Present Profit
Job chapter 21 is Job’s long answer to Zophar’s claim that the wicked suffer for their wickedness. The sum of Job’s answer is “no they don’t. They prosper.” Job not only refutes Zophar’s thesis, but he also goes further and says not only do the wicked not suffer but the righteous also aren’t rewarded for their righteousness. He makes his case in the form of a question in verse 15: And what profit do we get if we pray to him?
The questions Zophar and Job were struggling with have been debated since the beginning of time. Why do the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? Of course, this isn’t always the case. Wicked people suffer and righteous people do quite well too.
For most of us, these questions remain remotely tucked away in the back of our minds. They are philosophical and not practical…until we, like Job, are struck down. It is when our child dies, our business goes under, our home is destroyed, or our health fails that we ask, “what profit do we get if we pray to him?”
It is at this moment that we need to put everything on a longer timeline and see things from a larger perspective. A popular news site called “Zero Hedge” has as its motto, “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” To say it biblically, “It is appointed unto man once to die and after than judgment.”
Asaph, like Job, almost lost faith because of what he saw around him. The wicked seemed to be doing very well and righteous people suffered. It was when he went to the sanctuary of God, that he got his mind right. He “discerned their end.”
God is just. Every sin will be justly dealt with. Either sin is justly dealt with on the Cross and Jesus pays the price, or a person carries that guilt with them into eternity where they will be held accountable before the bar of God.
Job and Zophar both had a point. Zophar was right that the wicked suffer for their wickedness. Job was right that sometimes righteousness and prayer don’t seem to pay off immediately. The mistake both men were making was they were only looking at the present moment in time. They needed a longer timeline. So do we.