Job 11:6-15, Job’s Friends Had No Authority (3)

·       Zophar: Eliphaz was a mystic; Bildad depended on the fathers.  In one sense it’s a little harder to “label” Zophar.  Having said that, I still think, from Job 11, that you can see on what Zophar bases his ideas.  It’s his unquestioned theology.  He has a view of God, and bases everything on that theology.  For example, Zophar’s God is huge, without limits, so much so that Job just can’t figure out what God is doing (11:7-9).  That is, of course, a true statement.  But in the process of trying to exalt God, Zophar applies his theology by belittling Job (11:10-12).  The conclusion is, like the others, that Job needs to deal with wickedness; then everything would be good ((11:13-15).  As is often the case, Zophar’s hardline theology means he is good at “guilt!”

o   So, what is the problem with Zophar’s source of authority?  The easy answer is that it does not bring him to the truth.  You might think that Zophar’s big God is the God of Job 38-42.  But the problem is how he “applies” this truth.  The Lord’s “application” is that Job needs to be silent before Him, and trust Him in what He is doing.  But Zophar’s application is: God is big, and you are trying to make yourself bigger than God by denying your sin.  But as we know from Job 1-2, that is not the issue.  If Job is really a sinner, then Zophar needs to tell Job his sin.  Like the others, he can’t.

o   Related to this, I want to comment on something Job said in 9:12: “If He (God) takes away, who can hinder Him?  Who can say to Him, ‘What are you doing?’”  Job is making a theological statement that is quite strong on God’s sovereignty.  The question I want to ask is this: Is God unpredictably sovereign?  It might seem so to us because, after all, “He is past finding out” (Rom. 11:33-36).  Even the angels don’t know God’s workings (Eph. 3:8-12).  But is that the same as being unpredictable?  What else do we know about God?  Many things that are absolute, including His immutability (unchanging) and justice (always righteous).  Another thing we know is that He reveals all we need to know through His prophets (Amos 3:7).  Yes, the secret things belong to God but the things revealed belong to us (Deut. 29:29).  Again, His ways are above our ways (Isa. 55:8-9).  But that does not mean He does not have a plan or that He will be unfaithful to His plan.  God cannot deny Himself (2 Tim. 2:13).  If He cannot deny Himself, then there is a sense in which I, and Job, can predict God’s action.  No, not the specific action; but we can know He will act in a way that will fit who He is.  So perhaps the word is not that He is “predictable” but that He is not “capricious” (unpredictable because one is impulsive or whimsical).  This is the nature of faith: it trusts in a God who is predictably trustworthy, but Whose ways are beyond finding out.  Keep this in mind as you come to God in prayer, and as you walk in this world with all its uncertainties.