Job 11:4
For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure,
and I am clean in God's eyes.’
Tag: Context Matters in a “Discussion”
In chapter 11, Zophar, the last of Job’s three friends, now gives his commentary on Job’s condition and situation. As a “friend” and “counselor,” Zophar has absolutely no empathy for Job. Zophar is harsh in his attack of Job and not the least attempting to comfort Job. Remember, that was the designed mission of the three friends:
Job 2:11
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.
Each of the three will soon replace words of comfort for words of correction. Zophar is the worst in this new quest. In the above passage, Zophar uses Job’s words against him. He doesn’t use an exact quote when he states, “For you say ...”. But, he summarizes what he “heard” in Job’s speech in chapters 9-10. Job has, in Zophar’s mind, attempted to “defend” himself and, yet, Zophar’s main philosophy is that if something bad is happening to you, you are simply getting what you deserve; in fact you are probably getting less than you deserve:
Job 11:6
and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom!
For he is manifold in understanding.
Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.
How, as a friend, do you go from being a friend of comfort to taking the words of this hurting man and turning them against him? Zophar is a great picture of the judgmental believer. Technically Zophar is right. Job DID say something like this in chapter’s nine and ten. In speaking about and to God, note what Job says:
Job 9:15
Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
Job 10:7
although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is none to deliver out of your hand?
Remember, Job is in extreme pain. We know that Job is, indeed, “righteous” accounting to God (Job 1:1). Yet, Zophar, rather than comfort and console and encourage, condemns and uses Job’s own words against him. Zophar has NO other conclusion that to think suffering is a result of sin in the life of Job. God is, rather, using suffering to purify Job and to assist Job in learning more about the grace of God. Yet, Zophar has to be right and he condemns Job for making such claims. In our discipleship of others and our desire to help them, Zophar stands as a great reminder to be careful to not twist the words of the hurting to support the ONLY narrative we have created in our mind. Zophar is wrong. The very words he is saying to Job (“your conclusions about your condition are wrong”) is also true for Zophar ... his conclusions were wrong. He should hav spent his time simply telling Job about God’s great mercy, rather than using this time as a platform to condemn a hurting man. We would do better to allow God to condemn and judge. We ought to stick to pointing others to God.
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