Job Chapter 20
Please read: Job 20 –
As we progress further in the book of Job, we find that his friends are becoming more creative and more cruel with how they say the same thing. They are convinced that Job has sinned some terrible sin that he refuses to confess to. In our culture today we would say that Zophar is doubling down on his critical spirit of his friend Job. Zophar is offended that Job will not listen to his great wisdom. Perhaps he is one of the men mentioned in an earlier chapter that is older than Job and has grey hair. He definitely believes himself to be much wiser than Job and astounded that Job refuses to heed their warnings.
In all that Zophar described that happens to a wicked man, he sums it up in the last verse. This conclusion will be the last of Zophar and he is not recorded in the book as speaking again. His conclusion is this, a wicked man is judged by God, period. It is as if he is saying to Job if the shoe fits…Job you are being judged by God therefore you are a wicked sinner. Never is there any consideration that Job might be telling the truth. Never is there any consideration that God may work in mysterious ways to bring about His purpose.
Let's Reflect
1. According to Zophar in verse 5, how long do the wicked get to enjoy being wicked? Do you find this to be true? Because I do not find that to be true always. In the next chapter Job addresses this statement.
2. Zophar uses some pretty disgusting descriptions of how quickly the wicked man will be judged, disappear from this life, and be forgotten. According to verse 11 when the wicked man dies what happens to his body? Isn’t that what happens to everyone’s body when they die?
3. The sins of the wicked man may gain him riches and greatness, but Zophar says that it will quickly change. It will be like the food in his stomach will turn and it will be like he swallowed what? See verse 14.
4. In verse 19 the wicked man has wronged people to gain his wealth but according to the previous verse he will not get to enjoy what?
5. Zophar says that a person who is wicked has no contentment in life because he always wants more. He compares the insatiable wants of the wicked man to a glutenous man who cannot stop eating. Now let’s just think about what Zophar is saying here in front of poor Job who has not been able to eat and he is malnourished. These words are cruel to say the least. But Zophar believes that the glutenous man or the wicked man who cannot be content with what he has will be punished by whom?
6. Verse 26 certainly describes the wicked going to hell when he dies. This would imply that Zophar believes Job will go where, when he dies?
7. God’s wrath is real. God’s judgements are real. Hell is real. We never want to make light of those truths for sure, but Job was a righteous and upright man and for his friends to pass judgement on him like this is wrong. Only God knows the heart. This is the danger of relying on religion and its set of scales. We cannot know the heart of another person as God does. Do you think that Job’s friends truly cared about him and wanted to see Job confess his supposed great sins? Or do you think it was more about their own personal pride of “knowing” how God works?
