Zophar’s Interruption, and Job’s Reply

“The Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.” — lIsa. xxxi. g.

‘Then answered Zophar... my thoughts give answer... and by reason of this my haste is within me.”’ — Chap. xxi, 2, m.

ji. Job confidently speaks of a Living Redeemer, Who will be his vindicator in the day when He comes to judge the world, Zophar breaks out in haste with his reply, for he feels indignant with Job, and cannot wait for him to finish what he is saying.

Zophar replies that he has heard Job’s reproof putting him to shame, and his thoughts come so rapidly into his mind that he must speak (v. 2, 3). Job — “‘ knowest thou not... that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment’? (v. 5)?

Zophar has noticed the triumphant tone in Job’s voice as, in the depths of suffering, the heavenly light breaks upon his soul. Is it possible that Zophar thinks it but a passing emotion, or the transient exultation of a godless man?

Bildad had called the anguished pleading of Job the “tearing”? of himself with “‘ anger’, and now Zophar thinks the exultation of his spirit to be the emotional joy of the godless! Zophar said he was speaking out of his ‘* understanding’, or, as we would say, he was using his common sense! If Job was suffering for some hidden sin, then it was folly to ignore the truth, and to talk of seeing God at some future time!

We say of those who are unpractical in facing the facts of life, that they “‘ live with their heads in the clouds”, and Zophar seems to make this same charge against Job when he says the godless man may “‘ mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds; yet he shall perish for ever’? (v. 6, 7).

Had he always thought Job to be a “‘ visionary” in religious matters?

There is no need to follow Zophar very carefully in the picture he presents once more to Job of the ‘‘ portion of the wicked man”’, the “heritage appointed unto him by God”. It is a wearisome harping upon the same theme introduced by Bildad,* continued by Eliphaz, and now taken up again by Zophar.

It is sufficient to notice that Zophar’s main idea is that the “wicked” must have their portion in this present world. The godless should be chased away like a vision, of the night (v. 8); his children should be oppressed (v. 10, m.); he might obtain wealth but he should soon lose it all (v. 15); he should keep nothing that he rejoiced in (v. 20); his prosperity would not endure (v. 21); every man’s hand should be against him (v. 22); terror should be upon him (v. 25); a fire not kindled by man should devour him (v. 26); the very heavens should reveal his sin, and the earth rise up against him (v. 27).

Job’s reply “Job answered... Suffer me, and I also will speak.’’ — Chap.

xxi. 1-3.

The keenness of Job’s anguish has evidently subsided. The tossing is over. In the faith of the resurrection his spirit has - passed beyond the reach of his well-intentioned friends. The courtesy and restraint belonging to a man who walks in fellowship with God, once more appears. He had writhed and tossed under the accusations of Zophar, but calm had returned from the moment he remembered that God was permitting his friends thus to deal with him (chap. xix. 193). Since his Vindicator was on high, a Living Redeemer, he would leave his case with Him. For the remainder of the discussion he treats his visitors with marked courtesy and quiet dignity, and he does not again beseech their pity, or ask them to leave him. ‘They had come with the intention of helping him, and as long as they wish to remain he will talk with them.

How foolish I have been — Job possibly thought within himself — why did I reason with these friends of mine? I saw from the beginning that they did not understand. Oh that I had silently left my case with God. They have looked up to me

* Job vill. rg.

in the past, and believed that I so walked with God that I never could be troubled — ah, why have I allowed their words to touch me, and foolishly chafed my own spirit in seeking to make them understand!

Fob’s picture of the wicked “Wherefore do the wicked ... wax mighty in power?”’ —

Chap. xxi. 7.

‘* Suffer me to speak’’ (v. 3, m.), Job courteously replies to Zophar — the one who had been anything but courteous to him — and then he meets him on his own ground. He will ignore the personal element in Zophar’s words, and will discuss the subject entirely apart from himself — first saying, ‘* As for me, is my complaint to man, and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled”? (v. 4, A.V.)? Job feels very keenly that he is but a human being after all. He had walked with God it is true, but why should he not feel trouble like other men?

In reply to Zophar, Job presents an entirely contrary picture of the portion of the wicked, showing that their punishment is not always in this world.

The wicked live and become mighty in power (v. 7); they are not left without offspring, for their children are established before their eyes (v. 8); their houses are in peace, and the rod of God is not upon them (v. 9, m.); their cattle increase (v. 10); their children dance and sing (v. 11, 12); in short, they spend their days in prosperity, and go to the grave quickly, and without much suffering (v. 13), although they deliberately said to God, ‘‘ Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him”? (v. 14, 15)?

“Ye say, Lo, their prosperity is not in their hand,’ Job argues, but, ‘‘ How oft is the lamp of the wicked put out, and how oft cometh their calamity upon them?” (vv. 16, 17, m.). It is true that “God distributeth sorrows in His anger”, and “‘layeth up his iniquity for His children’? (v. 18, m.), for the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children, and the consequences of sin must be even to the third and fourth generation; but as to outward prosperity in the things of this world, the wicked often “have more than heart could wish’’. Shall finite man teach God how to deal with the world, “‘ seeing He judgeth those that are high ’’ — even the angels (v. 22)?

The fact is we cannot trace the ways of God. Some men die peacefully in the time of full strength, and others die in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of good at all (v. 23-25). They lie down in the grave alike, and the worm deals with them alike (v. 26). We cannot explain these things, or theorize upon them; nor can we assert, in the face of facts, that the righteous invariably prosper, and the wicked invariably suffer in this present world.

After this calm reply to Zophar, Job reverts again to his personal position. ‘There is no heat, nor tone of complaint, now in his language. He simply shows his friends that he understands their aim. ‘‘ J know your thoughts and the devices which ye wrong fully imagine against me,” (v. 27) he says. When you speak of the portion of the wicked you are saying to yourselves, ‘* Where is the house of the prince? and where is the tent wherein the wicked dwelt’ (v. 28)?

I know I have now no tent. ‘The once mighty prince has no place but the dung-hill, but do you wise men not understand that the ‘‘ evil man is spared in the day of calamity”? and reserved for a future judgment, even the ‘“‘ day of wrath” (v. 30, m.)?

You would-be comforters have sought to comfort me with vain reasonings that have no foundation in fact, and actual experience.

In your answers to all that I have said there has only been faithlessness (v. 34, m.); faithlessness in God’s faithfulness to His children, and faithlessness in the integrity of my walk with Him, therefore you have failed to comfort me.

Job, Chapters xxii, xxiii, xxiv.