Job 24:9 - 25:6 - Why Doesn’t God Stop Evil Now? (Session 28)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job chapters 24 and 25, Reasoning Through the Bible tackles one of the hardest questions in Scripture and in life: if God is good and all-powerful, why doesn’t He stop evil right now? Job describes a world full of brutal injustice—people exploiting the poor, harming widows and orphans, stealing, murdering, and committing evil under the cover of darkness—while God appears patient and silent. 

This study explains why God’s patience should not be mistaken for indifference. Scripture teaches that the Lord is long-suffering, giving time for repentance, but final justice is still coming. The episode also explores slavery and debt in the ancient world, the cruelty of human sinfulness, and why the problem of evil has been with humanity since the earliest pages of Scripture. 

The session then turns to Job 25, where Bildad asks a profound question: How can a human being be righteous before God? That question points directly to the gospel. On our own, no one can stand just before the holy God, but in Jesus Christ sinners can be justified by faith and declared righteous before Him. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 24 explained 
•  Job 25 explained 
•  the problem of evil 
•  why God allows evil 
•  God’s patience and delayed judgment 
•  final judgment in the Bible 
•  human sinfulness 
•  how can man be righteous before God 
•  justified by faith in Christ 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Why Evil Shakes Our Faith

SPEAKER_00 0:16

The presence of evil people in the world has raised a question for many, many centuries. Why is there such great evil in the world? Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is good, then why is there evil? And today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going to touch on this question because it is in what is probably the earliest written book in the Bible, which is the book of Job. And the question arises all the way back then up to our modern day today. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We're reasoning our way through the book of Job. So open your Bibles to chapter 24. And in this passage, we are going to be looking at Job's response to his friends. And Job is going to give a description of what evil people do. And as most of this book, it's very graphic, it's very much of a literary masterpiece. His friends had made the accusation that God always punishes evil people and he always rewards good people so that if there's anybody being punished, they must have done something evil. Job is making the case that there's plenty of evil to go around and we don't see God punishing it. So that is the question again before us is this question of why is there evil? It's so much that over the years, the philosophers have created an entire field of study called the problem of evil. And of course, we have here some clues in the Bible. So we can bring this to bear today. Steve, can you start at Job 24:9 and read through verse

Job Describes Brutal Injustice

SPEAKER_00 2:00

12?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Others snatch an orphan from the breast and they seize it as a pledge against the poor. The poor move about naked without clothing, and they carry sheaves while going hungry. Within the walls they produce oil, they tread wine presses but go thirsty. From the city, people groan, and the sounds of the wounded cry for help, yet God does not pay attention to the offensiveness.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

So again, Job here is responding to his friends that had made this accusation about a very behavior-based situation in the world. If somebody does something evil, God punishes them immediately. Job is saying, no, this is not the case. As we saw last time, there's a great list of evil deeds that people do. And he continues it here, verse 9: people stealing orphaned babies from the mother's breast and sees it as a pledge against the poor. Job says, Wicked people do all kinds of things. They force people to go around naked. They force people to carry the grain harvest, but don't give them enough food to eat. They force people to work in the olive and grape harvest, but leave them thirsty and without anything to drink. In verse 12, Job says people are crying out for help to God, but God does not pay attention to the wicked deeds that are being done. Job is making the case that there's a lot of evil going on and God is not dealing with it. So, Steve, this sort of cries out with the question if there's a good God and an all-powerful God, then why is there evil? So I think this question is pressing on us, and we can give a logical answer, but we can't always give an answer that feels good to someone that has just had an evil deed done to them. If you're the one that has just had something stolen from you or had a loved one get killed in a horrible accident, then the logical answer to the problem of evil just doesn't help very much. So, how do we respond to this question? And Job's pointing it out here. There's all kinds of evil things going on in the world, and God seems to be silent.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

We talked about this in our last session, Glenn, where Job is kind of using this section as maybe a little bit of a backhanded dig at his friends that are giving him this bad advice and accusing him of doing something wrong whenever he isn't doing something wrong. But at the same time, we might be seeing Job kind of crying out to God by naming all of this evil things that are happening on the earth and saying, why is it that you aren't paying attention to all of this as he does in verse 12? Maybe in a way much like Job is saying, I'm crying out to you for these things that are happening to me while I know that I'm innocent, yet you're not listening to me. You're not paying attention to what's going on with me. So I think we might be seeing a little bit of that here. But in

