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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Monday, 23 February 2026:
Job 24:1-4 — Why are not times of judgment kept by the Almighty, and why do those who know him never see his days?
Job asks a question believers still ask: Why does God delay? If He is sovereign and just, why are appointed days of judgment not visible to those who fear Him? Why do the righteous not see clear intervention?
Sometimes it is hard to understand why God delays in punishing evil people. From our vantage point, delay can look like indifference. Silence can look like approval. But delay is not denial. God’s justice does not operate on human impatience.
Scripture consistently affirms that judgment belongs to God and unfolds according to His perfect wisdom. The delay may serve mercy. The delay may serve exposure. The delay may serve redemptive purposes beyond our comprehension. What feels overdue to us is precisely timed to Him.
Job’s question exposes one of the deepest tensions in faith: trusting God when we do not understand and must wait without answers. The testing of faith is rarely in what we comprehend; it is in what we cannot reconcile.
We may not understand what God is doing specifically, but we can rest in who He is and who we are because of whose we are. The promise of Romans 8:28 is inseparable from its purpose in Romans 8:29 — conformity to the image of Christ. The outcome is not merely situational relief; it is transformation into Christlike character. And Christlike character is forged in fire we would never volunteer to enter.
Romans 5 teaches that we can rejoice in suffering, not because pain is pleasant, but because God is using it to produce endurance, character, and hope. The joy is not rooted in the trial itself but in the outcome God is producing through it.
Jesus modeled this perfectly. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. He did not desire the agony of crucifixion, but He desired the salvation of many more than He desired the avoidance of pain. Joy, the motivation anchored in the promised outcome, made Him embrace what He otherwise would never choose.
This is mature love: loving God and His purposes so deeply that we become grateful even for the refining fires that shape us for fellowship with Him.
We learn this through practice. Through circumstances and relationships we would never request. Through trials that function as God’s chisel on our character. Through labors of love that require sacrifice.
Here God is glorified.
Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were forced into a fire they never would have asked for. Their prayer was not “keep us from the fire,” nor “remove us from this fire,” but essentially, “Thy will be done.” Their obedience was more important than their survival. In the fire, they experienced God in a way they never had before — and the watching world saw it. God was made visible in the furnace.
The fire became the platform for revelation.
So when Job asks why judgment is delayed, he is also standing in the space where faith must mature beyond explanation. God’s delay may serve purposes deeper than immediate justice — purposes shaping souls, refining hearts, displaying glory. As you read about Job questioning His suffering, stop and consider again the even today, you are reading about it – God is still being glorified through Job’s suffering in ways Job never would have imagined! God is doing far more in your life than you can comprehend, but you will one day and will be even more amazed by grace.
Is your prayer deliverance at any cost? Or obedience at any cost?
Are you grateful for the trials that shape you into Christ’s likeness? Do you recognize them as opportunities to make Him visible before others? Will you make the most of them?
Faith grows strongest not when answers arrive, but when trust remains steady without them.
Job 24:5-12 — The poor… without clothing… the fatherless child… the hungry and the thirsty….
Job then describes suffering in vivid detail. The poor are exploited. The vulnerable are crushed. The hungry labor for others’ benefit while remaining empty themselves. The fatherless and widows are mistreated. Sometimes it is hard to understand why God allows so much suffering.
The images are not abstract; they are raw. Oppression is not theoretical. It is tangible and cruel. The cries of the needy rise, yet immediate rescue does not appear. From our limited perspective, this can seem unfair or uncaring. But limited perspective is the key phrase. We see fragments. God sees the full tapestry.
The cross again reframes our understanding. God is not distant from suffering; He enters it. He does not ignore injustice; He absorbs its weight. He does not stand detached from pain; He bears it.
Yet even with that revelation, we still struggle when suffering persists. We must hold fast to what we know about God, what He has promised, and we must operate on faith – “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Faith trusts God in the right now to obey joyfully, courageously, and confidently, trusting God with all outcomes (hope), without doubt, even if obedience were to cost you your life, because our hope is eternal – death has lost its sting.
Job 24:13-17 — The murderer… the adulterer… the thief…
Job catalogs injustice: murder in darkness, adultery under cover, theft concealed by night. Wickedness flourishes in secrecy. It appears unchecked. Again, sometimes it is hard to understand why God allows so much injustice. Evil men move boldly. They manipulate shadows. They act as though unseen. From a human standpoint, it can feel as if the moral order is fragile or delayed.
