Job 21

Awful, heart-wrenching things happen in this world. I’m going to tell you about two of them to start this blog. I once heard about a little, eighteen-month-old boy who was rushed to the hospital with a very high fever. He had been having some flu-like symptoms, but his parents weren’t worried until his fever spiked. After the doctors ran all their tests, they concluded that the small boy had meningococcemia, a bacterial infection which can be one of the most dramatic and rapidly fatal diseases.

The doctors determined that, given the circumstances, they wouldn’t be able to save the child’s life. And so, with his organs shutting down and the final hours of his life ebbing away, his parents ate a last supper of popsicles with him in his hospital bed. I still cry when I think about it.

A few years later, I heard about a young man who was in the prime of his life, just getting ready to graduate high school. In earlier years, he had battled some form of cancer, but it had gone into remission. Suddenly, though, it came roaring back, and this time, the prognosis wasn’t good. For several months, the young boy wasted away as doctors tried different experimental therapies. Finally, after all the options had been exhausted and there was no hope left, the boy was discharged from the hospital and sent home to die. Because he was on steroids for the pain, he spent the last weeks of his life feeling better than he had felt in a long time, eating all his favorite foods, playing video games, and enjoying each day.

So, what do the stories of these two boys have to do with Job? Well, Job asked a question in this chapter that a lot of people have asked throughout history: Why do the wicked prosper?

"Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not on them. Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry. They send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about. They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre; they make merry to the sound of the pipe. They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace." (vs 7-13)

Job’s friends had been trying to argue that the wicked always suffer, but Job said, "No they don’t. I look around, and I see plenty of wicked people livin’ it up, having a grand, old time. How do you account for that?!" Job wasn’t the only one to ask this question. David, Jeremiah, and others asked the very same question. They (like we) expected to live in a world where good things happened to good people and bad things happened to bad people.

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all (which I most certainly am not), I think I have an answer to this question so often posed by righteous men. And I think the answer lies in the stories I related to you at the beginning of this blog.

I bet that, up until that night in the hospital, that eighteen-month-old child had never had a meal of popsicles. Why would I bet that? Because parents who want to raise healthy children don’t feed them a diet of popsicles. And I would bet that, up until the last few weeks of his life, that teenage boy had never taken a steady stream of steroids. Why would I bet that? Because steroids—while marvelous for pain relief—will destroy your body.

But the overriding concern in those two cases at that particular time was not the health of the individuals, but the quality of the time they had left to live in this world. In terms of sustained life, both cases were hopeless. Nothing could be done to save either life, and so the focus shifted to what could be done to make what remained of life enjoyable.

I think God is in a similar situation when it comes to the wicked. And by "wicked," I’m referring here to people who have cast the Lord off for good. These are people who have rejected the Holy Spirit for so long that they are incapable of responding. They have passed "the point of no return." They cannot be saved. They cannot be healed. Only God knows who these people are, because only He can read the heart. Sometimes, a truly wicked person might not appear to be a bad person. We are not able to make those judgments.

But because God reads the heart, He knows when one of His children has forever closed off their heart to Him. He knows which of His children He will ultimately lose. And I think that when His children place themselves beyond His healing reach, He will do whatever He can to make what remains of their life on this Earth enjoyable.

So, why does it seem sometimes like the wicked prosper? Because this life is all they have. These wicked, evil people (whoever they are and wherever they are) are still God’s children. They’re still His creation. He cares about them and loves them just as deeply as He loves His righteous children. And if He knows they have rejected the option of a life spent eternally with Him, well, I think He tries to bring them as much "heaven" in this life as He can.

Of course, I think there’s a limit to how much even God can do for the wicked in this life, because being a wicked person is its own punishment. Cherishing a sinful, evil heart has its own unpleasant consequences. But I believe God has a stash of popsicles that He shares with the wicked when no more discipline is helpful, when no more amount of wooing would work, when healing is not possible.

Jesus said, "Go in through the narrow door. The door is wide and the way is easy that leads to death. Many people are going through that door." (Matt 7:13) If we have chosen the wide door, at the beginning, I believe God makes it very hard for us to ultimately continue on the road to death. If we start down it, He puts obstacles in our way, warnings not to continue, and makes it all but impossible for us to keep going.

But if we are determined at all costs to stay on that road, once there is no going back, I do believe the road becomes very easy. For, at that point, what God has on His hands is a terminally-ill child with no hope of a cure. And once He is faced with the reality that He will lose that child forever, He does what every loving parent on this Earth does—He brings out the popsicles.