We want to take a look at this interaction between Job and his three friends today.
And as we do we will see 3 progressively worse judgments from Job’s friends. Then
we’ll look at 2 conflicting thoughts going on in Job’s mind. But finally, we’ll look
at 1 firm answer from God.
Let me fill in the gaps for you between our last sermon and the chapter before you
today. This is critical for understanding what Job says. From Chapters 4-11 of Job
we are introduced to these three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. Each comes
forward to say his peace one at a time, and Job immediately responds in a chapter
or two of his own to each of them, volleying arguments back and forth, a virtual
three against one. This actually goes on for 28 chapters, all the way to chapter
31. Each “friend” takes three opportunities to speak, with Zophar even forfeiting
his third word, finding nothing more to say.
Job opens his words here in a response to Zophar quite sarcastically. Really he’s
speaking to all three of them when he says, “Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom
will die with you! But I have a mind as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Who
does not know all these things?” (12:2,3). What is it that they were telling him?
God is behind all of this—that is all they could say.
Eliphaz takes opportunity to speak first in chapters 4 and 5. He essentially tells
Job that if he is innocent, he should have nothing to fear from God. But he says
it in such a way that it implies that he is questioning the protasis of this statement:
if you are righteous. His statement in 4:17 seem to bring Job’s righteousness into
question. “Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his
Maker?” But then he says, “But if it were I, I would appeal to God; I would lay my
cause before him” (5:8). “I’m sure you have a case Job. IF you are innocent, then
you have nothing to fear.”
Job responds to Eliphaz in chapters 7-8, but then the second friend, Bildad, takes
a shot. And like a boxer who is still trying to recover from the jolt he got a moment
ago, he now gets blasted with another crushing blow. Bildad said to him, “How long
will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind. Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right? When your children sinned against him, he
gave them over to the penalty of their sin” (8:3,4). After hearing Job defend himself
before Eliphaz that God was treating him unfairly, Bildad felt the need to come to
God’s defense. “God is not unfair. Your kids got what they deserved.” And like a
sentence that slips out of the mouth, you want to grab it and pull it back, but it
is too late. Bildad, however, doesn’t even consider his damaging words. He keeps
right on rolling. In the end he has said to Job, “God must be just, so you must deserve
this. But talk to God and see what he has to say.”
Now you can see why Job was sent on such a tailspin from his friends. Job rambles
on in chapters 9-10, but come chapter 11, Zophar gets his shot, and he lays a haymaker.
“Are all these words to go unanswered? Is this talker to be vindicated? Will your
idle talk reduce men to silence? Will no one rebuke you when you mock? You say to
God, ‘My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.’ Oh, how I wish that God
would speak, that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secrets
of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know this: God has even forgotten some
of your sin” (11:2-6).
