Zophar and Job, Round 1

Job 11-14

Job’s friends are definitely noticing the mind-numbing amount of words Job has.  Zophar leads with that recognition.  All of Job’s talk doesn’t appear to amount to much to Zophar.  And to make matters worse, Zophar isn’t buying Job’s claims of perfect blamelessness, either.

11:3-6:  Should your babble put others to silence, and when you mock, shall no one shame you? For you say, ‘My conduct is pure,  and I am clean in God’s sight.’ But O that God would speak, and open his lips to you, and that he would tell you the secrets of wisdom!  For wisdom is many-sided.  Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.

Zophar goes on to say more, but I’m betting Job stopped listening right there (if he was listening at all).  Job’s insistence on his blameless perfection seems to be his primary focus, and not only does Zophar cast doubt on that assertion, but also Zophar indicates that Job probably deserved much worse than what he actually got.  I’m guessing Job didn’t like that much.  I’m also guessing that we’ll get to hear more about Job’s innocence when he talks again for the next three chapter (12, 13, and 14).

Zophar continues to talk more about how we’ll never be able to explain or measure God.  God is higher, deeper, longer, and broader than we will ever know.  Like the other friends, Zophar encourages Job to go to God about it.  Like the other friends, Zophar reminds Job that his story can still have a happy ending.

Job responds to Zophar with typical Job snark, first mocking Zophar and then reminding Zophar that he’s no better than Job.  Despite his affliction, Job does not seem to have access to humility, at least not toward other humans.  Job’s initial lament in this round of response has nothing to do with God at all:  Job is concerned about what people think of him.  Job cares about his reputation. 

12: 1-4:   Then Job answered: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you.  But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you.  Who does not know such things as these?  I am a laughingstock to my friends; I, who called upon God and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughingstock. (NRSV)

Can you be blameless before God when you’re that concerned with what people think of you?  What’s Job’s motivation toward perfection?  Does Job actually love God?  Does Job just want to follow the rules so people think he’s the greatest man in the East?  Is Job just doing what he thinks he’s supposed to do in order to get a prosperous life?  Does it even matter why you do what you do as long as you’re doing what you’re supposed to do?

These are inward things that are hard enough to decipher in our own hearts about our own motives, much less discern in someone who lived thousands of years ago about whom we know only snippets of a story.  Even Job’s friends who actually knew him are only guessing.  We’ve seen them toss out bits and pieces to try to fill in the blanks as best they can, but they are falling short.  They will only ever fall short because Job isn’t listening.  Job has made up his mind.

Job gets an extra chapter of response here.  Maybe he thinks that things are winding down since all three friends have spoken.  During the course of this longer response, Job finally does what all three friends have suggested he do:  he goes to God.  He does not, however, go to God to ask for mercy or confess anything.  He goes to plead his case.

In Chapter 13, verses 20-22, we get Job actually asking God for two things:  1.  stop being mean to me and 2.  Give me audience so I can know the list of my sins.  It’s startling in that Job does allow for the fact that there could be a list of sins against him.  I get the feeling that Job would like that list so he can set about disproving each item on it, but at least he wants to know what he’s up against. 

And in Chapter 14, we go down Job’s interesting wormhole of mortality and human life. From our side of the Bible, we see all sorts of hints at resurrection, at Jesus, at a less legal and more human way.  But from Job’s point of view, he sees that God is the one who destroys the hope of mortals. 

I will admit that I have gone through periods where hope seemed stupid, but I never felt like God purposely destroyed it for me. What a sad and scary place to be.

The last words of Job’s response are equally despairing:

15:22 They [mortals] feel only the pain of their own bodies and mourn only for themselves.

This certainly seems to be true of Job.  But the friends are still there, and this isn’t over yet.