Reading 8: Job’s Reply to Zophar Job 12:1-14:22

 

Job’s replies seems to come in two sections. The first is one that replies to the words of his ‘friend’ in their entreaty. The second is Job returning from a response to making his own case before the Lord.

12Then Job answered:
² ‘No doubt you are the people,
   and wisdom will die with you.

Zophar makes a crack about Job essentially missing the secret wisdom of God, this sounds like Job cracking back at him-telling Zophar this ‘wisdom’ is human and therefore mortal.

³ But I have understanding as well as you;
   I am not inferior to you.
   Who does not know such things as these?

In other words, Zophar is treating Job like an uneducated individual, when Job is not.

⁴ I am a laughing-stock to my friends;
   I, who called upon God and he answered me,
   a just and blameless man, I am a laughing-stock.

Job recognizes that his friends do not believe him. He called on God, but they answered instead.

⁵ Those at ease have contempt for misfortune,
   but it is ready for those whose feet are unstable.

Job seems to be saying ‘it is easy for you to talk when you are not suffering’.

⁶ The tents of robbers are at peace,
   and those who provoke God are secure,
   who bring their god in their hands.

His friends seem to be accusing Job of being one of these robbers, these provokers, but in Job’s mind, even they have peace compared to his circumstances.

⁷ ‘But ask the animals, and they will teach you;
   the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
⁸ ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you;
   and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Job is appealing to the created life of God to be the witness to his circumstances, where there is not cause and effect, blessing and punishment, in the good and bad that happens?
⁹ Who among all these does not know
   that the hand of the Lord has done this?

It feels to me like there is a ‘circle of life’ thing here, everything gets eaten by something else-faces its own tragic circumstances.

¹⁰ In his hand is the life of every living thing
   and the breath of every human being.

God’s hands are behind all these circumstances, those that happen in nature and what has happened to Job, that this is not the punishment his friends presume, but ‘just’ tragedy.

¹¹ Does not the ear test words
   as the palate tastes food?
¹² Is wisdom with the aged,
   and understanding in length of days?

Job seems to be presenting with these metaphors to defend what he is saying against the accusations of his friends.

¹³ ‘With God are wisdom and strength;
   he has counsel and understanding.
¹⁴ If he tears down, no one can rebuild;
   if he shuts someone in, no one can open up.
¹⁵ If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
   if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
¹⁶ With him are strength and wisdom;
   the deceived and the deceiver are his.

Job is acknowledging the power of God, the power God has over all, that there is no reversing what God has done, unless God does it.

¹⁷ He leads counsellors away stripped,
   and makes fools of judges.
¹⁸ He looses the sash of kings,
   and binds a waistcloth on their loins.
¹⁹ He leads priests away stripped,
   and overthrows the mighty.
²⁰ He deprives of speech those who are trusted,
   and takes away the discernment of the elders.
²¹ He pours contempt on princes,
   and looses the belt of the strong.
²² He uncovers the deeps out of darkness,
   and brings deep darkness to light.
²³ He makes nations great, then destroys them;
   he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
²⁴ He strips understanding from the leaders of the earth,
   and makes them wander in a pathless waste.
²⁵ They grope in the dark without light;
   he makes them stagger like a drunkard.

Is Job here taking a swipe back at his friends? Demonstrating the power of God to bring the mighty low and the powerful to an end, so God is working among ‘the wisdom’ of his friends?

13‘Look, my eye has seen all this,
   my ear has heard and understood it.
² What you know, I also know;
   I am not inferior to you.

Again, Job claims the same knowledge and same understanding has his friends, that even in tragic circumstances, he is not lesser.

³ But I would speak to the Almighty,
   and I desire to argue my case with God.

As he has said before, Job wants to come to God in his tragic circumstances.

⁴ As for you, you whitewash with lies;
   all of you are worthless physicians.

His friends are not only unhelpful, but worse than useless because they do not listen to him.

⁵ If you would only keep silent,
   that would be your wisdom!

Politely asking them to shut up.

⁶ Hear now my reasoning,
   and listen to the pleadings of my lips.

Job just wants to be heard that they are not listening.

⁷ Will you speak falsely for God,
   and speak deceitfully for him?

Here is his counter accusation, that they speak for God, but it is a lie that they speak.

⁸ Will you show partiality towards him,
   will you plead the case for God?
⁹ Will it be well with you when he searches you out?
   Or can you deceive him, as one person deceives another?

Are they going to be able to deceive God and get away with their falsehoods in God’s name?

¹⁰ He will surely rebuke you
   if in secret you show partiality.
¹¹ Will not his majesty terrify you,
   and the dread of him fall upon you?

God is going to come back on them for their falsehoods.

¹² Your maxims are proverbs of ashes,
   your defenses are defenses of clay.

Their answers are essentially junk.

¹³ ‘Let me have silence, and I will speak,
   and let come on me what may.
¹⁴ I will take my flesh in my teeth,
   and put my life in my hand.

