Episode 52 Job 11-14 Zophar speaks

Dan: 0:00

Hi, everyone. And welcome to training for life redeemed. I am your host, Dan, as always, I’m joined by my father, David Jackson. We are continuing through Job today. We’re up to Job chapter 11 through to chapter 14 and the conversation between Job and his third friend slash comforter slash adversary. Zophar, Dad, just like Bildad before Zophar comes in. He doesn’t give the fluff. He g ets straight to the point to kind of defend God. It doesn’t really sound like he’s m eant, meant to be a comforter, but he doesn’t sound like that’s what he’s doing. And he says t his t hing, God forgets some of your guilt even. And that’s why you’re ge tting p unished worse. And it’s like, that’s not what someone wants to hear when 10 of their kids just died. He’s just really insulting him.

David: 0:53

Yeah. And , um, in verse 12, he calls him a hollow man or an empty man, a man without a heart. And you think, you know, you’ve listened to Job scream and roar and pour his guts out. Um, this is an emotional man. Uh, who’s feeling every, every bit of it. And Zophar just comes along and says, he’s just a hollow man. Um, you know. I’m not much into English poetry myself, but TS Elliot wrote a whole poem about that line, the hollow men. Um, this isn’t how you comfort somebody. Definitely. It’s not , we’re just cranking up the gears. This is only round one.

Dan: 1:45

Okay . Two more to go at least, but it’s not just , um , Zophar this time either because Job gets very upset from Zophar and from all his friends really at this point, and he actually now starts to return fire and starts to increase his sarcasm. He starts to hurl insults at them as well. What’s going on , Job still get us be innocent at the end of this.

David: 2:10

Well, see , I think a lot of evangelicals have problems a lot of Christians have problems with Job coming back at these guys the way he does. We have a culture of being nice of being gentle and it’s good being gracious, but there does come a point where, you know, I liked Job’s response. Surely you are, the people and wisdom will die with you. And if you want to get sarcastic with me, mate, we can match you. And this is a public debate and it’s about the gospel. And there’s a crowd watching. And for 3000 years, people have been reading this stuff. We need to realize that the intensity of what’s going on here is quite strong and the , and not eliminate. I mean, we don’t want to get into this. You know, I am so rational that emotions don’t affect me. And that would be the hollow man that Zophar said he was. But look, I mean, so far as words, I’ll read this one, a hollow man will have a heart. When an onager fathers a human being, an onager is a wild donkey. You know , um, he he’s really pushing the boundaries of his language here. So Job comes back at him, you know , uh, I’ve got a heart the same as you, which is another way of saying, well, if I haven’t got one, mate, what about, you know , how heartless are you? So this is getting fierce . I just, there’s a proverb. Proverbs 17:28. If you would only shut up, if you were only silent, people would even consider a fool to be wise . You know, a fool who keeps his mouth shut. Everybody will just assume he’s smart. And Job says that back to Zophar, if you kept your mouth shut, we might think you had a brain. That’s the level of this debate. It’s it’s really pretty terrible. So yeah, this isn’t exactly your Sunday morning Bible reading,

Dan: 4:15

No, it doesn’t sound overly godly. The conversation that’s happening. So where in this conversation Dad as the insults are going both ways, where do we see the gospel there and coming through at this point ,

David: 4:24

You’ve got the model of Jesus. Jesus has gone to the cross and he keeps his mouth shut. He doesn’t say a thing. And that’s part of this. Again, if I go back to the book of Proverbs, answer a fool, according to his folly. And you’ll look like a fool. If you don’t answer the fool, according to his folly, he continues to be a fool. So you can’t win . Now Jesus goes before the judges and he doesn’t answer them and he doesn’t answer them because he, the reason he’s come is to die. This is part of the plan. So Jesus is sort of standing there going, you know, I came here to die, get on with it. You know , I’m not going to answer your charges, but Job. And you and I are not in that position. We’re not here to die, you know , to pay for other people’s sins. We’re here to present the apologetic to defend the gospel. So Job is ripping into these guys, full bore and expressing the , the emotion and the passion that’s at stake in knowing where I stand with God, my passion in all of this stuff is really hard because I don’t know the answers. So, you know, all this stuff happens around me. I know that God’s in charge. I know he’s just, I know he loves me. I know I’m innocent because Jesus died in my place. I’ve got all that down. And then I can’t explain what God is doing. What do I do with that? Especially when everybody else around me thinks they do know what God’s up to and I’m the problem. And they can tell me how to fix it. Right? So that I have having been abused, left, right And centre. I just liked this line. When Job comes back, I am waiting for God. So this is chapter 13, 15. Even if he kills me, I will hope in him. And then he says, and I’ll argue my ways before him. You know , I’ll stand in front of God and argue my case, but he is salvation for me because a profane man, doesn’t come before his presence. He’s already said, that’s all very well and good. But if I got into God’s presence, I’d just get a water. I’d be a mess. And I’d probably say something and get myself in trouble. I don’t know how to handle this. So that just speaks to me. And , and I think every believer you come to a point in life where I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t know what to make of it. All I can do is put my hope and my faith in God, in his word. And even if he kills me, that’s the one thing I’m not going to let go of because that’s the one thing that’s reliable that my salvation is there. So I was actually impressed. Um, Ray Galea is our pastor at our church and he made a little comment on Sunday. You don’t often hear the language about getting saved anymore. People talk about all the blessings of being a Christian and all the reasons to come to Christ. But one of the things we don’t often say is you need to get saved because if you don’t believe in Jesus, there’s a place. There’s a thing called hell. We think of it as here are all the benefits. And that’s what Satan’s been saying. You know, you’re in you believe in God because you’re going to get all these benefits, but we’ve got to remember. We need Jesus because otherwise we come under the condemnation of God for all eternity, you know , in the dark alone, conscious forever with no way back, that’d be terrifying. So here is , Job saying he is salvation for me. And there’s your gospel.

Dan: 8:23

That brings us to the end of this episode. Dad, Thank you again for all the wisdom that you’re sharing through Job. And of course do remember that Dad has written an entire book on Job, “Crying out for Vindication” you can probably find it on Amazon or at Koorong or something like that. If you want to get the study notes for this episode, please head over to training for life redeemed.com/ 52. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review. We’d love to hear from you. And of course, make sure you subscribe and come back and join us next week. As we continue to look through the book of Job, although I think next week, we’re speeding up a bit, aren’t we Dad?

David: 9:03

Yeah, we’re going to have to speed it up. This is round. We’re going to go through round two with these same three fellows.

Dan: 9:07

Yeah. Only one episode. So we will see you then.