Reflections on Job 12

 Job 12 (Contemporary English Version)

1. Job said to his friends:
2. You think you are so great, with all the answers.
3. But I know as much as you do, and so does everyone else.
4. I have always lived right, and God answered my prayers; now friends make fun of me.
5. It's easy to condemn those who are suffering, when you have no troubles.
6. Robbers and other godless people live safely at home and say, "God is in our hands!"
7. If you want to learn, then go and ask the wild animals and the birds,
8. the flowers and the fish.
9. Any of them can tell you what the LORD has done.
10. Every living creature is in the hands of God.
11. We hear with our ears, taste with our tongues,
12. and gain some wisdom from those who have lived a long time.
13. But God is the real source of wisdom and strength.
14. No one can rebuild what he destroys, or release those he has imprisoned.
15. God can hold back the rain or send a flood,
16. just as he rules over liars and those they lie to.
17. God destroys counselors, turns judges into fools,
18. and makes slaves of kings.
19. God removes priests and others who have great power--
20. he confuses wise, experienced advisors,
21. puts mighty kings to shame, and takes away their power.
22. God turns darkness to light;
23. he makes nations strong, then shatters their strength.
24. God strikes their rulers senseless, then leaves them to roam through barren deserts,
25. lost in the dark, staggering like someone drunk.

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Bildad said he had heard enough of Job's babbling and it would seem that Job, too, has heard enough from his friends as he launched a biting retort at them in chapter 12. "No doubt you are the people," he said, "and wisdom will die with you!" (12:2) Then dropping the sarcasm he made a frontal attack on their so-called wisdom: "Who doesn't know the things you are talking about?" (12:3) There was no special wisdom in their counsel. In their great wisdom, it was Job, who had called on God and received His answers, who had become a laughingstock while "The tents of robbers are safe, and those who provoke God are secure." (12:6) But even their misguided judgment was made possible by God. Nothing happens apart from God's hand, which is wisdom even the animals understand.

In God's sovereignty those who are great are brought down. He makes nations great and also tears them down. He also reveals mysteries, bringing to light what has been hidden. Or, He withholds reason from the world's leaders and veals in darkness what was once in the light. Nothing escapes God's hand. The implication? Job's plight had come from God's hand, not from Job's sin.

We want to think we have more control over life than we really do, and so we make statements such as, "Control your own destiny." And yet we have absolutely no control over our destinies. True, our choices make a great difference in what happens in our lives, but even in this, the outcome of our choices is not beyond God's sovereignty. What about our freedom to make choices? Even this is a God-given freedom.