But Job does not conclude that God is absent. He concludes that God’s timing is not aligned with human expectation. Understand that these conditions remain even today as God continues, even now, to work out His redemptive plan. Likely the same sort of thing will remain long after you die. This is your time to participate in what God is doing now so you can rejoice on that day when Christ returns to restore all things at the right time.
- 2 Peter 3:9 — The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
- Habakkuk 2:3 — For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end — it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.
Job 24:18-25 — They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone….
Job pivots here from the anguish of delayed justice to a sobering certainty: the wicked do not ultimately win. They may rise quickly, dominate for a season, and seem untouchable, but their prosperity is temporary and their end is sure. The arc may feel slow, but it is not bent toward their triumph. Their “exaltation” is real, but brief; their disappearance is real, and final. Job is not naïve about evil’s visibility, but he is also not fooled by evil’s durability.
And yet this section presses a deeper question beneath the cry for judgment: when we beg God to end the delay — when we plead, “How long?” — do we actually share God’s heart in what we are asking? Or are we primarily asking for relief?
It is right to want evil restrained. It is right to want suffering ended. Scripture itself teaches us to pray, “Deliver us from evil.” But Job 24 forces us to examine the posture of our request. Do we want what God wants, or do we just want the pain to stop for ourselves and for those we love?
Because God is doing more than ending events. He is forming people. His purposes are not only punitive; they are redemptive. The delay we experience as maddening can also be mercy in motion — grace-space — time in which sinners might repent, time in which hearts might change, time in which salvation might interrupt what judgment would otherwise finalize.
That is a hard truth, because it means delay is not merely something to endure; it is something to interpret through God’s character. If we only want relief, we will view delay as negligence. If we share God’s heart, we may begin to see delay as patience – God restraining immediate wrath so that repentance remains possible.
This is where love becomes costly.
Do we care about the transformation that suffering produces in us, or do we only want escape? Do we care about the salvation of sinners who are harming others, or do we only want them stopped? Do we see that the same God who will judge perfectly is the God who also saves freely – and that His patience is often the doorway through which the worst sinners become trophies of grace?
This is not theoretical. Scripture repeatedly shows the heart of God’s servants aligning with God’s mercy even while confronting evil. Moses interceded in the wilderness: in effect, “Don’t destroy them yet.” He was willing to bear the burden of stubborn people because he cared about God’s name and their survival. Paul, surrounded by hostile crowds, kept speaking even when they wanted him dead, because he wanted one more moment for them to hear truth. And Jesus, at the apex of injustice, prays, “Father, forgive them.” That is not weakness. That is divine strength — love so secure, so God-saturated, that it can absorb suffering without surrendering mercy.
So Job 24:18-25 is not only about the downfall of the wicked. It is also about the posture of the righteous while waiting for that downfall. There is a kind of love that can say: “Lord, I want justice. But if Your delay means salvation, then wait a little longer, even if it costs me.” That is the heart of Christ. That is the heart formed in the furnace.
And it raises a direct question: what will your love for God and others compel you to suffer with joy?
Not joy in pain. Joy in purpose. Joy that you are not abandoned in the fire. Joy that God is present, shaping you, using you, making Himself visible through you. The fire is never the goal—but for those who belong to God, the fire becomes a stage for His glory and a workshop for Christlikeness.
Are you willing to “walk around in the fire” with God for His glory? Are you willing to endure a little longer—not because evil is acceptable, but because grace is still reaching?
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) — 23 February 2026: When confronted with injustice or suffering today, resist cynicism. Instead of asking only “Why hasn’t God acted?” ask, “How can I trust, obey, and glorify Him here?” Choose one act of obedience that makes little emotional sense but aligns with God’s revealed will. Pray for those who suffer. Refuse bitterness. Anchor your confidence in God’s perfect wisdom. Trust Him beyond what you can explain.
Pray: “Father, Your ways are higher than mine. When justice seems delayed and suffering feels relentless, steady my heart. Forgive me for demanding explanations You have not promised. Teach me to trust Your wisdom even when I cannot trace Your hand. Guard me from bitterness and cynicism. Strengthen my faith to obey when circumstances confuse me. I trust that You will make all things right in Your time. Help me walk faithfully until that day. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
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