Why did the wicked live, reach old age and grow mighty in power?
– Job 21:7
This is Job wrestling with a form of a question that I think we all wrestle with. Why do people who turn from God, who disobey God, who do evil, prosper in this world in so many different ways? Job saying, “Why do they live and reach old age and grow mighty in power for all of those years?”
Job 21:7 reminds us that only the joy of the Lord goes beyond our earthly lives.
Just think about Psalm 73, is so good as far as the Psalm is saying the same thing. Saying, “I look around me and it seems like those who are following the ways of this world are doing a lot better than I am, and I’m wondering if it’s worth it.” And you get to the very end of that chapter and you see the psalmist conclude, “Behold, those who are far from you shall perish.” This is Psalm 73:27. “You put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you, but for me, it is good to be near God.”
And I just want to encourage you today to live, to be near God, to not be tempted to run after things of this world that seem like they lead to more prosperity, that seem like they lead to more pleasure. See the end, even beyond old age, far beyond the might and power of this world, to use language from Job 21:7. “See that righteousness and holiness and closeness nearness to God. This is where life is found now and life is found forever.”
Job 21:7 reminds us that God is the ultimate Redeemer and will make all things right.
Do not measure satisfaction, joy, life based on what this world says is what you want and what you need. No, no. Look to God. It is good to be near the one who made you, the one who loves you, the one who’s made you for a relationship with him in whom there is everlasting joy, everlasting strength, everlasting peace, an everlasting comfort that will never, ever, ever end. Everlasting might and power for eternity to enjoy him.
Oh God, help us, we pray, not to be fooled by the ways of this world. God, when we struggle with why other people seem to prosper as a result of wickedness and sin and evil, God, we know you’re the ultimate judge and you are just. We know that you are the ultimate Redeemer and you will make all things right.
So God, we pray that you would help us to share the gospel with the wicked, share the gospel with those who are even prospering in sin. God, we pray for their salvation. We pray that they would come to know eternal life in you, even as we pray that you would help us to cling to the eternal life we have in you, to enjoy the eternal life we have in you, and not to be envious of the wicked around us in this world or to be envious of what we’re missing out on as a result of sin or evil in this world.
Prayer for the Harratine People
No, God, help us to see rightly. Help us to see that it is good to be near you and to live accordingly, and to spread this good news all over the world. God, we pray for the Harratine people of Morocco, none of them among the 60,000 of them, an isolated southern oasis on the edges of the Sahara in Morocco. God, please cause the good news of your grace and your love and your eternal life that you make possible. Lord Jesus, please cause it to spread. We pray to the Harratine people of Morocco. Oh God, help us as your people who are near to you to live… To lead others to be near to you… Right around us and all around the world to experience eternal life in you. We pray this in Jesus’ name, according to your word in Job 21:7. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
