Job 20:1-29 - Homiletics

Zophar to Job: an orthodox champion to the rescue.

I. AN IMPETUOUS ORATOR PERTURBED . Threatened with Divine vengeance, Zophar advances to the combat in hopes of utterly confounding his antagonist. His appearance, manner, and address are characterized by:

1 . Bold defiance. "Therefore," i.e. in view of what you have just spoken; nay, "nevertheless," i.e. in spite of all your grandiloquent talk about a sword. Zophar had been unmoved, equally by Job's pathetic wail depicting his abandonment by God and man, and by Job's sublime utterance respecting his Divine-human Goel. Job's prayer for a drop of human pity had made no impression on his flinty bosom. Job's suggestion that the law of retribution they so vehemently preached might one day receive unexpected illustration in themselves ( Job 19:29 ) had touched him to the quick. Accordingly, to hide the writhings of his lacerated spirit, he assumes an aspect of courage which he does not possess.

2 . Extreme perturbation. The inward agitation of his spirit he betrays in his language. His cogitations were confused. His "thoughts" shot up in all directions from his heart like the manifold and intricate ramifications of a tree (cf. Job 4:16 ). The word strikingly represents the mind's activity under violent excitement. The soul of Zophar was perplexed. Job's discourse had possessed the merit of enlisting the attention, if not the sympathy, of his hearer. It had moved the feelings, if it had not convinced the judgment. And Zophar, if he did not listen with a loving spirit, at least did not hearken with a vacant mind. Yet, considering the mental disturbance which Job's speech had produced, Zophar would have acted prudently had he maintained a discreet silence. Troubled thoughts seldom fashion wise or weighty words; and, though vehement emotion, especially when under control, is of immense advantage to an orator, yet an intellect deranged by passion is divested of whatever power of conviction it might otherwise possess.

3 . Indecent haste . Whether or not a pause usually intervened between the different speeches in this controversy, Zephyr would appear to have been exceptionally impatient to smite his adversary, and to have rushed into the arena of debate like a war-horse neighing for the battle. If the rush of feeling and the multitudinous array of ideas which Job's words provoked did not "cause him to answer" (verse 2), they at least furnished him with what seemed a crushing rejoinder to the outspoken insolence to which he had been compelled to listen—a rejoinder made and ready, so that he required not to meditate, but simply to "follow the suggestions of his thoughts as fast as they arose" (Carey), which he did. It had been better infinitely that Zophar had exercised a little self-restraint—better for his own credit, since "he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly" (Pied. 14:29), since even good men are prone to err when they speak in haste ( Psalms 116:11 ), since it is the part of a wise man to "refrain his lips" ( Proverbs 10:19 ), and the commandment of God to "be not rash with one's mouth" ( Ecclesiastes 5:2 ), but to be "swift to hear, slow to speak" ( James 1:19 ), and since "there is more hope of a fool than of him that is hasty in his words" ( Proverbs 29:20 ); and it would have been better for Job's comfort, since hasty words are seldom kindly words.

4 . Virtuous resentment . Zophar, "the very pink and pattern of orthodoxy" (Cox), had been threatened with the sword. He had perfectly understood what Job meant by brandishing (metaphorically, of course) that lethal weapon before his eyes. It was designed as a "check of his reproach" (verse 3), a reprimand to overwhelm him with disgrace, which he, Zophar, now hurled back upon the speaker with indignant scorn. The wounding of Zophar's self-esteem had been a more serious offence on Job's part than the striking at his faith. Zophar "one of those hot-heads who pretend to fight for religion that is imperilled, while in reality" they are "only zealous for their own wounded vanity" (Delitzsch). Instead of answering Job's arguments, which doubtless he could not, he wipes out, or imagines he wipers out, the gratuitous dishonour done to his reputation as an orthodox believer by vehement reassertion of the current faith. It is usual for those who cannot reply to an opponent's objections to indulge in personal invectives and extravagant assertions.

5 . Wonderful conceit . Zophar practically informs Job that if he (Zophar) does not confound him (Job) and his heretical doctrines, it is not for want of ability to do so. "The spirit of his understanding," i.e. the inner light of his intellectual discernment, the spirit emanating from the keen faculty of perception which he knows to be within him, furnishes him with all the information requisite for such a purpose. Now, doubtless, "there is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding" ( Job 32:8 ); but "this also is a vanity" which may be witnessed beneath the sun, that they who have the least of such understanding not unfrequently suppose themselves to have the most, while they who have the most are the least inclined to praise themselves on its account.

II. THE ORTHODOX FAITH REASSERTED .

1 . With sarcastic sunrise. Zophar professes astonishment that Job required to be instructed on so obvious a point as the Divine law of retribution, considering

2 . With evident relish. With ill-concealed gusto Zophar repeats the popular dogma of the day, that "the triumphing of the wicked is near [literally, 'is from near'], and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment," adding that "though his excellency," or exaltation, "mount up into heaven, yet shall he perish for over;" words suggestive of

3 . With varied illustration.

(a) its proneness to progress and develop into a licentious and profligate old age;

(b) its tendency to avenge itself in time in a diseased body, an enfeebled mind, a premature death; and

(c) its certainty, unless repented of, abandoned, and forgiven, to lie down with the transgressor in his grave, ay, to accompany him beyond the grave into the unseen world of eternity.

III. AN APPROVED DOCTRINE ENFORCED .

1 . The picture of a sinful epicure. (Verses 12-18.)

2 . The picture of a powerful tyrant. (Verses 19-28.) The portrait intended for Job.

