Page 72 - Reading Job to Know God

I call this warning “the reproof of words”. According to this verse a
person who is desperate speaks with words that are wind. That is, when a
person is under pressure, he says a lot of things he doesn’t really mean.
That is what this verse is teaching. You have probably known that in your
own lives. Something has come up in your life and you are under a great
deal of pressure, and you say things that you do not really mean to say.
When a person is desperate, Job said, “Do you intend to reprove my
words, when the words of one in despair belong to the wind?” Even
when a person is not under pressure, a lot of what he says is wind. So I
would be careful and try not be too harsh on those who mouth off when
they are under pressure. Their speech is wind. Let’s be gentle. Let’s walk
softly in dealing with them.
That brings us then to chapters 3-31, man’s futile attempts to answer the
mysteries of life. Before we look into the debates, which actually begin in
chapter 4, let me show you how chapter 3 is the foundation for all of
them. It is a unique chapter, and it has been a source of real trouble to
many commentators. As I told you last time, in chapters 4-31 the three
friends of Job are trying to address the mysteries of life – why is there
suffering? They only have the one answer. Suffering is because of sin.
The wicked suffer, therefore, Job must be wicked.

Job chapter 3 shows what a surface discussion chapters 4-31 really are. I
am so amazed at the speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. The fact is,
apart from their false premise about Job, there is not an awful lot you can
disagree with. If you read Eliphaz, if you read Bildad, if you read Zophar,
they say some marvelous things. Their philosophy, though it is ill- based,
was perfectly correct as far as it went. Of course, it did not go far enough.
Let me illustrate. Eliphaz, for example. Chapter 4, verse 6,

“Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your
ways your hope?”

Isn’t that a marvelous verse? Look at verse 17,
“Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his
Maker? He puts no trust even in His servants; And against His
angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses
of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the
moth!”

Isn’t that marvelous? Look at chapter 5, verse 8,
“But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause
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