Today in God’s Word

Today in God's Word—June 2023

East Tallassee Church of Christ

June 6, Job 11

”Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves." - Zophar, Job 11:6

One of the most common voices for storytelling is the Omniscient Narrator. He is the person who tells us the story. He knows all about the setting in which the characters find themselves. He knows the whole story and how it ends.

Sometimes this narrator shares information with us as readers or listeners that the characters in the story do not know. He can also tell us more than just what the characters do or say. He can tell us about their background and their attitudes as they speak and act.

The narrator of the book of Job tells us much more about why Job is suffering than he or his accusers know. We know Job's character and reputation with God himself. When God pronounces Job blameless and upright, we know that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar are wrong about Job's guilt. After the story's long middle section of speeches, the omniscient narrator reveals that God told Job’s accusers they were not right. He also tells us that Job's fortunes and family were restored to him.

This information helps us understand why Job was so frustrated and upset by what his friends said about him and to him. They spoke in generalities and assumptions that did not apply to Job. They encouraged him to repent to get some relief from his awful suffering. But Job knew nothing about his conduct that called for repentance. Any such repentance would only be a hypocritical show to please his accusing friends.

Zophar was cruel to Job. He mocked his impassioned cries of agony, calling him "a man full of talk." He presumed Job was guilty without evidence. He had the audacity to tell poor broken Job that he had gotten less than his guilt deserved. Let's think about that line in two ways. First, let's admit that we all have gotten less than we deserve. The mercy of God is all that saved us from destruction as a race a long

time ago. Without mercy and grace from God, we would all be miserable wretches, headed to eternal torment away from the presence of God.

But on the other hand, this line in the text verse crystallizes the meanness of Job's hateful friends into a single statement. There's no love, no compassion, no pity in their judgment of their righteous friend. They slandered both Job and God in their arrogant speeches. They saw Job’s “guilt” more clearly than they saw their own.

Zophar added to Job’s misery. It's not hard to see how Satan used Zophar to hurt Job even more. The accuser taught his pupil well. The roaring lion taught his cub to roar.

Zophar's words have some truth in them, a thin veneer of truth over a rotten attitude and hateful words. Yes, God is as magnificent and beyond our comprehension as Zophar said he was. But that did nothing to expose Job's guilt that Zophar presumed.

Zophar's counsel was accusing and blunt. He told Job his life could be the opposite of what it had become, and his end could be a bright morning instead of the deep darkness Job had talked about earlier. Job just needed to repent. But he said nothing to prove Job’s guilt. Job begged his accusing visitors to tell him what he had done wrong since they were so sure he was guilty.

There's a wonderful promise for us all in Zophar's concluding words: " You will forget your misery; you will remember it as waters that have passed away." That's a precious promise to all who are suffering grief, pain and loss. God will bring his faithful ones through the hard times and difficulties to a place where you will still remember them, but they will be your past and not your present. Job could savor that premise and it actually came true for him by the end of the book. But the promise did not comfort him in his misery when his heart knew he was not guilty of the things his friends had imagined and said about him.

If you and I are struggling with pain or distress today, it's good to know that our agony is not greater than God's power to relieve it. We may encounter troubles we cannot understand. But like Job, let’s trust God and rejoice with Paul that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is coming in heaven for God’s children. In the meantime, let’s show compassion to those who are suffering. Let’s not make their suffering worse by saying hurtful things to them. Let's be gentle and not harsh with our fellows, and hope and pray that they will show us the same considerate love and respect.

Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.