Job 11:1-20

Zophar now takes the floor to share his perspective on Job’s situation.  He scolds Job for claiming to be righteous and for complaining about his circumstance.  In his opening statement he claims that Job deserves worse suffering than he already has.  I have a hard time imagining how Job’s suffering could grow worse, but Zophar was convinced that Job deserved all that he was suffering and more.  The reality is that Zophar is absolutely correct.  Job did deserve much worse than he was suffering because he was a sinner just like every single one of us.  Job deserved to spend an eternity separated from God and suffering in hell.  That is what each of us deserves.  However, we serve a God who does not deal with us based on what we deserve but based on His mercy and grace.  Zophar was not theologically wrong, but he certainly said the wrong thing at the wrong time.  What he fails to mention was that he was in the same boat as Job and that he too was deserving of suffering worse than Job’s.  Zophar defends two beliefs that are all too common in the hearts of men today.

ALL SUFFERING IS A SIGN OF SIN: He begins this section by pointing out that the Lord is all-knowing and that He is so far above us that we cannot call him into question.  This is very true.  God is high above us and His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).  However it is amazing that the conclusion that he draws from this correct theology is that Job is suffering because he is guilty of sin.  Certainly God, whom he describes beautifully as being so high, has greater purposes in suffering than simply punishing us for our sin.  It is true that sin introduced suffering into the perfect creation of our Lord.  However, we must not limit the uses that our wise God has for suffering.  He uses it to grow us and mold us and in this case He was using it to prove the faithfulness of Job to Satan.  We must never try to simplify God or the way that He deals with men.  Suffering is one of His favorite brushes with which He is painting the masterpiece of the Body of Christ.

ALL REWARDS ARE THE RESULT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: Zophar begs Job to simply admit his sin, repent of that sin and then sit back and watch God bless Him with the rewards that righteousness brings.  Once again, this is a very simplistic view of God and His dealings with men.  It goes back to an underlying belief that God deals with men according to their merits.  This is not true!  The only thing any of us can merit is death because of our sin.  God deals with men based on His mercy and grace as demonstrated on the cross.  None of our rewards are ever deserved.  The fact that we are not consumed is pure mercy and grace.  We do not manipulate temporal rewards from the hand of God through our acts of righteousness.  He distributes rewards as He determines will demonstrate His glory most effectively.  We must praise God every hour of every day that He does not deal with us according to our merits.

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