Job20and21: ZOPHAR AND JOB TRADE BLOWS

Introduction. Read Job20and21

It may seem that Zophar and Job are just repeating tediously their former arguments. There is, however, one important difference. Job's response to Zophar is less emotional and more rational than before. He does on this occasion deal carefully and convincingly with the matters Zophar raises. Job addresses a very important failing that does in my view damage the witness of conservative evangelicals of which, on the whole, I am one. (I am indebted to Warren Wiersbe for the structure of this exposition.)

(A) Zophar's tired old refrain.

Zophar does not like being told by Job that he is wrong. He considers Job's forthright rejection of his theological position dishonours him.

Many, many are like that today. They consider any contradiction if not insulting then disrespectful. There are relatively few Christians like Peter who was able to accept Paul's sharp rebuke for not taking communion with uncircumcised believers in Antioch. Peter went with Paul to the Council of Jerusalem and presented Paul's case to the conservative elders of the church there. See exposition on Acts15v1to5.

Apollos is another prominent and influential Christian who was humble enough to take instruction from Priscilla and Aquila. See exposition on Acts18v24to28.

Zophar held tenaciously to one core belief: the wicked suffer in this life for their sins. This must be true because God is just. It is a belief that has persisted through the centuries.

Zophar makes three statements to elaborate his core belief:

(1) The life of the wicked is brief. See Job20v4to11.

Zophar summed up his dearly held belief: "Ever since man was placed upon the earth ... the mirth of the wicked is brief, the joy of the godless lasts a moment." The Naamathite considers the lives of the wicked are quickly flushed down the toilet! After the death of an ungodly man his children have to recompense those he has wronged.

(2) The pleasure of the wicked is temporary. See Job20v12to19.|

The wicked man is supposed to relish evil in the same way a glutton enjoys rich food - rolling it around his mouth to savour it. Yet, when he does swallow it, the expensive food gives him chronic, acid indigestion - venomous in its intensity. Alternatively it makes him nauseous and he vomits it up.

In the same way a man's riches will not nourish him. He may lose his appetite for the simple things of life - wholesome food like cream and honey. A rapacious hunger for exploiting the poor will not be matched by a healthy appetite for what is good and wholesome.

(3) The end of the wicked is painful. Job20v20to29.

A bad, rich man cannot save himself with his treasure, his prosperity will not endure, distress will overtake him and misery will come upon him. In the end God will hunt him down. He will get an arrow in the back. Before death the bad rich man will lie in terror devoured by fever. After his death his guilt will be exposed for all to see. Everything he worked for will be swept away - destroyed: "On the day of God's wrath."

COMMENT.

Zophar's great mistake: He tells it as he thinks it SHOULD be. He describes how it would be if he, Zophar, was God. Zophar would smash the ungodly and reward the righteous.

I have known Christians like Zophar. My old friend Jack would often say to me as I took him to chapel: "I wish God would put me in charge for a day - I would show them!" Jack would love a day zapping all those who disagreed with him! Whenever the church has obtained political power it has self-righteously set about zapping its opponents.

I can recall another friend - Vera - saying vehemently, "Of course the wicked won't be annihilated - that's too good for them." For Vera the everlasting torment of the wicked was some compensation for living the rather circumscribed and dutiful life of a Christian. Sadly everlasting suffering was realer to her than the bliss of the redeemed following Christ's return. Once again in expressing her view, Vera is telling us how she thinks God should treat the wicked.

(B) Job's reasoned response.

Job starts by asking his friends to listen carefully to him. This will be of more comfort than their angry words. Job wants his counsellors to bear with him; to show some sympathy for his condition. Once he has finished explaining carefully his position they are at liberty to mock on.

So, let us see how Job refutes Zophar's assertions:

(1) The lives of the wicked are not always short. See Job21v6to16.

(a) Job adroitly describes the wicked: "Yet they (the wicked) say to God, 'Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?'" Job21v14. This aptly describes men from the very beginning until now who have no relationship with God whatsoever. This unhappy state of affairs persists to this day.

(b) Job asserts that men like this grow old and increase in power. They spend their lives in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. Job21v13. They are secure in their homes with their children all about them filling the house with music and song - a lovely picture of happy family life. The godless man's business often thrives - his cows calve and do not miscarry.

(c) This situation fills Job with dread. He asks: "Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power?" Job21v7. Job is terrified lest God prove unjust or weak. This is how it seems - and still seems to many.

