Job raises a warning to his friends that we all need to heed—the danger of judgmental shortsightedness.
Because a man is rich or poor on the outside, does this reflect his status before God? Does this man “say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’” (Job 21:14-15). Or does he respond when facing life’s difficulties, “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty” (5:17), and “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (13:15)? Godly Samuel had to be reminded that big men (like Saul and Jesse’s eldest, Eliab) are not the measure of a king. “The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart” (1 Sam 13:14), and found that in David, a youth. James also tells us that fine clothes and a gold ring do not a man of God make (Jas 2:1-13). And just as material things cannot be the measure of a man’s godliness, neither can the circumstances of his death. “One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and secure… Another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, never having eaten with pleasure. They lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them” (Job 21:23, 25-26). Not to be indelicate, he continues, I notice that neither you nor the worms can tell the difference between a wicked success or a godly sufferer. Says Job, “I know your thoughts, and the schemes with which you would wrong me. For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?’” (vv 27-28). But you don’t understand. While the wicked seem to get away with their crimes (v 31), and have a lovely funeral (vv 32-33), that’s not the end of the story. “They shall be brought out on the day of wrath” (v 30). Yes, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27).