Page 106 - Job

I will ask you to turn to Job chapter 11. Now, remember, every time Job
speaks, it is with increased vehemence. He is trying to communicate
something that he does not know how to put into words – hence the
frustration. They are answering what he is saying, not what he is feeling.
And so their answer is not the answer because his question is not the
question. Job is trying, by this vehemence, to break the crust and to get down
to the depths, but the more animated he gets the more defensive they get.
Listen to the way he talks about God! Listen to how he accuses God! Listen
to his prayer! He must be a wicked man.
And so Zophar speaks. He could not stand the questions that Job threw at
Bildad in chapter 10. In Zophar’s mind, two things are clear. At this point
he was convinced that Job really believed he was innocent. To Zophar, that
was an amazing thing. And then the second thing he believed was that God
regarded Job as guilty. Now, to Zophar’s mind, that was the cause of all this
trouble. Here is what Job knows about Job. Here is what God knows about
Job. Zophar is convinced that Job is a wicked sinner, but he allows the
possibility that Job is naive, that Job does not know that he is a sinner. His
argument is; Job, you may not be aware of your sin, but God knows about it.
And so the whole argument in chapter 11 is about the knowledge of God, the
wisdom of God, the omniscience of God.
In The New American Standard you see a little break there after verse 6 and
a little break after verse 12, and it is accurate. Zophar’s answer is in three
parts. The first six verses, then 7-12, then 13-20. Job said I wish God would
come down in person and we could talk this thing out. That is what Job
wanted. Let’s just get this thing out once and for all. And so, in chapter 11
Zophar says “You don’t know what you are asking for”. 11:5-6
“But would that God might speak, and open His lips against you, and
show you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides.
Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity.”

What does that mean, “That God forgets a part of your iniquity?” Look in
the margin, please. In the Hebrew it says, “causes to be forgotten for you”.
In other words, what Zophar is saying is that God is wiser than you, Job.
God allows you to forget what you did wrong. There is sin in your heart but
you just do not see it, because you are not as wise as God. God sees your sin.
And then in verses 11 and 12,
“For He knows false men, and He sees iniquity without investigating.
An idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born
a man.”
In other words, there is an unbridgeable gulf between a man and a donkey,

106