Sermon Tone Analysis

I can remember when I was a manager in a secular workplace, having a discussion with an employee about the idea of Karma.

Karma is the idea that good will be repayed with good and bad will be repaid with bad.

And I can remember thinking, well the Bible does teach the law of sowing and reaping.

You reap what you sow.

I can agree with that Biblical concept at least.

But there is a major problem with the idea of Karma, and there is a potential danger as well with our understanding of the law of sowing and reaping.

If we accept Karma to be true and if we accept the law of sowing and reaping to be an absolute truth in this lifetime we end up with something that has existed for thousands of years dating back all the way to the time of Job, and that is retribution theology.

Today Job is going to thoroughly refute the concept of retribution theology.

Definition of Retribution theology:

“Retribution theology holds that there is an automatic connection between a person’s deeds and state of being.”

IN THIS LIFE

(Edward Glenney, “How Well Do you Know God?,” Central Baptist Seminary Testimony 36 [Spring 1994]: 3).

The key competent of this theology is that the connection operates in this life, not just in the eternal state.

Clarifications:

Not talking about justification

If there was an automatic connection between a person’s deeds and their state of being as far as justification is concerned, then we would all be in a lot of trouble.

2. Now as a general truth, it is true that you reap what you sow.

The person who lives righteously often generally benefits from his choices, even if the only benefit he receives is the absence of self-inflicted pain.

But the wicked often get away with sin and do not pay for it in this life.

3. God is not unjust.

There is coming a day when God will judge the world in righteousness.

And that goes for rewarding those that are faithful to Him as well.

The key idea is that there is not an automatic connection between someone’s deeds and their state of being in this lifetime.

That is exactly what Job’s friends believed.

What was Job’s state of being?

Pretty bad right?

Then according to retribution theology what must his deeds have been like?

Equally as bad.

Job must have sinned horribly in order to incur this amount of judgement from God.

The problem is that just was not true.

Job didn’t deserve any of the destruction that he received, but God allowed it for His own purposes.

We know what those purposes are, but Job did not know, nor did God ever tell him.

Job knows retribution theology to be false, because of the evidence in his own life.

Here is Job 21, Job will handily discredit and disprove retribution theology.

Up to this point, Job has largely ignored the fallacy of their argument, popping their theological balloons only occasionally (9:24; 12:6) Now he is going to butcher and barbecue their sacred cow.

Today we are going to look at several arguments from Job that systematically refute retribution theology.

I.

The wicked often experience blessing in this lifetime

A. Job’s final appeal for sympathy

Job wants his friends to “hear diligently” or listen carefully to what he is about to say.

“And let this be your consolations”- the idea here is that their attention to what he is about to say would be a comfort to him.

A better translation would be “Let this be the consolation you give.”

“Suffer me that I may speak” the emphatic Hebrew pronoun emphasizes that Job wishes to get his word on the matter in the conversation.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and you can’t get a word in edge wise?

That is the idea here, “listen carefully to me, let your attention and your silence be a comfort to me, and suffer that I might speak.”

Then Job states, after I have said my peace, mock on.

Job wants his friend to hear him out before they openly react and reject what he has to say.

Job seems to be resigned to his friends rejection and mockery of what he is about to say, nevertheless he wants them to at least try to be sympathetic to what his is about to say.

Here Job note three good reasons for why his friends should give him their undivided attention.

He is not actually being critical of any man (4)

His present condition should put them into a state of stunned silence (5)

Job’s present condition was certainly a shock to him (6)

B. Job’s irrefutable evidence

Job is going to make the point that the wicked are often blessed and he is going to stack up a wealth of evidence against his friends and their belief in retribution theology.

The wicked live long lives and grow powerful

By the way this is a direct refutation of Bildad’s earlier speech in chapter 20.

Here Job is saying, Zophar!

You say that the triumph of the wicked is short, their joy momentary?

Why, then, do the wicked live to a healthy old age?

2. The children of the wicked prosper too- they benefit from the wicked parents’ success

Zophar, not only do the wicked live to a ripe old age, but they also get to enjoy their posterity!

3. The wicked are safe from the type of harm that Job suffered

The homes of the wicked are safe [šālôm, lit.

“peace”] from fear.

Wait a minute, is this a contradiction?

The wicked are the ones who are supposed to be afraid of sudden disaster, yet Job is stating that they do not live under the cloud of such fear and dread?

Remember, Proverbs is fully of general truths.

Generally, if you are living in wickedness there is a fear of repercussions.

But not always, sometimes the wicked live in peace.

Also key is the choice of Job’s word in the latter part of v. 9. Job says that the “rod” of God is not upon them.

This is the same word that Job used about his situation

So here Job clearly points out that the wicked are safe, they have peace.

While he, the righteous one, is under the rod of God.

4. Their herds are productive and growing

The fertility of their cattle is representative of the prosperity in every area of this person’s estate.

5. Their prosperity creates a climate of joyful celebration in the home

This vivid picture of the children going forth in security and happiness and the whole family dancing to the music of various instruments is a picture of idyllic happiness.

6.

They live long lives and die easily

All of their days are spent in prosperity (lit.

“good,” ṭôḇ) and enjoyment.

When their days come to an end, they descend to Sheol quietly and quickly, free from any prolonged, agonizing illness.

A serene death means that the joy of the wicked is as full as possible.

7. Yet they want nothing to do with God

Their rejection of God is conscious and wilful

Job nonetheless rejects their theological stance

But, their good/prosperity is not in their hand.

Here Job is stating that their good or their prosperity came from God, not their own hands, even if they didn’t acknowledge it.

And, Job states the counsel of the wicked is far from me.

Even though the wicked prosper he refused to admit they are correct, and that is another reason to classify Job as righteous.

Illustration:

Three days after the election, Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, said she’d seen “an unprecedented outpouring of support,” with almost 80,000 donations having come in.

The American Civil Liberties Union saw its donation page crash on Wednesday morning after visitors to the page, the ACLU said increased by 7,000 percent.

In a statement on Monday, the organization said that in just five days it has received “roughly 120,000 donations totaling more than $7.2 million.”

The wicked often experience blessing in this lifetime.

Refutation:

Now we have to remember that these people of Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are not our enemies.

They are people who need the gospel just as much as we did.

Yet many of the things that they do are evil.

If retribution theology was true they should be a smoldering crater by this point, but instead they experience earthly blessings.

Application: