DCLM Daily Manna 8 June 2022
KEY VERSE: “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave”
(JOB 21:7, 13).
TEXT: JOB 21:1-21 (KJV)
Then Job answered and said:
2 “Listen carefully to my speech,
And let this be your consolation.
3 Bear with me that I may speak,
And after I have spoken, keep mocking.
4 “As for me, is my complaint against man?
And if it were, why should I not be impatient?
5 Look at me and be astonished;
Put your hand over your mouth.
6 Even when I remember I am terrified,
And trembling takes hold of my flesh.
7 Why do the wicked live and become old,
Yes, become mighty in power?
8 Their descendants are established with them in their sight,
And their offspring before their eyes.
9 Their houses are safe from fear,
Neither is the rod of God upon them.
10 Their bull breeds without failure;
Their cow calves without miscarriage.
11 They send forth their little ones like a flock,
And their children dance.
12 They sing to the tambourine and harp,
And rejoice to the sound of the flute.
13 They spend their days in wealth,
And in a moment go down to the grave.
14 Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us,
For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.
15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?
And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’
16 Indeed their prosperity is not in their hand;
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
17 “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does their destruction come upon them,
The sorrows God distributes in His anger?
18 They are like straw before the wind,
And like chaff that a storm carries away.
19 They say, ‘God lays up one’s iniquity for his children’;
Let Him recompense him, that he may know it.
20 Let his eyes see his destruction,
And let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21 For what does he care about his household after him,
When the number of his months is cut in half?
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
Often in our haste to pass judgment on people who may be going through confounding situations, we jump to wrong conclusions about them. We argue that if they are suffering adversities, then their sins must be great. We believe that God punishes people according to the magnitude of their transgressions. But God is not man; He may in His sovereign will permit evil people to prosper more than believers.
This was the point Job sought to convey to his friend, Zophar, who had concluded that Job was in great distress because of his sins. But in his stout rebuttal, Job reminded him that the wicked do enjoy long life. Their businesses flourish and their days are spent in great wealth.
Spared of instant judgment for their sins, they push God aside and “desire not the knowledge of His ways”. While he stressed that “the counsel of the wicked is far from me”, he was not oblivious that eventually, the wicked will face destruction and experience the wrath of the Almighty.
We must not be quick to pass judgment on others, irrespective of how grievous a sinner they may be. The reason is because God does as He pleases with individuals. We must never fall into the temptation of using the circumstances surrounding people to measure how good or bad they are. Sinners who are enjoying God’s beneficence must see it as an opportunity to repent. If they fail, God will soon come hard on them with His fiery judgment.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Those who neglect God’s mercy now will face His judgment in eternity.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 2 CHRONICLES 1-4
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Good Things Happen to Bad People – by Pastor W.F Kumuyi
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Daily Manna 8 June 2022
