Job 12:1 Then Job answered,
2 “No doubt, but you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Yes, who doesn’t know such things as these?
4 I am like one who is a joke to his neighbor,
I, who called on God, and he answered.
The just, the blameless man is a joke.
5 In the thought of him who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune.
It is ready for them whose foot slips.
6 The tents of robbers prosper.
Those who provoke God are secure,
who carry their god in their hands.
7 “But ask the animals, now, and they will teach you;
the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you.
The fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who doesn’t know that in all these,
Yahweh’s hand has done this,
10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind?
11 Doesn’t the ear try words,
even as the palate tastes its food?
12 With aged men is wisdom,
in length of days understanding.
13 “With God is wisdom and might.
He has counsel and understanding.
14 Behold, he breaks down, and it can’t be built again.
He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
15 Behold, he withholds the waters, and they dry up.
Again, he sends them out, and they overturn the earth.
16 With him is strength and wisdom.
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leads counselors away plundered.
He makes fools of judges.
18 He loosens the bond of kings.
He binds their waist with a belt.
19 He leads priests away plundered,
and overthrows the mighty.
20 He removes the speech of those who are trusted,
and takes away the understanding of the elders.
21 He pours contempt on princes,
and loosens the belt of the strong.
22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness,
and brings out to light the shadow of death.
23 He increases the nations, and he destroys them.
He enlarges the nations, and he leads them captive.
24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth,
and causes them to wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
25 They grope in the dark without light.
He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Job refuses to contradict God but he has no problem being ruthlessly sarcastic with his friends. He has had enough, saying, “No doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you.” v.2
Because his friends were at ease they have contempt for misfortune. v.5 And the same is true of false counselors today. It is easy to pass off trite, cliche, simplistic, platitudes when you are at ease, when it is not you who are enduring the suffering. Poor counselors who say things like, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life; the Lord never gives you more than you can handle; when God shuts a door he opens a window; God is good all the time; God needed to get your attention, should take a moment and listen to Job. Though well-meaning they had better watch out because their foot is about to slip. v.5 In this life misfortune will find them as well.
Contrary to his friend’s shallow arguments Job says: I have understanding…I am not inferior to you. v.3
Their conception of God was too small. With God is wisdom and might. v.13 God is far bigger than their theology. Job challenges his friends by saying, “Let’s begin by looking at some of the evidence. Things are not as clear as you claim them to be.” So how do the following examples fit into their spirit-inspired, tradition approved, prosperity gospel formulas?
They think wicked men are always punished by God yet we see that: The tents of robbers prosper. Those who provoke God are secure, who carry their god in their hands. v.6 We have all seen the wicked prosper. While on the other hand, people that they respect, counselors, judges, kings, priests, elders, and princes are sometimes plundered, made fools of, silenced and destroyed. v.23
God is sovereign v.9, and sometimes orders all of our experiences without any clearly discernible moral reason from our point of view. Nevertheless God remains God. He is the sovereign and loving God who promises to never leave nor forsake [us]. Hebrews 13:5
Job continues:
Job 13:1 “Behold, my eye has seen all this.
My ear has heard and understood it.
2 What you know, I know also.
I am not inferior to you.
3 “Surely I would speak to the Almighty
I desire to reason with God.
4 But you are forgers of lies.
You are all physicians of no value.
5 Oh that you would be completely silent!
Then you would be wise.
6 Hear now my reasoning.
Listen to the pleadings of my lips.
7 Will you speak unrighteously for God,
and talk deceitfully for him?
8 Will you show partiality to him?
Will you contend for God?
9 Is it good that he should search you out?
Or as one deceives a man, will you deceive him?
10 He will surely reprove you
if you secretly show partiality.
11 Shall not his majesty make you afraid,
and his dread fall on you?
12 Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes.
Your defenses are defenses of clay.
13 “Be silent!
Leave me alone, that I may speak.
Let come on me what will.
14 Why should I take my flesh in my teeth,
and put my life in my hand?
15 Behold, he will kill me. I have no hope.
Nevertheless, I will maintain my ways before him.
16 This also will be my salvation,
that a godless man will not come before him.
17 Listen carefully to my speech.
Let my declaration be in your ears.