God’s Patience And Delayed Justice

SPEAKER_01 5:09

your general question, Glenn, as far as why God allows all this evil things to be taking place here on earth without intervening, is whenever he was giving his promises to Abraham, and he's telling him, though, that your descendants are going to go off into slavery in Egypt in the fourth generation. I'm going to bring them back. And the one of the reasons why he told them that was he said, because the iniquity of the Amorites is not complete. So God gives this picture that he's giving time for the Amorites to come to know him, to come to a belief in him. And he's basically saying, Is I'm going to give them another 400 years for them to come and have a relationship with me. So I think that that is a good response to people that say, Why is God allowing all of this evil things to happen? The response is he's allowing people time to come to him, to come and believe in Jesus Christ and have a relationship with him. He is holding off to give those people who have not yet come to him and come to a belief in Jesus Christ to do just that. And I think that is a basic answer that we can give, especially when we are confronted with non-Christian people, non-believers, to that answer of why is God allowing all this evil to take place? If we're speaking to a non-believer, we can say because he's waiting and being patient for people like you and others that don't believe in him to come to a belief in him.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

The New Testament gives us a very clear answer to, and really the whole Bible for that matter, gives us a very clear, straightforward answer to the critic and the skeptic when they pose the question of evil. If there's a good God and an all-powerful God, why is there evil? Well, the Bible tells us that God is long-suffering, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He says that in 2 Peter 3:9. So when God allows people a chance to hear his word, a chance to freely repent, and waits a while in doing so. And Steve, you pointed out all the way back to Genesis, he's counting the sins of the Amorites. And when they had enough, then he will take action. He is long-suffering and allows this. And the critic criticizes that. Why doesn't he deal with it now? Well, when he does deal with it, in the case, for example, the Canaanites that were murdering their own children and child sacrifice, they criticize that too. So the skeptic is really just trying to put people into a paradox or at least put God into a paradox and is a self-refuting argument. The real answer is in the book of Job that God has a plan, he has a purpose, and he does things as we saw in the beginning of the book. It's very orderly in heaven, and God's in control. And our things down here on earth are really quite small compared to eternity. God gave us life, he can take it back again, and we don't really die. He just moves us from the earth to the next realm. And he gives us plenty of chance to follow him into a reward in those days. That's what the book of Job is all about, is trusting him, even when we don't understand why there's

Debt Slavery And What The Bible Forbids

SPEAKER_00 8:42

evil. Back to verse 9, he's talking about evil people snatching an orphan from the breast, and they seize it as a pledge against the poor. Well, that pledge against the poor is really taking a child as a payment for a debt. Much of slavery over human history was caused by poverty, forcing people into slavery to work off debts. We find this very clearly presented in the Bible. 2 Kings 4:1, a man dies and the widow can't pay back the loan, so she's in danger of having her children taken as bond slaves to work off the debt. The people in Egypt were so poor that they were begging Joseph to buy them so that they could have food to eat in Genesis 47, 19. Modern people lose track of the causes of slavery and think that slavery in Bible days was like what caused slavery in the West in recent history. The Bible in the Old Testament prevented kidnapping, Exodus 21, 16, and required all laws to be administered equally to all people, slave or free, Leviticus 24, 22. Therefore, slavery in the Bible was a very different thing than what the modern skeptics make it out to be. And I would refer people to our multi-part series that we went through many of the verses in the Bible, all of the key ones on slavery. So the section that we just read, Job again has been pointing out this rather graphic, rather blunt, very emotional description of what happens with evil. Job will then continue talking about the wicked in the next passage. Steve, can you start at verse 13 and read down through verse

Murder And Secrecy In The Dark

SPEAKER_00 10:36

21?

