Job 21 – God’s dealing can come in different ways

Zophar seemed to have adopted the popular philosophy that suffering belongs to all sinners and prosperity to all righteous man. In what he said to Job, he was actually propagating this viewpoint. Job repudiated this thinking. It’s true that the wicked are destroyed by their sin yet there are some who seem to experience otherwise. Job, in verses 6-16, insisted that he had seen wicked men flourish, their stock increasing and their children established. They were not religious and God was never part of their lives, yet their pleasure seemed to be abounding. And they died in peace. This however, was not always the case. In verses 17-21, Job also had seen other wicked utterly destroyed. Job’s point was this: the experiences of life indicate no set pattern is cast in stone. Thus, it was wrong for Zophar to typify every case so definitively. Just as wicked men do not always suffer, neither will good man always prosper. In verses 22-34, Job set out to remind Zophar and his other two friends that they were not wiser than God. Therefore, they should not impose their thinking on God. Neither should they so flippantly propagate their viewpoint and insist that God has only one fixed way of dealing with men.  

What principles can we glean for our life in this Job 21? We should never be weary to stand for God and the truth. When we align our allegiance with God we have the best ally in our life. Here we are taught not to be so dogmatic. We must hold gently and lightly to what we know. Be sure to practice what is clear obediently, but trust God to eventually provide the answer for those experiences we do not clearly comprehend. Be assured that in His time, God will make all things beautiful. Know that the best soul on earth does not automatically preclude hard times. We can never be free from facing tough situations and answering hard questions in life. But we can be sure God’s best gifts are equally open to all, saint and sinners. This is proven in the Gospel. It tells us that God commended His love towards us while we were yet sinners. Someone said it it’s better to be God’s wheat than the devil’s chaff, because bruising may come upon the wheat, but the chaff will be blown away or gathered as fuel for fire.    

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.” 

Job 19 – Hope does not fail

In this chapter, Job made his reply to Bildad the second time. He added nothing new to what he told him the very first time. Reiterating how he felt, Job expressed his present loneliness. He felt so deserted, alienated and hopeless in his situation. Be sure that Job was not alone in this type of experiences. Some of us must have also gone through moments like his. Though surrounded by people, even those we trust and look up to, yet we have never felt more alone. The people we trust just don’t seem to understand and empathize with what is happening to us. Their seeming inability to comprehend what we are going through would leave us feeling frustrated, deserted and all alone.

This, perhaps, was how our Lord Jesus must have felt when he was struggling in prayer alone in Gethsemane. He came to His closest disciples, Peter, James and John, three times and they couldn’t even watch with Him for an hour. When he was hanging between heaven and earth on the cross He even felt that His Father had deserted Him. We all can recall this agonizing question, “Father, why have you forsaken me?”  

Feeling deserted and abandoned was how Job felt at this point. However, he kept his sight on the future, and expressed hope that he would be delivered. He hoped that God would exonerate him sometime in the future. Aware of it or not, in all his loneliness, his confidence in God was hidden latent within him. Hence, he could express so assuredly in verses 25 that “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” Here, he reached another high point in his courage and faith. Job was truly confident that God would affirm his righteousness.   

One message of Job seems clear here. Men may forsake us, even our family and those closest to us may fail us, God never will.  Worthy of emulation is how Job clung on to his faith in God, whom he was sure has the final authority over life and death. He expressed trust in Him despite what he was going through and the injustices he felt. Like Job, we can be sustained by our hope in Christ, our Redeemer. Our faith must look up to Him, and in Him we can confidently rest.     

Job 18 – Being correct is better than being brilliant

Having heard Job’s response to Eliphaz, Bildad resented how he kept insisting on his innocence. He objected angrily at how Job spoke about himself and God. Both Eliphaz and Bildad dealt with the subject of destruction of the wicked. Eliphaz saw the punishment of the wicked from his conscience, Bildad saw destruction coming from without. Nature itself came against the sinner. Eliphaz rebuked Job for dealing with his friends unfairly, calling them by all sorts of names such as: annoying comforters, scorners, mockers, blind and ignorant advisers. Bildad felt that Job had also maligned his friends thinking that they were stupid and beastly. Besides, he felt that Job had also accused God without according Him the reverence. In Job 18:4, Bildad told Job that it was not God who had torn him up but it was his own uncontrolled fury against God that was tearing him up.

Bildad then described the downfall of the wicked using several figures of speech. While he spoke about it generally, he was referencing Job in veiled language. He lumped Job together with sinful men and spoke generally about the negative experiences sinners would have to endure. In verses 5-7, he was saying that the light of the sinners would go out, meaning they would experience darkness. In verses 8-11, Bildad said that sinners would be snared and be caught in their own errors. Verses 12-14 describe for us how sinners would be stricken physically and devoured. In verses 15-17, we are told of the extinction of the sinners’ name and race. Finally, in verses 18-21, Bildad said that what sinners would go through would puzzle and astound the onlookers.  

What Bildad did to Job is something that we should never do to another person, no matter how justified we feel about it. It is better to be true and correct in what we say more than being brilliant in our presentation. No matter how right our message maybe, it is pointless when administered to the wrong person. A right message can only make impact when it is given to the right recipient.  

