Job 20:17-29: a reflection

17He will not look at the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter. 18He will restore that for which he labored, and will not swallow it down. He will not rejoice according to the substance that he has gotten. 19For he has oppressed and forsaken the poor. He has violently taken away a house, and he will not build it up. 20“Because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything of that in which he delights. 21There was nothing left that he didn’t devour, therefore his prosperity will not endure. 22In the fullness of his sufficiency, distress will overtake him. The hand of everyone who is in misery will come on him. 23When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating. 24He will flee from the iron weapon. The bronze arrow will strike him through. 25He draws it out, and it comes out of his body. Yes, the glittering point comes out of his liver. Terrors are on him. 26All darkness is laid up for his treasures. An unfanned fire will devour him. It will consume that which is left in his tent. 27The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him. 28The increase of his house will depart. They will rush away in the day of his wrath. 29This is the portion of a wicked man from God, the heritage appointed to him by God.”

In this speech, Job's friend Zophar describes the fate of the wicked, and though he wrongly applies it to Job, he names a real truth about greed. The greedy oppressor, he says, though he swallows down riches, will vomit them up again; his prosperity will not endure. And at the heart of his description is a telling phrase: because he knew no quietness within him, he will not save anything in which he delights. The greedy heart, for all its grasping, never finds rest; its craving is never satisfied, its inner quiet never attained.

Notice the phrase Zophar uses: he knew no quietness within him. This is the inner reality of greed, a restless craving that is never at peace, never satisfied, always reaching for more. However much the greedy person accumulates, the inner quiet never comes, because greed by its nature cannot be satisfied; there is always more to want, more to grasp, and no rest in the having. Greed is its own restlessness.

That is a searching diagnosis of what greed does to the soul. Greed promises satisfaction and rest through accumulation, but delivers the opposite: a restless, never-quiet heart that can never get enough. However much is gained, the craving remains, and peace never comes. If you find in yourself a restless craving for more, more money, more possessions, more of whatever you grasp at, recognize that no amount of getting will finally quiet it; greed knows no rest within. The quiet your soul longs for is not found in accumulation but in God, who alone can satisfy and give rest to the restless heart. Do not chase the peace of the soul through greed, which knows no quietness; find your rest in God.

Lord, Zophar described the greedy heart as one that knew no quietness within, restless and never satisfied for all its grasping. Search my own heart for that restlessness. Where I find in myself a craving for more, more money, more possessions, more of whatever I grasp at, help me see that no amount of getting will finally quiet it, for greed by its nature knows no rest. The peace my soul longs for is not found in accumulation but in you. Keep me from chasing the rest of my soul through greed, which only leaves me more restless. Quiet my grasping heart, and teach me that you alone can satisfy and give rest to the restless. Let me find my quiet not in getting more, but in you, who are enough.