- Zophar from Naamah said:
- Your words are disturbing; now I must speak.
- You have accused and insulted me, and reason requires a reply.
- Since the time of creation, everyone has known
- that sinful people are happy for only a while.
- Though their pride and power may reach to the sky,
- they will disappear like dust, and those who knew them will wonder what happened.
- They will be forgotten like a dream
- and vanish from the sight of family and friends.
- Their children will have to repay what the parents took from the poor.
- Indeed, the wicked will die and go to their graves in the prime of life.
- Sinners love the taste of sin; they relish every bite
- and swallow it slowly.
- But their food will turn sour and poison their stomachs.
- Then God will make them lose the wealth they gobbled down.
- They will die from the fangs of poisonous snakes
- and never enjoy rivers flowing with milk and honey.
- Their hard work will result in nothing gained,
- because they cheated the poor and took their homes.
- Greedy people want everything and are never satisfied.
- But when nothing remains for them to grab, they will be nothing.
- Once they have everything, distress and despair will strike them down,
- and God will make them swallow his blazing anger.
- While running from iron spears, they will be killed by arrows of bronze,
- whose shining tips go straight through their bodies. They will be trapped by terror,
- and what they treasure most will be lost in the dark. God will send flames to destroy them in their tents with all their property.
- The heavens and the earth will testify against them,
- and all their possessions will be dragged off when God becomes angry.
- This is what God has decided for those who are evil.
Zophar assumed his knowledge to be of a common variety that everyone knew, except of course Job, and no one could refute. He did not, however, offer evidence to support it. His speech launched into a description of the plight of the wicked with the obvious implication that Job was one of the wicked. As a supposed friend of Job, he evidently did not know him well or he could not have made these charges. The whole thing is based on one huge and hugely wrong assumption: suffering equals sin. If one suffers it can only be because he has sinned. Without considering any other evidence concerning Job, Zophar and his friends freely flung accusations at him. Job was the prime exhibit proving their point.
According to Zophar's statements concerning the wicked, and therefore concerning Job, Job was arrogant and, as had already been observed, his joy and happiness was only for a moment. His wealth, which was already gone, had been vomited out because it was ill-gained by oppressing the poor and turned to venom in his stomach. Job's appetite for wealth, said Zophar, was insatiable for he was driven by his desires. The inevitable outcome was what Job had experienced - his prosperity was short-lived and distress came to him at the height of his success.
Job's iniquity had been exposed for what it was and the earth had risen up against him. What Job had experienced was his lot from God because of his wickedness. So said Zophar, though he did not insert Job's name in place of the wicked. It was implied, though.
The problem with Job's friends is one most of us have - we want a neatly packaged explanation for everything, and insisting on being able to do so inevitably leads to error in our thinking. For in doing so we presume to know God's ways and reasons which is a bad presumption to make. It is a mark of our level of trust and maturity to live comfortably with incomplete understanding and simply trusting the reasons to God. Our trust being based on our acceptance of God's love and mercy. Though we don't know, and can't know, His reasons, we trust that they are loving and intended for our good. Therefore we will accept whatever comes and trust in God's outcomes regardless of how long we must wait to see them.
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