#DailyDevotion It Only Appears The Godless Get Away With Everything
February 25th
Read Job 20:1–23, 29
Job 20:4-9 Do you not know this from of old, since man was placed on earth, (5) that the exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment? (6) Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds, (7) he will perish forever like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ (8) He will fly away like a dream and not be found; he will be chased away like a vision of the night. (9) The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.
Zophar is not just whistling Dixie here. In this whole chapter he is expounding on teachings found throughout Scripture. They should not be dismissed. For truly it does seem the wicked get away with everything and enjoy life immensely, but even Charlie Harper gets pushed in front of a French train. It isn’t true that “Only the good die young.”
The Psalmist also writes, Psa 73:12-20 “Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. (13) All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. (14) For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. (15) If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. (16) But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, (17) until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. (18) Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. (19) How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! (20) Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.”
So we should not envy the wicked and try to take up their paths. We have a Heavenly Father who does watch us and watch over us. There’s a reason you always get caught when it was the first time you tried something you shouldn’t have been doing. Your Father in heaven is rescuing you from that life. But if you persist and harden your hearts look out. He might just decide to ignore you until you dig a pit for yourself too deep to get out by your own power or strength.
Of course the truth is you and I appear to get away with wickedness all the time. We just don’t think we’re being wicked. We think we are justified in our actions, word and thoughts. The truth is we are being selfish and self-centered and being seen by others as getting away with it. And you know what, we are getting away with it—Scott Free! But there is a penalty paid. There is a debt created by us in the universe by our sins. It must be atoned for. Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary, pays that price. He is the Lamb of God who suffers for your sins in your place. He makes full atonement for all your self-justifying iniquities which you never see in yourself but others do. No one really gets away with anything. The debt must be paid. It is paid for you by Jesus on the cross in his agony and pain, with his suffering and death. It should make you feel a little guilty about what you do but it also should be even more comforting that he loves you so much he would go through it for you.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for suffering for us. Give us an appreciation of that death that we in faith avoid those things for which you suffered and live a life that is pleasing to our Father in heaven. Amen.