Job 24:24 (KJV)
They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
At the time of this writing, we have spent the last several days driving through some of the old outlaw country of the American West. Rocks, canyons, mountains, and miles of empty country. There are places out here where a man could disappear.
It was country made for outlaws.
The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang became famous for using remote places where the law had difficulty reaching them. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are still household names. Robbers Roost, in the rugged country of southeastern Utah, became one of the places associated with Cassidy and other outlaws. Driving through some of this country, it isn’t difficult to understand why. A man could hide among those rocks and canyons for a long time.
Reading Job 24, I got to thinking that the wicked men of Job’s day weren’t much different.
They stole livestock. They took advantage of widows and the poor. They moved landmarks. They murdered. They worked under the cover of darkness and disguised their faces so they would not be known.
Then Job gives us this picture:
Job 24:8 (KJV)
“They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.”
It may be that Job is describing the poor and oppressed here, driven into the mountains without shelter. But I can’t help wondering whether the picture might also include some of those lawless men themselves—men living outside society, hiding among the rocks, exposed to the weather, surviving wherever they could find refuge.
Either way, Job 24 has the feel of outlaw country.
I have a little outlaw history in my own family. My great-grandfather, David Wesley Tiwater, was involved with one of the outlaw gangs of the Old West. He would never tell his family which gang. He eventually spent eleven years in an Oklahoma prison for train robbery.
Those old outlaw stories can become romantic with time. We remember the horses, hideouts, gunfights, train robberies, and men whose names became legends. But there wasn’t anything romantic about it to the widow who was robbed, the poor man who lost what little he had, or the family who feared for their lives.
Then Job brings us to the end of the outlaw.
“They are exalted for a little while.”
A man may think he is somebody. Other men may fear him. He may hide among the rocks where the law cannot find him. People may even make a legend out of him after he is dead.
But only for a little while.
Job says they are “gone and brought low.”
The Old West didn’t invent wickedness. Job saw the same heart thousands of years earlier. We see it still. Men may find places to hide from other men. But there has never been a hideout from God.
#NoHideoutFromGod #Job24v8 #GodSeesAll #DailyVisitWithGod #BibleTruth
Where Do Outlaws Hide From God? Outlaw Country
What does Job 24 teach us about outlaws, wickedness, and the certainty of God’s judgment? Do you think the men “embracing the rock” could include the lawless men Job describes? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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