the wicked prosper

There was a man who regularly heaped verbal abuse on me, and once threatened me with a hammer. I managed to stay calm while face to face, but always, immediately afterward, I’d get mad. I’d rage inside my own head. My biggest frustration was that this man got everything he wanted, from me and everyone else. He was a cheat and a bully, and very, very wealthy.

I thought of him this morning when I read Job 21:7-13: “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 spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace.”

That was part of Job’s lament, that the wicked prosper. And it seems so often to be true. I know that this life is just a moment compared to what’s coming, so I get it that their suffering will be long and profound. But it still doesn’t seem fair. 

But then I’m reminded of Chuck Colsen’s book, “How Now Shall We Live?”. In that book the author digs into what it means to live faithfully in current culture. He devotes one memorable chapter to some of the most wealthy, famous people on earth and how miserable they are or were, by their own admission.

It makes me think that maybe wealth was a curse to that angry bully who used to plague me. Maybe it was like drinking sea water - it looked so good to him but the more he drank, the thirstier he got. Imagine having everything you thought would make you happy, but you’re not. And now you have no idea what to do to be happy.

Of course, I’m like that. I have everything I need to be happy, but I grumble. I’m quick to see the negatives. I let happy moments go right by me because of the emotional residue of my own dark thoughts.

The question, I guess, isn’t why the wicked prosper. We all have wickedness in us; the question I’m left with is what I’ve done to deserve all the blessing I have.