What a Difference Eternity Makes

Job 21-22

Job is so flustered that he asks his friends to just listen to what he has to say and after he has spoken they can resume their mocking. The remainder of his rant is wondering why the wicked prosper while he is in agony. Perhaps, he muses, God will punish their children, but Job prefers that God would punish the sinner so that they would understand the judgement passed on them. In his pain, he wants to make sure that the sinners see the havoc they cause before they go to the grave. There is a bitterness to Job's rant, and then it occurred to me why Job is so distraught... he doesn't know about heaven. Yes, he has experienced tremendous loss and significant pain, but that doesn't explain it all. His relationship with God is much the same as all of his contemporaries, it is a relationship based on good things in this life... good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. But that is not the relationship that God want with us. God wants us to be so devoted to him, so in touch with him, that we can put off good things for a little while now, in order to share an eternity with him. What a difference knowledge of eternity makes!