Job 21:1

JOB 21

JOB'S SEVENTH DISCOURSE:

JOB'S REPLY TO ZOPHAR AND HIS OTHER FRIENDS

Job's message here was directed particularly to Zophar; "And Job's tone was so sharp that Zophar would not take part in the third cycle of dialogues."[1] "This speech is unusual for Job. It is the only one in which he confined his remarks to his friends and did not fall into either a soliloquy or a prayer. The time had now come for Job to demolish his friends arguments."[2] This he proceeded to do with sledge-hammer blows of truth and logic. "He attacked their position from every side; and, in the end, he left no line of their arguments unchallenged."[3]

The theological error of Job's friends was simple enough. They believed that everyone in this life received exactly what he deserved. Righteous people were healthy and prosperous; the wicked suffered in illness, poverty and destitution. Supporting their foolish error was the truth that virtuous and godly lives indeed do, in many instances, tend toward blessings and happiness; and, conversely, wickedness tends in the opposite direction. Job's friends, seeing his epic misfortunes, terrible financial reverses, and hopeless physical disease, applied their doctrine as positive and undeniable truth of Job's gross wickedness. In the light of the real facts, Job labeled their "consolations" as outright falsehoods (Job 21:34).

When we compare Job's position with that of his friends, "It is easy to see that both understandings are unrealistic extremes; and both betray a fundamental error."[4] What is that error? It is simply this that, "The rewards of either wickedness or righteousness are limited to what occurs in one's earthly lifetime."

Such an error is incompatible with God's truth. As Paul put it, "If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable" (1 Corinthians 15:19). The unpredictably variable fortunes of both the righteous and the wicked in this life are the result of the following divinely-arranged circumstances of our earthly lives:

(1) God provided that, "Time and chance happeneth to all men" (Ecclesiastes 9:11).

(2) God endowed his human children with the freedom of the will.

(3) Our great progenitors, Adam and Eve in Eden, elected to do the will of Satan, rather than the will of God. Satan's invariable purpose has been the total destruction of all mankind; and the bringing in of such an enemy as `the god of this world' has produced innumerable sorrows, even death itself. That, of course, is exactly what Adam and Eve did.

(4) God cursed the ground (the earth) for Adam's sake. The purpose of this action was that Adam's posterity might never find their earthly existence to be free of natural impediments. Following the fall of mankind, God made it impossible for man ever to find his earthly life altogether comfortable. This not only explains the briars and thistles, but the floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts, hurricanes and all other natural disasters. With a list of uncertainties like all of these things, it became a mathematical certainty that there would be unpredictable variations in the lives of all men, both of the wicked and of the righteous.

It is evident that Job had as little understanding of the whole picture' of human suffering as did his friends. The glory of Job, however, is that in spite of everything he trusted God. "Though he slay me, yet will I trust him" (Job 13:15).

Job 21:1-6

JOB CHALLENGES HIS FRIENDS TO HEAR HIM

"Then Job answered, and said,

Hear diligently my speech;

And let this be your consolations.

Suffer me, and I also will speak;

And after that I have spoken, mock on.

As for me, is my complaint to man?

And why should I not be impatient?

Mark me, and be astonished,

And lay your hand upon your mouth.

Even when I remember, I am troubled,

And horror taketh hold on my flesh."

"Hear my speech ... let this be your consolations ... lay your hand on your mouth" (Job 21:2,5). "Job is angered by his friends' lack of sympathy. Instead of all that talk, their silence would have been better."[5] "They can keep on mocking him if they wish, for that is all that their `consolations' amount to."[6]

"Is my complaint to man ... why should I not be impatient" (Job 21:4)? Barnes gave the meaning of this. "It is not so much what you friends have said that troubles me, it is what God has done to me."[7]

"Mark me, and be astonished" (appalled) (Job 21:5). "What Job is about to say will astound his friends, because God's government of the world is utterly different from what they say in their vain theorizing."[8]

"I am troubled, and horror takes hold on my flesh" (Job 21:6). The implications of these words apparently are: "As I am about to speak of the mysterious workings of Providence, I tremble at the thought of it; my very flesh trembles."[9] Barnes believed that Job here stated that, "His sufferings had overwhelmed him and filled him with horror, and that the very recollection of them caused his flesh to tremble."[10] Van Selms paraphrased the whole thought here as follows: "If you really took into account what has happened to me, you would realize that no words are of any help here; and you would be silent, just as you were at first. I myself do not know how I should interpret my fate; one's soul and body shudder at the thought of God's incomprehensible decrees."[11] In the light of these comments, it is apparent that we cannot be absolutely sure of what Job might have meant here. There could have been some suggestion of all of these interpretations.