Zophar's Interruption
". . . The Lord whose fire is in
Whose furnace is in
—Isa.31:9
As Job confidently talks about his Living Redeemer who will be his vindicator when He comes to judge the world, Zophar, feeling indignant with Job, jumps in with his reply. He doesn't even wait for Job to finish what he is saying.
Zophar says that he has heard Job's reproof putting him to shame, and his thoughts come so rapidly into his mind that he must speak. "Job, don't you know that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless lasts but a moment?"
Zophar must have noticed the tone of victory in Job's voice as, in the depths of suffering, he gets the revelation of the Redeemer. Zophar figures it is just a passing emotional high or something, nothing more than 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 is nothing more than the emotional joy of the godless! Zophar said he was speaking out of his "understanding," or, as we would say, he was using common sense! If Job was suffering for some hidden sin, then it was foolish to ignore the truth and to talk of seeing God at some future time!
You will hear those same words every time you take a step of faith that violates what, to many, seems to be the logical alternative. "You can't give that money away . . . you can't afford it!" "What do you mean 'You're healed?' I can see you're not!" "Why in the world would you ____________ (fill in the blank), that has to be the most foolish thing I've heard." The list goes on, and I am sure you have heard many more like them.
We say those who are impractical in facing the facts of life are "living with their heads in the clouds." Zophar seems to make this same charge against Job when he says the godless man may "rise up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds; yet he will perish forever." Did he always think Job was a "visionary" in religious matters?
There is really no need to follow Zophar very carefully as he presents once again the "portion of the wicked man," and the "heritage appointed to them by God." It is a wearisome harping on the same theme introduced by Eliphaz, continued by Bildad, and now taken up again by Zophar.
Zophar's main point that is important for us to see is that the wicked must have their portion in this present world. According to Zophar, the godless will be chased away like a vision in the night; his children will be oppressed; he might obtain wealth but he will lose it all; he will keep nothing that he rejoiced in; his prosperity will not endure; every man's hand will be against him; terror will be on him; a fire not kindled by man will devour him; the very heavens will reveal his sin, and the earth rise up against him.
We get the picture.
Job's Reply
Evidently Job's anguish has 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 that should belong to a man who walks in fellowship with God has returned. He had gotten angry under Zophar's accusations before, but now a calm, peacefulness returned the moment he remembered that God was permitting his friends to deal with him the way they have. 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 beg for their pity or ask them to leave again. They had come with the intention of helping him, and as long as they wished to remain, he would talk with them.
How foolish I have been—Job possibly thought—why did I argue with these friends of mine? I saw from the beginning that they did not understand. I wish I had just silently left my case with God. They have looked up to me in the past, and believed that my walk with God was so secure that I would never be troubled. Why have I allowed their words to touch me, and foolishly wear away my spirit in trying to make them understand!
Job's picture of the wicked
"Bear with me while I speak" 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 by first saying, "As for me, is my complaint directed to man, and if it were, why shouldn't my spirit be troubled?" Job realizes very clearly that he is only human. Sure, he has walked with God, but why should he not feel trouble like other men?
In reply to Zophar, Job presents an entirely different 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; they are not left without offspring, for their children are established before their eye; their homes are in peace, and the rod of God is not on them; their cattle increase; their children dance and sing; in short, they spend their days in prosperity and go to the grave quickly, and without much suffering, despite the fact they deliberately said to God, "Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him?"
"You say their prosperity is not in their hands" Job argues, but, "How often is the lamp of the wicked snuffed out, and how often does calamity come on them?" It is true that "God stores up a man's punishment for his sons," because the sins of the fathers are passed onto the children and the consequence of sin goes on to the second and third and fourth generation. Nevertheless, as to outward prosperity in the things of this world, the wicked often “have more than their hearts could want. Are we, finite men, going to teach God how to deal with the world, seeing that He judges even the angels?"
The fact is we cannot trace the ways of God. Some men die peacefully when they are in the prime of life, and others die bitter and hateful, without ever enjoying anything in life. They lie in the grave, and the worm deals with each of them the same way. We can't explain these things, or even theorize on them nor can we assert, in the face of facts, that the righteous invariably prosper and the wicked invariably suffer in this present world!
Job looks at himself again
After this calm reply to Zophar, Job reverts again to his personal position. There is no heat or tone of complaint in his language. He simply shows his friends that he understands their aim. "I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me. When you speak of the portion of the wicked you are saying to yourselves, 'Where now is the great man's house? And where is the tent that this wicked man lived in?'"
"I know I have no tent," Job says. The once mighty prince has no place but the dunghill. "But don't you wise men understand that the 'evil man is spared from the day of calamity' and is reserved for a future judgment, even the 'day of wrath?'"
You would-be comforters have sought to comfort me with vain reasoning that have no foundation in fact or scripture, and actual experience, he cries
In your answers to all that I have said there has only been faithlessness; faithlessness in God's faithfulness to His children and faithfulness in the integrity of my walk with Him. Therefore, you have failed to comfort me.