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Others have been with those who rebel against the light, and they do not want to know its ways, nor stay in its paths. The murderer arises at dawn, he kills the poor and the needy, and at night he's like a thief. The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, saying, No one will see me, and he disguises his face. In the darkness they dig into houses, they shut themselves up by day, they do not know the light. For the morning is the same to him as thick darkness, for he is familiar with the terrors of thick darkness. They are insignificant on the surface of the water. Their plot of land on the earth is cursed, they do not turn toward the vineyards. Dryness and heat snatch away the snow waters, and Sheol snatches those who have sinned. A mother will forget him. The maggot feeds sweetly until he is no longer remembered, and injustice will be broken like a tree. He wrongs the infertile woman and does no good for the widow.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

This section is again very high literature. It's painful to read, but it's very graphic description about the actions of wicked people. Murderers get up early to go kill people. Evil people prey on widows and women without children. Yet in the account, Job is saying evil people go to their graves and are forgotten. They're not punished here on earth. Job is saying that evil people live like everyone else, and nothing happens to them except what happens to all people. Job is saying no justice is given to evil people in this life. He goes on to say things like verse 15 the eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No one will see me. He's describing the adulterer as sneaking around in the dark, trying to get away with what they're doing. Well, what I find today is our culture has sunk so low that we are lower than in Job's day, because the adulterers in our day don't even wait till twilight to hide. They're doing it in broad daylight and then bragging about it. Our culture has degenerated to the point where sexual sins are destroying our society. And Steve, what else do we get from this passage? It's just this very emotional description of evil.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

In verse 16, where he says, in darkness they dig into homes. Well, the people would go and literally dig into and underneath the walls of homes in order to steal things from them. It's just a picture, as we talked about in the last session, of a continuance of man when left to himself, the way that they will oppress other humankind. And it's something that is built into us. It's our nature if left to ourselves. And we also noted last time that not everybody has that bent in that way of being that type of hurtful towards other people. But in the same way as we mentioned in last session, if you're doing small things to your neighbors in your in your neighborhood, gossip, backbiting, things like that, these are still hurtful things against your fellow neighbor. And I think we can continue on with what we talked about last session. Treat your neighbor as you would yourself, and we would just be better off as a society.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

In the next section, Job is describing God's reaction to all of these evil and the evil people on the earth.

The Wicked Live And Die

SPEAKER_00 14:11

So I'll start here in verse 22. But he, he's talking about God, but he drags off the mighty by his power. He rises, but no one has assurance of life. They are exalted a little while, then they are gone. Moreover, they are brought low, and like everything, they are gathered up, like the heads of grain, they wither. Now, if it is not so, who can prove me a liar and make my speech worthless? So here Job says God moves the mighty as he desires. He also said God is in control of their life, whether or not people have assurance of life or not. Verse 24, people are exalted for a little while, then they're gone. Job is making this point over and over again that his friends are wrong. He said it is not the case that wicked people suffer. Job is saying the wicked are like everyone else. God is in control of their lives, and the wicked live and die just like everyone else. That's really the message here, Steve, is it not?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

I think Job makes a good case for himself, and he is consistent in that because he knows that he is innocent. He knows that he had a great relationship. Go back to chapter one and see that he worshiped God and he even sacrificed on behalf of his children just in case they had done something offensive to God. So he knows within himself that what is happening to him is not because of something that he's done. I think we have to give Job credit that he continues to push back to these three friends and even his wife that at one point told him just to curse God and get it over with, that he continues to stand up for himself. And I think he makes a pretty good case of it.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

What he's been doing in this chapter, this chapter 24, he's pointing out to his friends, hey, there's evil going on around all around us, and God's not punishing these people, at least not here in this life. He's trying to prove his friends wrong. So one of the cases

Final Judgment And God’s Discipline

SPEAKER_00 16:19

that he's trying to build around this is that God is holding some people to a seemingly strict standard. Job thinks God has done this to me because of some reason I'm I'm righteous, Job says, but God is nevertheless doing this to me. He's holding a very strict standard to me, Job says, while letting all these other people get away with all this wickedness. So I think that question would be valid even in our day. Steve, why is it that God would set very strict moral standards and very strict behavioral standards of discipline for some people, such as Christians, we're held to very high standards of morality while ignoring other sinners and letting them commit evil acts all over the world?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Because they're not going to be ignored. There is going to be a judgment one day. Everybody is going to be judged for what they have done here. For us as believers, our sin debt has been paid by Jesus Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection. So we have a covering of that. We have an advocate in heaven in front of God the Father. Jesus is our high priest, as it mentions in Hebrews. But the people who have not become believers in God have not changed their mind and believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Messiah, they are going to be judged and they're not going to have an advocate. Jesus is not going to be there to stand up for them. God is going to judge them. So there is going to be a final judgment for everybody. Justice is going to be had for all the evil things that people do. The question is, are your sins going to be covered by Jesus Christ and what he has done? Or are they going to be laid bare in front of God whenever that time comes for you?