Job 17:3-16 – The nature of true hope

Job was obviously feeling the tremendous weight of the false accusations of his friends and his failing health, that he was resigned to die. Yet he maintained his innocence and was sure that his guiltless blood would cry out for exoneration. Though he was reeling under the tremendous weight of his condition, he was sure God would ultimately vindicate him, even if the exoneration would take place after his death. For he was certain that God’s justice would prevail. His three friends had insisted that if he repents, healing and restoration would come upon him and he would be restored. Job however, felt he would die, and maintain that death and the grave awaited him.

Verse 9 deserves special mention. Job said, “…the righteous will hold to his way, and he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.” This is a very insightful statement concerning one, who despite being just, and yet had to undergo suffering. Such a person remains firm and continues to trust God despite his inability to understand or explain his predicament. He would not vacillate in his trust and conviction about God. Suffering cannot rock him. He remains righteous despite his suffering. He becomes stronger and stronger instead of crumbling and succumbing to his plight. Even though he may not understand why he had to go through the suffering, he remains trustful of God and will not cave in. The inner resolve of such a righteous man continues to be strengthened even if it means that he has to pay dearly for being righteous.

In these verses, we get an insight into the nature of true hope. Such a hope is founded on God who never fails. The faithfulness of God is the foundation of true hope. In hardship, a person with such a hope continues to trust God and does not doubt Him. And the key to growing in true hope is to build it through knowing, trusting and living by the promises He has made in His Word.

Job 16:18-17:2 – The certainty of God’s love

Discouraged by his condition, Job seemed to lose control and gave up on any hope of being restored. Yet he wished for vindication in the life to come. Job was insistent that even in death his blood would not stop crying out his innocence. And he pleaded with the earth not to cover his innocent blood. But in the midst of all his despair, verse 19 reveals that inwardly, he still had a little glimmer of remaining faith. He expressed his faith that he had an advocate in heaven who would testify on his behalf to ensure that he be justly dealt with. 

Who is this advocate before God? He couldn’t be talking about God, as he had earlier felt that the Almighty was opposing him. Could Job have caught a glimpse of Christ the redeemer at this point? He could have caught a glimpse of Christ in His pre-incarnation. We know that Christ was there in the beginning, in the eternal council of God. Speaking prophetically, Job could be talking about Jesus Christ. We can only postulate concerning his situation. But for us, we are sure that Jesus our advocate is at the right hand of God. He is always speaking on our behalf against all of Satan’s accusations. This is what the apostle John in his letter tells us. He said we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sin.  

In Job’s estimate his friends were mockers. He could not expect any sympathy from them. Hence, Job took the right course. He pleaded with God and wept before Him and yearned for someone to speak out on his behalf. In his horrendous suffering and the incessant criticism of his friends, Job felt the imminence and inevitability of death. Job then conclude his appeal here by describing his plight. His spirit was broken and was existing like a little flickering flame about to be extinguished. Yet his friends did not stop mocking him and he had to endure their provocation. Job was amazed by his friends’ impudence.  

Reading these verses leads us to the conclusion that our faith must rest in God alone. The source of true faith is God. When we come to Him, we have a faithful friend. He always hears us for His ears are not dull that He cannot hear us. And we truly have an advocate in the eternal council of God, Jesus The Righteous. He is always pleading to God on our behalf. That’s why nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. What a comforting thought!

Job 16:6-17 – God will never abandon us

In these verses, Job painted a pathetic pictured of him being rejected by God as well as his friends. He felt the weight of loneliness and isolation. So, whether he spoke out or refrained from speaking, his condition did not get better. He even felt that God was the cause for the desertion of his friends. And that He even turned his friends into his enemies. Assuming that his condition was an indication of his guilt, all those whom he had leaned on for support had strangely turned against him. Attributing to God as the cause, he felt intensely the treatment of those who were once his friends. They, it seemed, had come to devour him. It was as if God had handed him over to the ruffians.  

Recalling how he was at ease and resting in comfort and security, when all of a sudden God seemed to target him. He described how brutally he was treated. His friends had suddenly become his enemies. They had seized upon him, dashing him into pieces. God had made him the target of His arrows that ripped into him, spilling his internal organs to the ground. He felt like a fort that had been breached and stormed by warriors. In verses 15-17, he felt the destructive impact brought onto him. He became mournful and felt totally humiliated. Verse 16 talked about how he despaired and cried until his eyes were swollen with redness and his sight had become blur. Even going through all these intense sufferings, he couldn’t identify his misdeeds to warrant them. He insisted that he had exercised integrity and his prayer was pure. The way he framed his speech tells us that he was repudiating the insinuation that he was sinful to be inflicted with such a condition.  

Know that in the midst of our suffering, we are still being held firmly in the hand of God. We need to be reminded that our feelings are never perfect representation of His dealings. We must get used to the fact that in living for Him, we need to deal with the negative representation of God from people we associate with. Be assured that sufferings do not always represent divine punishment but they are always designed to produce our dependency on God. No matter how bleak our storm may be, He has the power to sooth it. Certainly, God will use others as instruments to deal with us but take heart, He will never abandon us.