Job’s reply here to Zophar is quite simple – you’ve got to be kidding me… Look around… The wicked don’t suffer like this… They prosper and go to their grave in peace… Your words are completely false, they don’t stand up to the most simple and basic observations of life.
As we’ve seen before, Job’s words here are an expansion on Psalm 73:1-16. Job has said more than this already and will have more to say still. Even more, of course, in the book fo Job we will hear directly from God before the end.
Yet, Job as a book, speaks accurately of the world in which we live. Job’s reply to Zophar is important. If your theology doesn’t accurately describe the world that exists, then it is worthless. If you have some kind of theology that says suffering is only for the wicked and those who are right with God only experience blessing and prosperity, your theology is nonsense. It literally makes no sense because it cannot make sense of the world that actually exists.
Ultimately it is a theology of hopelessness because, as it fails to accurately describe the world that exists, it offers no answers and no hope to God’s people when they do suffer.
Psalm 36:9 says – “For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.”
We can only see and understand anything as we see it truly, illuminated by God through Christ, Who is the Light of the world.
Job as a man declared by God to be righteous, Job as a book of wisdom for God’s people forever stand as a testimony that God’s people do indeed suffer in this world. The book of Job is such a gift to us as it, as part of God’s Wisdom Literature, helps explain and give meaning to the real world, the world that actually exists. A world where we find ourselves suffering for a God glorifying purpose, designed by our Heavenly Father for our good.
Soli Deo Gloria
Items to focus your faith:
- Rise Up by Andrew Peterson
- Suffering Is Not For Nothing by Elisabeth Elliot