Read: Job 21-23
Focus Verse: “They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?’ But their prosperity is not in their own hands, so I stand aloof from the plans of the wicked. Yet how often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out? How often does calamity come upon them, the fate God allots in his anger?” (Job 12:13-17).
Devotion: The prevailing argument being upended in Job is the belief that good people prosper and wicked are destroyed. (It’s kinda that same idea of Karma) Yet how often do we see wicked people never get what’s coming, and good people suffering? While the former may be true at times, it is not a universal law. Job points out—by asking—how often do we see this actually in practice? He points out that rarely wicked people ever suffer, yet good people suffer all the time. Job teaches what we can still observe today, death and destruction does not discriminate. So his friends are getting it all wrong and Job is trying to teach us right thinking. Thus when Eliphaz says: “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you.” (Job 22:21). He’s Wrong! Further, in Jesus we know that earthly prosperity is not our reward for faith, but peace, joy, and love from our Heavenly Father.
Pray: LORD don’t allow me to be seduced by the lie that life should be richly prosperous if I just give you my trust. Help my trust lead to a relationship with You. Amen.
Additional Scripture: “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10)