Those with whom Wisdom will Die

Read Job 11:1-20

Throughout the first 10 chapters we have heard from several different points of view. This is the first time we have heard from the person named Zophar. I don’t know about you, but I sort of wished it were the last time I heard from him. He is the one time of person that, even if the others could be tolerated, no one wants around when times are tough.

He is the one person who has never drunk from the cup of affliction. He has never had a bad hair day in his life. He has never had so much as a splinter of affliction and yet he seems to have all the answers. He is the quintessential know it all. Job recognizes him as much in chapter 12 verse 2: “Doubtless you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!”

There seems to be no indication that Zophar is concerned with Job’s plight at all. He seems to be the type of person who enjoys talking just so his voice can be heard. He resorts in the end to calling Job a liar (11:11), an idiot (11:12), and a sinner (11:14). Sort of makes one wish they were in the story too just so they could enjoy the fruits of this man’s insolence. (That’s sarcasm.)

He also argues that the mysteries of God are far too deep for anyone to understand. Have you ever talked with someone who just kept on telling you over and over again that God is far too mysterious to understand. That you simply have to take what he is giving and leave it at that? That is the answer of someone who has no answer. That is the answer of someone who wants to do no work at all to understand the suffering a person is suffering. That is the answer of someone who just likes to talk. That is the talk of someone who sits in the ash heap just so they can say, ‘See, I told you so.’

When I am going through a difficult time, I do not want someone to sit across from me and tell me things that I already know (12:3). Nor do I want that person to tell me what I need to do to enjoy life again. Furthermore, I do not want that person telling me these things just so they can be right and I will be wrong. I do not want a person spouting off the latest escapist psychological babble. No, I do not want those sorts of people around me at all. I do not need people like Zophar, and sometimes they seem to be in such abundance.

When I am going through a bad time I want near me what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

For some reason, that makes much better sense than anything Zophar had to say.

Prayer Thoughts

We all know someone who is going through a bad time. Pray for mercy in their lives. Pray that the people around them will be more than Pez-dispensers of theological witticisms. Pray that they will be people of empathy and compassion and comfort. Pray that is who you will be also.