There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with Zophar’s complaint. From one point of view, it’s an effective and accurate speech. It’s pretty fierce, though, a slap shot fired from the point with an unstoppable force. And it’s very, very personal.
Zophar’s right. We can’t get at the deep things of God (v 7).
Read More accusationJob fires back. “I’m as good as you are, better even” (vs 1-2). But that doesn’t seem to do Job any good at all. He is still in deep trouble. People have nothing but contempt for him.
We rarely get ourselves out of trouble by claiming that we are better than others—or even by being better than others.
Read More sovereignty, authority“Look, I’ve heard enough from you guys: you’re hopeless, useless and wrong. And I’m not going to waste any more words on you.”
“There is someone I want to talk to, though; and that’s God. So give me a chance; you guys shut up. And let me speak to God.”
That’s Job in a nutshell.
Read More questions, arguing, pleading, conversationsThis reads like total cynicism and complete despair. Like a treatise on the hopelessness of being a human being. One could almost imagine this as a pre-suicide note in a television police drama. And it is Job who is talking: Job, our biblical hero.
What does it mean to be a human being? A birth, a troubled and short life, and a death. A temporary pain to oneself and to others. “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” wrote Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century. And this chapter seems to echo those sentiments.
Read More pessimism, despairOkay, the gloves are coming off now. The language is rude and crude.
This is the second round in a prize fight. In the first round, Eliphaz managed a compliment or two, a nice waltz around the ring, little jabs of affirmation. But now Eliphaz comes out swinging, wild punches of devastating insult, a complete moral destruction, a merciless character assassination of his friend/enemy, Job.
Read More insensitivity, arroganceAfter such a devastating attack it is amazing that Job can even lift his head for a response, can even open his mouth to defend himself.
But often the best defence is to go on the attack. So, yes, Eliphaz, you are a miserable comforter, a bag of wind yourself. And if I were in your shoes I too would find it just as easy to mount the attack, to gather the insults, to punch and pound an opponent.
Read More blame, despair, deathBildad steps into the ring. Coached by Eliphaz at the beginning of the second round, Bildad launches a furious burst of invective against the wicked. The wicked deserve all they’re going to get; and more.
It’s a simple-minded and single-minded sermon. There are, so Bildad would argue, just two groups in the world, the righteous and the wicked. And the wicked have had it!
Read More righteous, sinnerIt wouldn’t be so bad if Zophar were writing an essay in a first year class at theological college. It wouldn’t be so bad if we were reading some kind of attempt to spell out what happens to wicked people in the economy of the Judaic God. It wouldn’t be so bad…though we might well wonder how the professor would mark this essay! It is incredibly fundamental, unfeeling, simplistic.
Read More anger, attackThere’s a marvellous comparison between Zophar’s fundamental simplicity that writes off the wicked in virtually a single stroke, and Job’s thoughtful exploration of human nature in relationship to God.
I want, says Job, to do my thinking in the presence of God, as a conversation partner with God.
Read More comfort, self-sufficiency