COMMENT:

Putting it baldly, Job is right and Zophar is wrong. Many wicked people as described by Job live long, successful and prosperous lives. One only has to think of Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, who goes on and on and on! On the other hand, many godly men and women are cut down in their prime. There are four outstanding examples in the New Testament: John the Baptist, the apostle James, Stephen and, of course, Jesus.

Jesus was probably only about 33 when he died - without a wife or children, with no official position, lacking possessions other than the clothes he wore. Yet, we cannot say he died prematurely without family, status or success. He achieved everything God wanted of him and in the words of Paul writing to the Philippians: Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil2v9to11.

This should give us a better perspective on life. It isn't the length of our life that matters but its quality - in particular, whether we fulfil God's purpose for our lives. The Christian's reward may not be in this life - just as Jesus' wasn't - but that does not mean God will leave quality service unrecognised.

I take comfort from this story: A retiring missionary was coming home to America after many years of serving the Lord in Africa. He was on the same ship as the president of the United States. There were a cheering crowd, a military band, a red carpet, banners and the media welcoming the president. He was not able to get off the ship until the president had made his grand exit. No one pay attention to or notice the missionary. Feeling self-pity and resentment, he began complaining to God. He has worked so hard and gone through so much, but no one gave him any words of appreciation. Then God gently reminded him, “But my child, you’re not home yet.”

(2) The wicked do not often experience calamity. See Job21v17to21.

In Job's experience the wicked are not often the helpless victims of circumstance. He asks ironically: "How often are they like straw before the wind, like chaff swept away by a gale?" Seev18. Nor is Job impressed by the argument that even if a rich, godless man doesn't suffer his children will pay for his misdeeds. He questions the fairness of this. As far as the patriarch is concerned the wicked man himself should: "Drink of the wrath of the Almighty."

COMMENT:

Once again Job is absolutely correct. Many godless men and women in the West have charmed lives. They don't often suffer for their obvious wickedness. When the chief executives of our banks plunged this country into a financial crisis the worst that happened to them was early retirement, a golden handshake and a generous pension.

Christians in the Third World find the huge disparity between their standard of living and that of their brothers and sisters in the West difficult to take. Some wonder why God leaves them in poverty. Then there are Christians in a country like the UK who desire the prosperity and possessions of their non-Christian neighbours.

We all have to recognise that Jesus did not promise unqualified success and material prosperity to his followers. The Master guarantees the basics but he makes it quite clear where he expects us to lay up treasure - in heaven. He actually told his disciples that personal wealth was a very real hindrance to entering the kingdom of God. One erstwhile disciple was told what to expect if he became a follower of Jesus: "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Lk9v58.

(3) The wicked die just like other people. See Job21v22to34.

(a) Job emphasises the obvious, namely, all die whether they are rich or poor. It isn't only the ungodly that die!! Yet this is what Zophar seems to suggest. It is a pathetic and stupid argument.

(b) Job's friends can, perhaps, point to a ruined property or two where prosperous tycoons lived until they fell on hard times and were eventually ruined by God for their wickedness. In response Job tells his friends to get out and about - to widen their experience - and they will be sure to find plenty of evil men spared from the day of calamity. Job21v30.

Even in death many of the ungodly are revered. No one condemns them. Their tombs are well tended in the valley cemetery where the soil is sweet and the flowers grow.

Job concludes: "So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood." v34.

COMMENT:

Many Christians spout nonsense because they refuse to budge from their their theological position even though it clashes with experience. Many examples could be given:

(a) In the time of Paul some Jewish Christians insisted Gentile converts should be circumcised before entry into the church. But Paul - and, indeed, Peter had seen the Holy Spirit poured out on Gentile believers who were not circumcised. God accepted them in Christ as they were. If God showed he accepted them into his family as uncircumcised Gentiles so, too, should the conservative Jewish Christians.

(b) Creationists who take the early chapters of Genesis literally talk nonsense. There is overwhelming evidence for an old earth. I am a geomorphologist and I know that the physical landscapes of Britain can only be explained in terms of prolonged periods of erosion. Try and explain the arrangement of rocks and radial pattern of lakes in Cumbria without reference to millions of years of erosion! Creationists need to widen their experience by reading books on plate tectonics, the stratigraphy of the British Isles and the evolution of the English landscape.

