A Recap of Job 35–36
Last week, justice stopped being a theological concept and became painfully personal.
My son Caleb stepped in to protect a young girl being bullied by three or four young men on a city bus. It was a courageous, instinctive act—the kind we hope our children will choose when faced with cruelty. Instead of gratitude or respect, he was beaten and robbed.
As a parent, something primal awakens in moments like that. You don’t want abstract explanations. You want accountability. You want consequences. You want the gavel to fall now.
Reading Job 35:14 Through Tears
Elihu’s words in Job 35:14 land differently when you’re sitting in an emergency room or listening as your son answers questions from a detective:
“Even though you say you do not see Him,
your case is before Him,
and you must wait for Him.”
When those who harm the innocent seem to walk away untouched, it can feel like God has stepped back—or worse, looked away. But this verse confronts us with a harder, steadier truth: the case is not missing. Heaven has not misplaced the file. Nothing has slipped past the eyes of the Judge.
What we are waiting on is not whether justice will come, but when.
The Defiant Hope of Job 36:17
Job 36:17 reminds us that justice eventually “takes hold.” It may feel delayed, obscured, or absent—but it is not optional. Divine justice operates with a certainty much like gravity: often unseen, sometimes slow, but utterly unavoidable.
To those who bully, steal, and prey on the vulnerable, moments of triumph are fleeting. Not because we hunger for revenge, but because we trust a God who defends the brave and vindicates the wronged. God’s justice does not rush—but it never forgets.
Takeaway
To my son: Your courage was not wasted.
To the watching world: God’s silence is never God’s absence.
To the perpetrators: Justice may be patient, but it never loses its grip.
Reflection Question
Where in your own life are you being asked to trust God’s timing—when everything in you longs for immediate justice, answers, or resolution?