18 See now, I have set my cause in order.
I know that I am righteous.
19 Who is he who will contend with me?
For then would I hold my peace and give up the spirit.
20 “Only don’t do two things to me,
then I will not hide myself from your face:
21 withdraw your hand far from me,
and don’t let the dread of you make me afraid.
22 Then call, and I will answer,
or let me speak, and you answer me.
23 How many are my iniquities and sins?
Make me know my disobedience and my sin.
24 Why do you hide your face,
and consider me your enemy?
25 Will you harass a driven leaf?
Will you pursue the dry stubble?
26 For you write bitter things against me,
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth:
27 You also put my feet in the stocks,
and mark all my paths.
You set a bound to the soles of my feet,
28 though I am decaying like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Job says to his friends, “If you are trying to help me you are physicians of no value. You are worthless psychiatrists, worthless doctors, forgers of lies. v.4 In fact, if you wanted to at least appear to be wise you would be completely silent.” v.4-5
Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent. Proverbs 17:29
As we saw, when Job’s friends first came to console him they sat with him for seven days. It was only after Job began to open up about his feelings of despair that his friends were quick to offer destructive and false counsel. They started off on the right track but they couldn’t help themselves. They stopped being comforting and, with the best of intentions, started attacking their friend to solve his problems. They showed their ignorance by persisting with their uninformed, unfounded theological arguments.
Job warns his friends that by continuing to talk they are compounding offense, digging themselves into a deeper hole, because they are speaking unrighteously and deceitfully vs7 about God. They think that they are defending God but in so doing they are speaking falsely. God is not as predictable or manageable as they have come to believe. They are speaking falsehoods in God’s Holy Name. Job’s friends are, in essence, trying to argue God’s case for him. But God doesn’t need their misguided help.
How many false teachings abound in the Church today?
How many atrocities have been committed in God’s Name throughout history?
God warns about misusing his Name.
You shall not misuse the Name of the Lord your God, for the lord will not hold anyone guiltless who uses his Name in vain. Exodus 20:7
It is a serious thing to misrepresent God. As James would warn Christians many millennia later,
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1
And at this point Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are trying to show partiality v.8 toward God. They are willing to misrepresent God in their attacks against their friend. They are willing to ignore the fact that in this life many times the innocent do suffer unfairly. In their defense of God they are straying into serious error because they are misrepresenting God. Job warns:
He will surely reprove you if you secretly show partiality. Shall not his majesty make you afraid, and his dread fall on you? Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ashes. Your defenses are defenses of clay. Be silent! v.10-13
This is a warning to all who claim to have received teachings from spiritual beings, like Eliphaz. This is a warning to all who confuse the traditions of men with the truth of God, like Bildad. This is a warning to all who teach a prosperity or therapeutic gospel, like Zophar. I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me. Jeremiah 23:30 We should all take these warnings to heart. As Christ would warn during his time on earth:
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble and sin by leading him away from My teaching, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. Matthew 18:6
Though perhaps they mean well, Job’s friends, as well as false teachers in our day, are leading people away from the truth. They are not looking at all the data. Because they are overlooking a large portion of the evidence they are not teaching the whole counsel of God. Acts 20:27 They have boxed God into their narrative insisting that God is predictable. Their view of God is uncomplicated and manageable.
They do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan. Micah 4:12
On the other hand Job is convinced that while God is safe and can be trusted God is also very dangerous. He doesn’t understand God’s ways but he is not willing to give up on God. He comes trusting God with a childlike faith. Matthew 18:2-4 He continues to believe in the true God and not the God described to him by his friends. Regardless of what they might say, Job knows that he is righteous. v.18 And though God might kill him, and though he has no hope, nevertheless [Job] will maintain [his] ways before him. v.15
After reproving his friends Job makes two requests of God.
Don’t…withdraw your hand far from me.
Don’t let the dread of you make me afraid. v.21
Job’s belief in God is so strong that, though he is decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten v.28, his faith is still secure. He has not cursed God as Satan predicted. He continues to call on God. Call, and I will answer, or let me speak, and you answer me. v.22
Job 14:1 “Man, who is born of a woman,
is of few days, and full of trouble.
