Job 27 – Job Continues His Reply to Bildad’s 3rd Statement: “I Will Maintain My Integrity”

Job 27 – Job Continues His Reply to Bildad’s 3rd Statement: “I Will Maintain My Integrity”

Job took up his discourse again saying that the living God has taken away his right, and made his soul bitter. As long as he has breath and the spirit of God is in his nostrils, his lips will not speak falsehood or deceit. Far be it from Job to say Bildad is right; till Job dies he will not put away his integrity. Job says, “I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach me for any of my days. Let my enemy be as the wicked, and him who rises up against me as the unrighteous. What is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life? Will God hear the cry of the godless when distress comes upon him? Will the godless take delight in God? Will the godless call upon God at all times? I (Job) will teach you (Bildad) concerning the hand of God; what is with the Almighty God I will not conceal. All of you (Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar) have seen it yourselves; why then had you become altogether vain (empty)? This is the portion of the wicked man with God, and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty: If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his descendants have not enough bread. Those who survive him (God Almighty) the pestilence buries, and his widows do not weep. Though the wicked heap up silver like dust, and pile up clothing like clay, he (the wicked) may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. The wicked builds his house like a moth’s, like a booth that a watchman makes. The wicked goes to bed rich, but will do so no more; he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone. Terrors overtake the unrighteous like a flood; in the night a whirlwind carries him off. The east wind lifts him up and he is gone; it sweeps the unrighteous out of his place. It hurls at the wicked without pity; the unrighteous flees from its power in headlong flight. It claps its hands at him and hisses at him from its place.

Job seeks to maintain his integrity by teaching his friends concerning the hand of God with six examples. The portion of the wicked/oppressors with and from God Almighty is God’s wrath. (1) So, if they experience what looks like God’s favor and blessing in the gift of children, the reality is that their children are multiplied for the sword, and eventually those descendants won’t have enough bread. (2) Those who survive God, sickness will bury and the wicked/oppressor’s wives who have been widowed won’t weep. The wives of rich wicked men won’t even be sorrowful at their death. (3) The wicked heap up money and clothes, but the righteous will wear it and the innocent will inherit it (divide it up). (4) The rich wicked/oppressors build houses and watch it with the equivalence of a security guard or security system. (5) They go to bed rich, but not for long. (6) Terrors overtake the rich unrighteous/wicked/oppressors like a flood, in the night a whirlwind/tornado carries him off. Natural disaster in the form of east wind hurls the wicked without pity. Job is perplexed with his friends because he is teaching them what they already know saying that in these six things, “All of you have seen [the hand of God] yourselves” (v. 12). He is appealing to these six things to disprove that earthly prosperity is a sign of righteousness or wickedness. Job’s point is that God will do what He will do, and it’s wrong to say that those whom God counts as righteous are proven to be righteous because life is easy and they never suffer. Job’s point is that this world is broken, and God’s pleasure and favor for His people cannot be determined based upon a man’s situation in life. Praise God for this truth, because the only one who was truly righteous, Jesus Christ, became poor and suffered for His people. According to the theological formulations of Job’s friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ would be impossible. They would have simply written off Jesus Christ as unrighteous because of His humiliation and suffering. But to the praise of God’s glorious grace, Jesus suffered to declare an unrighteous people deserving only of God’s wrath as righteous. In Christ’s humiliation, and identifying with his suffering we have become rich, not in an earthly sense, but eternally rich because we have found the treasure in the field, the pearl of great price, salvation by faith alone in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ alone.