As Job is berated by his friends to repent as surely some evil he had done is responsible for his affliction and loss, Job maintains his innocence for a serious sin before God being responsible, and he goes into a speech on how the wicked prosper.
Job 21:29–34
[29] Have you not asked those who travel the roads, and do you not accept their testimony [30] that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity, that he is rescued in the day of wrath? [31] Who declares his way to his face, and who repays him for what he has done? [32] When he is carried to the grave, watch is kept over his tomb. [33] The clods of the valley are sweet to him; all mankind follows after him, and those who go before him are innumerable. [34] How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.” (ESV)
The simplistic spiritual view is the wicked who reject God are punished in a timely manner, but we know that isn’t true. And sometimes the righteous through faith suffer affliction as God is illustrating to us in the book of Job, though God does promise to work out such affliction for good to those who love him. And often the wicked being blessed is the grace of God giving them time to recognize He exists and be reconciled to Him by faith. But also sometimes the wicked seem to be blessed because just like we have the heavenly scene in Job, Satan has his people he favors for his schemes against God in the world he has been given authority over. And I was always fascinated by the early scene in Job and the cordial nature of the conversation between God and Satan which shows that Satan is cooperative, as there are some fallen angels that are locked away, meaning those influencing our world are all compliant for fear of being imprisoned as well.
Jude 6–7
[6] And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—[7] just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (ESV)
But the takeaway is that God is always in control, and Satan has to petition God for access to anyone, like Jesus had told Peter when Satan had requested to sift him. And Satan and the fallen angels working evil in our world serves the purpose in illuminating that God is holy, good and just; and that we need Him for protection and prosperity as well as to have our relationship restored, adopted into His family to join our heavenly Father for eternity. The consequences of this life last for eternity, so the choices need illuminating. And the evil world system run by Satan and his followers is a perfect illustration to the truth of the Word of God, refuting the human philosophies that man is intrinsically good. And you’d have to think that what goes on with humanity is also being used by God to teach these fallen angels before they receive their final punishment, being sent to the Lake of Fire along with everyone else who rejected God and His offer of Grace and reconciliation.
Job 21
Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper
[1] Then Job answered and said:
[2] “Keep listening to my words,
and let this be your comfort.
[3] Bear with me, and I will speak,
and after I have spoken, mock on.
[4] As for me, is my complaint against man?
Why should I not be impatient?
[5] Look at me and be appalled,
and lay your hand over your mouth.
[6] When I remember, I am dismayed,
and shuddering seizes my flesh.
[7] Why do the wicked live,
reach old age, and grow mighty in power?
[8] Their offspring are established in their presence,
and their descendants before their eyes.
[9] Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them.
[10] Their bull breeds without fail;
their cow calves and does not miscarry.
[11] They send out their little boys like a flock,
and their children dance.
[12] They sing to the tambourine and the lyre
and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
[13] They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
[14] They say to God, ‘Depart from us!
We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.
[15] What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?
And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’
[16] Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?
The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
[17] “How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?
That their calamity comes upon them?
That God distributes pains in his anger?
[18] That they are like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
[19] You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’
Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.
[20] Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
[21] For what do they care for their houses after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?
[22] Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those who are on high?
[23] One dies in his full vigor,
being wholly at ease and secure,
[24] his pails full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
[25] Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of prosperity.
[26] They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.
[27] “Behold, I know your thoughts
and your schemes to wrong me.
[28] For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’
[29] Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony
[30] that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,
that he is rescued in the day of wrath?
[31] Who declares his way to his face,
and who repays him for what he has done?
[32] When he is carried to the grave,
watch is kept over his tomb.
[33] The clods of the valley are sweet to him;
all mankind follows after him,
and those who go before him are innumerable.
[34] How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.” (ESV)