2 He grows up like a flower, and is cut down.
He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
3 Do you open your eyes on such a one,
and bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one.
5 Seeing his days are determined,
the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;
6 Look away from him, that he may rest,
until he accomplishes, as a hireling, his day.
7 “For there is hope for a tree if it is cut down,
that it will sprout again,
that the tender branch of it will not cease.
8 Though its root grows old in the earth,
and its stock dies in the ground,
9 yet through the scent of water it will bud,
and sprout boughs like a plant.
10 But man dies, and is laid low.
Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
11 As the waters fail from the sea,
and the river wastes and dries up,
12 so man lies down and doesn’t rise.
Until the heavens are no more, they will not awake,
nor be roused out of their sleep.
13 “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would keep me secret until your wrath is passed,
that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!
14 If a man dies, will he live again?
I would wait all the days of my warfare,
until my release should come.
15 You will call, and I will answer you.
You would have a desire for the work of your hands.
16 But now you count my steps.
Don’t you watch over my sin?
17 My disobedience is sealed up in a bag.
You fasten up my iniquity.
18 “But the mountain falling comes to nothing.
The rock is removed out of its place;
19 The waters wear the stones.
The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth.
So you destroy the hope of man.
20 You forever prevail against him, and he departs.
You change his face, and send him away.
21 His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it.
They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
22 But his flesh on him has pain,
and his soul within him mourns.”
Here in this earthly life Job has become a man without hope. He concludes that everyone born into this life is bound to see trouble. v.1 Life is fleeting like a shadow. v.2 Like a flower is cut down v.2, mankind is mortal and the number of his days are determined v.5 by God. There is hope for a tree if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease. v.7 But there is no earthly hope for a man, for man dies, and is laid low. v.10
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him. Hebrews 9:27
In fact, Job goes on to say that he would be better off in death. He could hang out in Sheol until God’s wrath against him had passed him by and then God would again remember him.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret until your wrath is passed, that you would appoint me a set time and remember me! v.13
Job is honestly expressing his despair. Though Job no longer hoped for restoration in this life Job continued to place his hope in a restored relationship with God after his death. Although we understand that God never actually abandoned Job, it sure felt that way from Job’s perspective. Yet, Job hoped that God would once again desire him.
You will call, and I will answer you.
You would have a desire for the work of your hands. v.15
Job would never abandon God. He stands ready, at all times, despite the circumstances, to answer God.
And Job was correct. God had such a desire for the work of [his] hands that we now know that he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Do you realize that your salvation and your being reunited with Christ in a restored personal relationship is the reason that Christ endured death on the cross on your behalf? Your salvation brings Christ joy.
Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3
Death destroys the earthly hope of man. v.19 Men frequently cry out as they see their earthly hopes and dreams destroyed in death. His soul within him mourns. v.22 But when you have your eyes fixed on your Redeemer, Job 19:25, Jesus, the perfecter of [your] faith, in death, there is hope.
How was Jesus able to endure death? His eyes were fixed on the joy set before him. He looked forward to purchasing salvation for you. Your salvation was the joy that kept him on the cruel bloody cross.
Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Luke 19:10 and like a merchant seeking choice pearls when he found one pearl of great price he sold all he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46 You were bought with the precious blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:19 It was an unimaginably high price to pay. In his death Christ cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 27:46 He was cut off from the Father and in that moment forsaken. But he endured this death to redeem you.
For the first time in all of eternity, your Creator, the author of life, Jesus Christ, Colossians 1:16-17, was separated from communion with God the Father. On the cross Jesus willingly took on himself the debt that you owed God for your sin. He was forsaken by God so that you would never be forsaken.
It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will never leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:8
When we are caught in the middle of great suffering, when circumstances seem to cloud out the presence of God in our lives, we can know with confidence that Our God will never leave or forsake us. Hebrews 13:5
We are not all like Job, but we all have Job’s God. Though we have neither risen to Job’s wealth, nor will, probably, ever sink to Job’s poverty, yet there is the same God above us if we be high, and the same God with his everlasting arms beneath us if we be brought low; and what the Lord did for Job he will do for us, not precisely in the same form, but in the same spirit, and with like design. (Charles Spurgeon, The Turning of Job’s Captivity, spurgeon.org)