(a) Merciless oppression, in the threefold form of grinding down, forsaking, and robbing the poor (cf. Job 22:6 , Job 22:7 ); conduct common in the era of the Preacher ( Ecclesiastes 3:16 ) and in the days of primitive Christianity ( James 2:6 ), though by no means infrequent in these times; conduct offensive in the sight of God and man ( Ecclesiastes 6:8 ; Ecclesiastes 7:7 ), and wholly unbecoming in a good ( Isaiah 33:15 ), but specially characteristic of a bad ( Psalms 55:3 ), man; conduct attaining its highest degree of wickedness when the poor oppress the poor ( Proverbs 28:3 ), and certain to be fiercely avenged ( Psalms 35:10 ; Proverbs 22:16 ; Isaiah 3:15 ; Jeremiah 22:16 ) by him who espouses the cause of the oppressed.

(b) Insatiable greed, being represented as one who felt no quietness in his belly, i.e. whose cravings knew no bounds (verse 20), and from whose covetousness nothing escaped (verse 21)—a sin against which men are warned in the Decalogue ( Exodus 20:17 ), and saints in the gospel ( Luke 12:15 ), and upon which woes are pronounced by the prophets ( Isaiah 5:8 ; Jeremiah 51:13 ; Micah 2:9 .; Habakkuk 2:6 ), and judgments by the apostles ( Romans 1:29 ; 1 Corinthians 5:11 ; Ephesians 5:3 , Ephesians 5:5 ; Hebrews 13:5 ; James 5:1-3 ; 2 Peter 2:3 ).

(a) Deceiving prosperity. He shall not be able to escape with that to which his soul clings as its dearest treasure (verse 20). Calamity shall overtake his accumulated spoil in spite of his most watchful care. His prosperity shall not continue (verse 21), but "in the fulness of his sufficiency" when rejoicing in abundance, "he shall be in straits" (verse 22), either dreading impending destitution, or being deprived of his property, as Job was, by the stroke of swift calamity. As no man's riches can save him from peril ( Psalms 49:7 ), so neither can any man save his riches when God commands them to take wings and flee away ( Proverbs 23:5 ). God can take a sinner from his wealth ( Luke 12:20 ) as easily as a sinner's wealth from him ( Genesis 19:29 ), or, permitting the wealth to remain, he can cause its possessor to feel in straits.

(b) Thickening adversity. "Every hand of the wicked [literally, 'every hand of the wretched,' i.e. every stroke that falls upon the wretched] shall come upon him." He shall be assailed by every form of trouble; as e.g. Divine wrath in the midst of his enjoyment (verse 23)—God, in order to fill his belly, raining down upon him the fiery glow of his indignation as he did upon the cities of the plain ( Genesis 19:24 ), upon the Israelites in the wilderness ( Numbers 11:33 ; Psalms 78:30 , Psalms 78:31 ), and, according to Zophar, upon Job ( Job 1:16 ). Sudden destruction in the midst of his oppressions (verses 24, 25). Fleeing from an adversary, he is pierced in the back by an arrow from a bow of steel. Drawing the gleaming weapon from his body, the metal head of the arrow from his gall, terrors of approaching death or of a fearful conscience encompass him. So God sometimes causes the sinner to be struck down in the very act of his wickedness ( Numbers 16:31 ; 2 Samuel 8:5 ; 2 Kings 1:9 , 2 Kings 1:10 ; Acts 5:5 ), and so are bold transgressors commonly transformed into cowards when death comes and conscience wakes. Complete annihilation of himself and his treasures (verse 26). Though concealed in the earth, these treasures will yet be laid bare by fire from heaven, which shall also burn up him and them (as the fire of God had already, literally, burnt up Job's sheep and oxen, and was on the eve, metaphorically, of devouring himself), consigning both to a gloom darker than that which enshrouds the freebooter's spoil—a doom reserved for the finally impenitent. Certain exposure of his wicked character and life (verse 27), not only heaven renouncing and abhorring the transgressor, but the earth also conspiring to ensure his detection. As certainly as God and the universe are on the side of saints ( Romans 8:28 ), so certainly are they arrayed against the sinner. It was, perhaps, only poetry when Deborah and Barak sang that the heavenly powers fought for Israel, and the stars in their courses contended against Sisera ( 5:20 ); it was superstition which made the Melitans imagine Paul to be a wicked wretch whom Divine vengeance suffered not to live ( Acts 28:4 ); it is plain prose and solemn truth when God says that heaven and earth are in league against the sinner. Final extinction for his house and its belongings in the day of wrath (verse 28), as appeared to be the case with Job, though it was not, and as will eventually be the case with the wicked, though they think not.

IV. A POWERFUL SERMON APPLIED .

1 . The elements of truth in this conclusion. These are:

2 . The ingredients of error in this Conclusion.

Learn:

1 . That controversy, especially in religion (and politics), is seldom profitable, and almost always irritating.

2 . That controversialists are commonly characterized more by exaggerated language than by convincing argumentation.

3 . That no cause is advanced by either vulgarity of speech or personality of allusion.

4 . That it is not uncommon for s careless reasoner to mistake a half-truth for a whole, an exceptional truth for a universal, an occasional truth for s perpetual.

5 . That it is impossible for a wicked man to escape retribution, if not in this world, at least in the next.

6 . That unpardoned sins are the worst grave that any man can lay his bones in.

7 . That though sin may be attended with pleasure, it can never result in happiness.

8 . That what prevents ultimate success to a sinner is the fact that God is against him.

9 . That God knows when and how to strike his avenging blows so as to cause them to gall hardest on the object of his displeasure. 10. That the greatest calamity which can overtake a human soul is the wrath of God.