Job 15:20

20 The wicked [rasha`] man travaileth [chuwl] with pain all his days [yowm], and the number [micpar] of years [shaneh (in pl. only),] is hidden [tsaphan] to the oppressor [`ariyts]. KJV-Interlinear

20 'The wicked man writhes in pain all his days, And numbered are the years stored up for the ruthless. NASB

Eliphaz begins not with the reason for Jobs distress, but he begins his argument with a description of the most vile of people.

Beginning in verse 25, Eliphaz will begin the description of the worst of the worst. They defy God and think nothing of God or His power against them. They see themselves as being bullet proof and beyond the typical problems that are common to humanity.

Why evil people see life in this way is just a part of their confusion and delusion. There is and never has been nor will ever be an example of an evil person who defeats death or illness, in order to live on this earth forever. And yet there will always be the Hitler's and the Sadaams who think of themselves as being above all of creation.

Even those terrorists, who are nothing more than criminals with huge nation destroying appetites, thumb their collective noses at God and truth, and dare any form of reality to catch them or stop them. They survive only by intimidation and exist only when cowards refuse to confront them.

But Eliphaz does not limit the wicked to the most notorious in history. All people who reject or ignore God, including gossips, maligners, judgers, society snooty types and so forth, are in some form considered oppressors. Job was not an empire-building tyrant, or even a common thug, but these remarks are ultimately going to be directed at him.

All of these are the oppressors described by Eliphaz. And, even though none of Eliphaz's remarks apply to Job, they will have some degree of truth imbedded within them.

Of the things that are certain in life, death is the most permanent and the most unknown with regard to its timing.

We all know of our birth. But no person can be certain of the date of his death. A reasonable person may be able to calculate with some degree of accuracy, what his life expectancy may be. But the oppressor, the one who rejects and thumbs his nose at God, either through indifference of outright resentment, cannot calculate the timing of his death.

Those who live by the sword, and that merely means those who try to live their life apart from God, will be taken by complete surprise when their day of reckoning comes.

First they don't believe that it is ever near at hand, and second they just don't think about it. Life for them is too filled with their busy activities in pursuing whatever pleasures or lusts that drive them.

The wicked persons writhing in pain is not physical pain from injuries, but is a reference to their chosen pattern of life, life within the jungle. There is never a pleasant moment, certainly never any genuine pleasant moments.

Life for the wicked is never certain, never secure, and only temporary.

Now is the time to post a prayer.