Recognizing God’s Labor For Man - Job 24:1, 23-24

Introduction: Job, answering Eliphaz, said that nothing is hidden from the Lord. Why is it that man cannot see the hand of God in his life? Man sees only the staples of life as necessary for himself: food, clothing, housing. Every man for himself. Everyone else is inconsequential. It’s a dog eat dog world. Push, push, push for more. Make all you can, while you can.

In all his work for himself, the Lord is working to reveal to mankind the Lord’s purpose and plan for living. After reading Job’s description of man, and God’s desire to reveal Himself to man, you have to ask yourself, “Why is it that man cannot see what the Lord has done, or the end of his own feeble attempts to reason out life?

24:1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

Job then lists the failures of man, at the very same time that God is acting on their behalf to reveal Himself to them.

Man Steals the Land and Property of His Neighbor (24:2-3)
24:2 Some remove the landmarks
24:2 they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
24:3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.

Man Has No Compassion for the Poor and Needy (24:4-6)
24:4 They turn the needy out of the way
24:4 the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
24:5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work
24:5 rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them... children.
24:7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing...have no covering in the cold.
24:8 They are wet...showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
24:9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
24:10 They cause him to go...without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from...hungry
24:21 He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.

Man Labors with All His Might to Gain That Which Cannot Bring Happiness (24:11-12)
24:11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
24:12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out

Man Fights Against the Truth to Maintain His Own Philosophy of Living (24:13)
24:13 They are of those that rebel against the light
24:13 they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.

Man Lives in Immorality Thinking Nobody Will Know about it (24:14-17)
24:14 The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy
24:14 and in the night is as a thief.
24:15 The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me...
24:16 In the dark they dig through houses...they had marked for themselves in the daytime:        
24:16 they know not the light.
24:17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death
24:17 if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
24:18 He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth
24:18 he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.

Man Will Receive Judgment from the God for His Actions (24:19-22)
24:19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters
24:19 so doth the grave those which have sinned.
24:20 The womb shall forget him
24:20 the worm shall feed sweetly on him
24:20 he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.

Man Uses Other Men to Accomplish His Wicked Deeds (24:22-23)
24:22 He draweth also the mighty with his power
24:22 he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.

What Has Man Achieved by All His Labors? (24:23-25)
24:23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth
24:23 yet his eyes are upon their ways.
24:24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low
24:24 they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

Who Can Challenge the Logic and Reasoning of Job? (24:25)
24:25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?