Job just wants them to listen and not judge.

¹⁵ See, he will kill me; I have no hope;
   but I will defend my ways to his face.

Job might die in the process, but he will do so in his innocence.

¹⁶ This will be my salvation,
   that the godless shall not come before him.

Job will be saved, not lumped in with the guilty as his friends presume he must be to receive this tragedy.

¹⁷ Listen carefully to my words,
   and let my declaration be in your ears.
¹⁸ I have indeed prepared my case;
   I know that I shall be vindicated.

Just listen, Job says, he knows he will be found innocent.

¹⁹ Who is there that will contend with me?
   For then I would be silent and die.

Contend with Job on the merits of his case, unlike his friends, who speak falsely in the Lord’s name.

²⁰ Only grant two things to me,
   then I will not hide myself from your face:

The point of view has changed, Job is now calling upon God.

²¹ withdraw your hand far from me,
   and do not let dread of you terrify me.

Again, he asks for God’s hand of tragedy and fear to be withdrawn.

²² Then call, and I will answer;
   or let me speak, and you reply to me.

Job wants to make his case before this silent Lord.

²³ How many are my iniquities and my sins?
   Make me know my transgression and my sin.

Job protests he has not deserved this punishment, but he is not so arrogant as to presume that he might be wrong. If he is, he seeks God to enlighten him on what he did wrong.

²⁴ Why do you hide your face,
   and count me as your enemy?

But Job’s deep sorrow seems to be that God is ignoring him in his pain.

²⁵ Will you frighten a windblown leaf
   and pursue dry chaff?

Job seems to be referring to himself in these metaphors.

²⁶ For you write bitter things against me,
   and make me reap the iniquities of my youth.
²⁷ You put my feet in the stocks,
   and watch all my paths;
   you set a bound to the soles of my feet.
²⁸ One wastes away like a rotten thing,
   like a garment that is moth-eaten.

This is poetic language of Job referring to what God has done to him in these tragic circumstances.

 

14‘A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,
²   comes up like a flower and withers,
   flees like a shadow and does not last.

Reflection on the mortality of humans.

³ Do you fix your eyes on such a one?
   Do you bring me into judgement with you?

Why are you targeting me Lord?

⁴ Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
   No one can.
⁵ Since their days are determined,
   and the number of their months is known to you,
   and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,
⁶ look away from them, and desist,
   that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.

Job is asking the Lord to let up on the tragedy that God has inflicted upon him. Let him live in peace.

⁷ ‘For there is hope for a tree,
   if it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
   and that its shoots will not cease.

Job is seeking renewal from his tragedy, as a tree that has been cut down.

⁸ Though its root grows old in the earth,
   and its stump dies in the ground,
⁹ yet at the scent of water it will bud
   and put forth branches like a young plant.

Even if it looks as though it dies, it can renew-hope Job seeks.

¹⁰ But mortals die, and are laid low;
   humans expire, and where are they?

He hopes for it, but Job does not see this renewal in humans brought down.

¹¹ As waters fail from a lake,
   and a river wastes away and dries up,
¹² so mortals lie down and do not rise again;
   until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
   or be roused out of their sleep.

This seems to be a ‘pre-Christ’ understanding of life and death in God.

¹³ O that you would hide me in Sheol,
   that you would conceal me until your wrath is past,
   that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!

But in God, Job seeks to be hidden by God in the place of the dead-Sheol-till this wrath passes by.

¹⁴ If mortals die, will they live again?
   All the days of my service I would wait
   until my release should come.

Release from the tragedy, not unto death.

¹⁵ You would call, and I would answer you;
   you would long for the work of your hands.
¹⁶ For then you would not number my steps,
   you would not keep watch over my sin;
¹⁷ my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
   and you would cover over my iniquity.

Job is seeking renewal in the Lord, speaking in the language of Jesus covering our iniquities.

¹⁸ ‘But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
   and the rock is removed from its place;
¹⁹ the waters wear away the stones;
   the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
   so you destroy the hope of mortals.

That is what Job hopes for, but he is only seeing, in his grief, the destruction of the Lord.

²⁰ You prevail for ever against them, and they pass away;
   you change their countenance, and send them away.

God is always overcoming.

²¹ Their children come to honor, and they do not know it;
   they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.

Someone punished, like himself, could have God bring his children to honor, but Job will not know what is to come.

²² They feel only the pain of their own bodies,
   and mourn only for themselves.’

Job is focused into the mourning of his own tragic circumstances.

 

Job transitions in his entreaty from Zophar to the Lord. He is not above mocking back at his friend, calling him out on presuming that Job does not know how things are ‘supposed’ to work. What seems to pain Job is not that he has these tragic circumstances, but that God is silent among their outpourings on his life. He seeks renewal, he seems something.

If there is a common theme among these entreaties of his friends, it is this presupposition that tragedy must be punishment and Job must have done something to deserve it.

Pastor Peter