defending his personal reputation; he is defending the justice of God, which his friends have turned into a blunt instrument. He is saying that the fate he is about to describe for the wicked is a just and right fate, and he wishes it upon anyone who would set themselves against a righteous man.

8 For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, When God requires his soul?

Here is the central question. The word for "godless" here is chaneph, which carries the idea of a hypocrite, someone who is polluted or profane, who puts on a religious show. What is his hope? The question is rhetorical, and the answer is nothing. He has no hope. For a time, he may have had a kind of worldly optimism. He hoped for a good harvest, a successful business deal, a long life. But this is not true hope. True hope is anchored in God Himself. The hypocrite's hope is anchored in God's gifts. So when God moves to "cut him off," a phrase that often refers to divine judgment or death, and when God "requires his soul," like a lender calling in a loan, the basis for his optimism is gone. The rich fool in Jesus' parable is a perfect commentary on this verse. He had great hope in his barns, but that very night his soul was required of him.

9 Will God hear his cry When distress comes upon him?

The second rhetorical question builds on the first. The man is cut off, distress has come, and so naturally he cries out. But will God hear? Again, the implied answer is a resounding no. This is a consistent theme in Scripture. Proverbs tells us that when calamity strikes the fool who has rejected wisdom, he will call out, but God will laugh (Prov 1:26-28). God is not a cosmic emergency service that you can ignore for a lifetime and then call upon in your last moments, expecting a favorable response. The issue is relationship. God hears the cries of His children, even when they are crying out in confusion, as Job has been. But the hypocrite is not a child of God. He is a stranger, an enemy. His cry is not the cry of faith, but the cry of raw self-preservation. It is a cry for the pain to stop, not a cry for God Himself. And a God who has been a stranger to him in prosperity will be a stranger to him in his distress.

10 Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?

These two final questions get to the root of the matter, exposing the inner life of the hypocrite. First, "Will he take delight in the Almighty?" The answer is no. For the hypocrite, God is a duty, not a delight. He is a business partner, not a beloved Father. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, but the hypocrite has no category for enjoying God. He finds his delight in his possessions, his reputation, his comfort. God is simply a tool to protect those things. The true believer, even in suffering, can find moments of delight in God Himself, because his ultimate treasure is God. Second, "Will he call on God at all times?" No. The hypocrite's prayer life is sporadic and utilitarian. He calls on God when he needs something, when distress comes upon him. But the true believer is to pray without ceasing. His life is one of continual dependence and communion. He calls on God in the morning when things are good, and he calls on God in the night when things are dark. This constant communion is the hallmark of a genuine relationship, and it is something the godless man knows nothing about.

Application

These verses from Job are a spiritual diagnostic tool. They force us to lay our hearts bare and ask the same questions of ourselves. When we are honest, we have to admit that the hypocrite Job describes looks a lot like us on our bad days. Who among us has not treated God as a means to an end? Who has not found their delight more in God's gifts than in God the giver? Whose prayer life has not been driven more by crisis than by constant communion?

This passage should drive us to our knees in repentance. It should make us profoundly grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the gospel tells us that we are all, by nature, hypocrites. We are all godless. Our hearts do not naturally delight in the Almighty. But God, in His mercy, does not treat us as the wicked. He sent His Son, Jesus, to live the life of perfect, constant delight in the Father. Jesus was the one who called upon God at all times. And on the cross, He was "cut off." He cried out in distress, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and for a time, it seemed His Father would not hear. He experienced the full weight of the godless man's fate.

Why? He did it so that when we, who are godless hypocrites, cry out to God, God will hear us. He hears us not because of our righteousness, but because He sees us clothed in the righteousness of His Son. Through Christ, we are given a new heart, a heart that is learning to delight in the Almighty. Through Christ, we are given the Holy Spirit, who teaches us to call upon God at all times as our Abba, Father. The hope of the Christian is not in his own spiritual performance, but in the finished work of Christ. Our hope is not cut off at death, because Jesus went through death and came out the other side. He is our hope, and He is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.