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Job 24:19
19 Drought [tsiyah] and heat [chom] consume [gazal] the snow [sheleg] waters [mayim]: so doth the grave [sha'owl] those which have sinned [chata']. KJV-Interlinear
19 'Drought and heat consume the snow waters, So does Sheol those who have sinned. NASB
The subject of Jobs illustration here is the cheater, the wicked, the liar, the murderer, the adulterer and so forth.
Jobs friends have suggested that all wicked people get what is due to them, in this life. Job disagrees. In fact, there are many wicked people who live there lives fully, during this life and they go to the grave peacefully.
So with that being said, you cannot look at someone and know, for sure, that they have been either a good person or a bad one, spiritually. And that is Jobs point here.
Job is suffering and his friends believe that his suffering is proof that Job has led a secretly wicked life, and that God is now demonstrating that fact to everyone. His friends believe that wicked people will be made to suffer publicly. Job is suffering therefore he is wicked.
The principle that wicked people will suffer is a true principle, but the conclusion as to when they will suffer, is not.
Jobs illustration here covers that principle. The winter brings snows. The spring melt brings water into the streams and rivers and finally to the oceans. Everyone along the way will have access to that water. They fill up their ponds and cisterns for summer irrigation.
But by late summer or fall, that water may well be gone. Use of the water, evaporation, and the running of the water downstream will see it all vanish away.
The water goes away silently, without pomp, without notice. One day the streams are full and the next day the water levels are lower.
Throughout the day and night, the water keeps moving constantly. No one caused the snow to fall in the mountains, no one caused the snows to melt, no one caused the water to flow down the mountain and down the streams and rivers, and no one can prevent its use, evaporation, or vanishing into the dry parched earth.
Sheol is the 'land of the dead.'
Sheol exists in the underworld called Hades. You recall that Hades has four compartments. Believers, who died prior to the Cross, went to Paradise, and unbelievers when they die go to Torments.
Paradise is empty now, and is no longer in use. Christ led all of its occupants into heaven immediately after the Cross. They were led in a victory parade that must have been enormous.
Torments is still in use and there, all unbelievers continue to wait their resurrection before the Great White Throne judgment, which will occur at the end of human history, at the end of the Millennium.
Anyway, all people when they die, leave this earth. Death has no favorites. Death will take everyone.
Whether they are rich or poor, from any color, good or bad, from any culture, smart or dumb, fat or thin, and on and on and on, death has no prejudices.
And Jobs point here is that even the wicked, like the summer melting snows, can evaporate from this life slowly and gently without violence, until they are gone.
There is nothing written that mandates the wicked to suffer in this life. And by that we mean that they do not have to suffer publicly. There are many a terrorist who believe that they are going to Paradise, and they will go to their death with that peaceful thought in their minds. What a surprise to them when they get there and discover it has been closed for quite some time now. Hummm, must be out of virgins!
Of course all wicked people are not only unbelievers. There are many believers who pursue the wicked life as well. But no matter.
Life will treat every person according to the sovereign will of God. Some will have prosperous lives and some will not. Some will pursue their spiritual life and some will not.
God has a plan for each persons life, and neither you nor I can know the details of that plan for ourselves (except from hindsight) let alone anyone else. Therefore, judging others is not our place.
