The Great White vs. The Yellowfin

If you look at the way things work in the world, it often does seem like the wicked are prospering. And in Job chapter 12 we’re at this point where there’s this dialogue between Job and his friends. They are trying to instruct Job, explain to Job, why he’s experiencing such calamity. His family is dead, he’s lost his cattle, and virtually everything of value has been taken from him. His flesh has even been affected by it.

Job’s friends are trying to put everything in this nice clean box, and drawing this conclusion that righteousness is blessed and wickedness is cursed. In fact, Zophar has said to him, Look, stretch out your hands to the Almighty if there’s iniquity in your heart, how is he going to regard you? And so they’re saying look Job, if there weren’t some sin, some hidden sin, in your life you wouldn’t be experiencing this.

Job responds by saying, “Look, I can show you that what you’re saying is false.” So in Job chapter 12 verse six he says, “Look, the tents of robbers are at peace, and those who mock God are secure.” How do you explain that? If everything works according to righteousness is blessed and wickedness is cursed, how do you explain that?

And then he goes on, “Look at that look at nature.” In verse seven he says, “Ask the beasts, and they will teach you the birds of the heavens and they will tell you where the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you the fish of the sea and they will declare to you” (Job 12:7-8).

When you look at the ocean, which animal is more secure: the mackerel and the tuna or the great white? When you look at the birds of the heavens, which is more secure: the eagle and the vulture, or the dove?
When you look at the beasts of the field, which is more secure: the gazelle or the lion? And the conclusion there is very clear: even within nature, the more violent the beast, the more secure it is! This just proves everything that Eliphaz and Zophar are trying to say to Job is false.

Here’s the conclusion that Job draws from all of this. He says in verse 13, “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding. If he tears down, none can rebuild; if he shuts a man in none can open” (Job 12:13-14). The final conclusion is that everything is under God’s sovereign hand. He alone has wisdom. He alone has understanding. He brings down kings. He brings down the words of the strong, of the mighty. Everything is subject to him. And, there may be a reflection of this in Isaiah chapter 55 when he says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares LORD, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

So the conclusion is we it here it is, we don’t always understand what is going on. But we can also conclude that everything occurring is occurring under the sovereign dominion of our mighty and infinitely wise God. Job, at the very end of the book, will say “I shut my lips. I have nothing to say, I cannot answer God.” It’s a source of peace for you, as a believer, because you understand, God is directing all things. It doesn’t work perhaps the way that you think it ought to work, but it is working out according to the wisdom of God Almighty.