It is ridiculous to advocate that the flood in the time of Noah was universal in extent. How could Noah collect, keep and feed all the animals that are found on the earth today? We are still discovering - after thousands of years - new species of mammal in remote and inaccessible spots. Yet we are supposed to believe that Job scoured the globe for every known species. The terrible irony is that the description of the flood in Genesis is clearly of a local one. See article on the Flood.

It does the church real harm and puts well educated young people off Christianity when Christians teach nonsense.

(c) I think that much that is said about faith healing is nonsense. James writes in his epistle: And prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. Jm5v15. The fact is it usually does not. I can remember sitting in my garden on a lovely sunny, summer's day praying for the daughter of a pastor known to me. As I prayed I had a tremendous conviction that the pastor's daughter would live. The conviction came out of no-where. It has never happened again. I was sure that the young woman I prayed for would be healed. I was so sure I phoned up my friend, the pastor, and told him. His daughter died of cancer a few months later. I could not have had more faith - but my prayers did not make the sick person well.

(d) I strongly disagree with the doctrine of sinless perfection - a doctrine proposed by John Wesley among others. Once again the proponents of this doctrine can quote Scripture in its support. For example: No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 1John3v9.

I cannot accept that Christians can achieve sinless perfection because I have never known a believer, including myself, who did not sin. In my experience sins rooted in the disposition or temperament are remarkably difficult to overcome and persist throughout a Christian's life.

Job could not accept the view of life held by his three friends because it conflicted so dramatically with his experience. No Christian I have ever met has been perfect and so I need to interpret what John wrote in this light.

(e) Another piece of nonsense parroted by some Christians is that non-believers are just not happy; it is only Christians who have that deep down joy. Very often the person saying this gives no evidence of being happy at all - their joy is so deep down it is hidden from view. This is ridiculous on more than one count. Plenty of non-Christians are perfectly happy. They are like the man Job described who spent his years in prosperity and went down to the grave in peace; a man, whose house was full of singing, dancing children. More than a few Christians are as miserable as sin. The deep down joy is non-existent. Joy cannot be buried or hidden. Joy bursts forth - it lights up a man's countenance, puts a smile on his face, a spring in his step and a song on his lips. I am afraid to say there is often more joy at a football match among the supporters of the winning side than in the Sunday morning church service.

(f) I wonder if it is entirely true that all things work together for good to those who love God. This is an assertion boldly made by those whom life has treated kindly. It, too, is based on Scripture: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Rom8v28.

The trouble is Christians are not immune from some terrifying illnesses that bring NO benefit to the sufferer. I had an aunt who suffered from Alzheimer's disease; an uncle severely disabled by a stroke and a father whose final years were blighted by Parkinson's disease. I do not believe that these misfortunes contributed any good to my aunt, uncle or father. I know of a young Christian man who succumbed to schizophrenia and drowned himself in a slurry pit. How did his schizophrenia contribute to his well being. The husband of one of my cousins, a keen Methodist, sinking yet again into depression could bear it no longer and put his head on a railway line. Was depression one of the things in his life that worked for his good?

When there is a gulf between what the Bible says and what we experience in life we need to be absolutely sure the interpretation from the Greek to the English is correct and we have got the meaning right from the context. There are at least eight different interpretations of Romans8v28. Some are much more realistic than the one in either the AV or NIV. See my exposition on Rom8v28to39.

(g) Finally there are too many Christians who are reluctant to accept that true believers are to be found in denominations that differ considerably from them in belief and practice. I think Job might say to them, as he said to his "comforters", "You need to get out more."

Many Christians are insular. The only denomination they know is the one they belong to. So who are they to judge Christians from other traditions of whom they know little.

I attended a meeting recently where the speaker was Victor Jack. For many years he worked as a chaplain at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. In the course of the meeting I attended we sang Charles H. Gabriel's famous hymn:

          I stand amazed in the presence
          Of Jesus the Nazarene,
          And wonder how he could love me,
          A sinner, condemned, unclean.

After finishing Victor said, "When visiting parties of Mormons sing that hymn at the Garden Tomb they do so with the tears streaming down their cheeks."

The words meant something very important to them!

          How marvellous! how wonderful!
          And my song shall ever be:
          How marvellous! how wonderful
          Is my Saviour's love for me!

ANY COMMENTS FOR JOHN REED: E-mail jfmreed@talktalk.net

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