Job 20 – Engaging in needless controversy is worrisome

Hearing what Job told Bildad, Zophar became angry. He already felt that Job had treated his previous speech with contempt. And now he had the audacity to threaten him and his other friends with the sword of judgement (Job 19:29). Job seemed to have accused God of deserting him yet at the same time proclaimed that as his Redeemer, He would exonerate him after he had died. Agitated by Job’s bitterness and inconsistency, Zophar could not remain silent any longer. So, full of passion, he exploded with his second speech in response to the things Job told Bildad.  

In the first 14 verses, Zophar maintained that the prosperity of the wicked would be transitory. He was sure that the sweetness of their sin would turn bitter. Then in verses 15-29, he asserted that while man could be satisfied quickly by his sinful desires, he would also become sick of it all and unable to enjoy them. Zophar illustrated graphically with a picture of a powerful rich man who was made poor and weak suddenly. He was in fact bluntly and brutally indicating to Job that he was that man.

We can see that unfriendly bantering is often not only controversial but also irritating. Engaging in it will lead a person to speak out in exaggeration rather than laying out logical reasons to substantiate one’s point. There is also this tendency to generate anger leading one to denigrate another with frustration. In such needless bantering, half-truths are often mistaken for the whole, a brilliant insight taken for a universal truth and an occasional idea can be interpreted as a perpetual truth. No wonder Paul’s advice in Titus 3:9 is to “…avoid foolish controversies … for they are unprofitable and worthless.”