SPEAKER_00 18:18

If we ask the question, why are things such as the suffering happening to Job? And if we put ourselves in that situation, why am I suffering when there's wicked people out there that aren't? The question, I think, is answered in several senses here. One, I just submit the entire book of Job. Job was blameless, it says at the beginning of the book. And God has a higher purpose that he does not share. He has a higher purpose that we may know someday, but right now he is not revealing every reason to us. He has his reasons. He has been proven himself trustworthy so we can trust him in this situation as well. We also know that several places of why God would prune his children and not do things to discipline the other children that are not his. Hebrews 12, 7 says, quote, what son is there whom his father does not discipline? Unquote. Jesus himself said, every branch that bears fruit, he prunes so that it might bear more fruit. He said that in John 15, too. So if you're a useful fruit-bearing vine, then he, as the master gardener, is going to come along and cut some things off and shape some things to make it more fruitful in your life. Therefore, as the all-wise God, he knows which people need some things taken away, which things need some things strengthened. So sometimes it seems as though we might be crooned more than others. But one, we don't know what others are really going through personally. And two, as Steve, as you rightly said, in the end, God will right every wrong and he will wipe away every tear. He is the just judge. And just because he hasn't dealt with it yet, doesn't mean he won't deal with it in the afterlife or when he returns. And so I think that's just a real solid case for trusting God as Job did. That's the end of Job's speech here.

Bildad’s Question About Human Righteousness

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Starting in chapter 25, we have Job's friend Bildad once again. This is Bildad's last speech. It is his shortest one. It's only six verses. So, Steve, let's see what the friend, and we use that with scare quotes, what his friend is going to say this time. Can you read Job 25?

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Then Bildad the Shuhite responded, Dominion and awe belong to him who makes peace in his heights. Is there any number to his troops? And upon whom does his light not rise? How then can mankind be righteous with God? Or can anyone who is born of woman be pure? If even the moon has no brightness, and the stars are not pure in his sight, how much less man that maggot and a son of man that worm?

SPEAKER_00 21:23

So this was a short chapter, just six verses. And if we remember from before, the three friends were always very long-winded and very pointed. Here, Bildad seems to be getting in his last little jab at Job. He's given up apparently the long argument. He says here in these verses that God is all powerful, having many troops and having dominion over all things. In verse 4, Bildad's ask only one question, really, but it is a great question. It's a rather profound question. How can man be just Just or righteous, how can man be righteous with God? If even the moon and the stars are unable to shine before God, lowly man is going to be in a worse situation. So, Steve, how can we, as fallible human beings, appear just or righteous before

Justified By Faith In Christ

SPEAKER_00 22:18

God?

SPEAKER_01 22:18

It's as I mentioned earlier, whenever I said that we have an advocate for those that believe in Jesus Christ, we have a sin debt and that he paid that on his death, burial, and resurrection. So that's how we can be found righteous in front of God is through belief and faith in Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

That's exactly it. We as fallible humans, Bill Dad is correct. We have no grounds to be justified before God on our own. We can only do it through Christ. He paid the price for us, he was separated from the Father for us, he was sinless and died anyway, paid my debt, and he paid your debt. Therefore, that's how we can be right before God. The New Testament tells us that when we are born again, when we accept his free gift of salvation, then he comes inside us, recreates us, stamps our sin debt as paid in full, and transfers Christ's righteousness to our account. So when God looks at us, he sees Christ's righteousness. That's how we can be found right before God. Is there a way on our own to be right before God? No. But we can be just when we are in Christ. The New Testament tells us that we are justified before God by faith, Galatians 3.24. This is Bildad's last jab. One more little accusation against Job's position. This was Bildad's shortest accusation. Starting in this next chapter is Job's longest, and it is quite profound. So, in the sake of time, we'll get to that next time. But Steve, this is quite interesting because there's so many useful gold nuggets back here that we can learn in life. We learn things about the problem of evil. We learn about how to live life today, and we learn about these profound questions that have been on people's minds. Some of the greatest philosophers and theologians across all the centuries have wrestled with some of these same ideas that we are explaining here in the book of Job.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

And as we mentioned whenever we started this book, that we were going to be able to look at the character of Job's three friends and learn from them as well. And I think we've been doing that as we've gone through this book so far. Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.