Page 119 - Job
P. 119
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take
His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my
flesh I shall see God: Whom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes
will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
He says, I know that I will be vindicated someday even if it is after this life.
Job is stubborn. He will not yield. And so Zophar says I am going to add
some light to all of this. Like the others, Zophar is also irritated. Job ended
his discussion with Bildad with this suggestion. Verse 29,
“Then be afraid of the sword for yourselves, for wrath brings the
punishment of the sword, so that you may know there is
judgment.”
Job ended his answer to Bildad with a suggestion that God might strike them
down the way He struck him. And old Zophar did not like that insinuation
because that would make him a sufferer and a sinner. Zophar’s great
contribution to this confusion can be summarized in these words.
Chapter 20, verse 5,8 and 23
“That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless
momentary?
“He flies away like a dream, and they cannot find him.”
“When he fills his belly, God will send His fierce anger on him and will
rain it on him while he is eating.”
In other words, nothing new. The wicked suffer. Look at verse 29,
“This is the wicked man’s portion from God, even the heritage decreed
to him by God.”
These guys won’t quit. Since you dragged me back into the argument, okay,
I will try to explain. Chapter 21:3,
“Bear with me that I may speak; Then after I have spoken, you may
mock.”
All right, he says, I will try again. And then Job gives an unanswerable
observation. It is the beginning of shutting their mouths when he says this.
Chapter 21:7. He said, all right, you guys, you have told me how the wicked
suffer. I have heard that until it is coming out my ears.
“Why do the wicked still live, continue on, also become very powerful?
Their descendants are established with them in their sight, and their
offspring before their eyes, their houses are safe from fear, and the
119