Chapters 4—11
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Scripture Reading: Job 9; Job 10; Job 11
In this message we will consider Job's unyieldingness and Zophar's blind argument. Whereas Job was very strong in character and was not easily subdued, Zophar was foolish, not clear in the divine revelation concerning God's economy of dispensing Himself into His people.
Job's unyieldingness is fully shown in chapters nine and ten.
Job boasted in knowing what his friends knew, saying, "I do indeed know that it is so" (9:2a). Job was saying that he already knew what his friends were talking about and that they did not need to speak any more about it.
Job admitted that he could not contend with God and resist Him, because He is wise and mighty (vv. 3-12). In verses 5 through 9 Job alluded to God's judgment upon the preadamic universe. After asking how a man can be righteous before God, Job said, "If he is pleased to contend with Him,/He cannot answer Him one thing in a thousand./He is wise in heart and mighty in strength — /Who has ever resisted Him and come through whole?" (vv. 3-4). No one can stop God or say to Him, "What are You doing?" (v. 12).
Job thought that he could not win his case, even though he was righteous and perfect (vv. 15, 20-21), because God is mighty and does not turn back His anger in His judgment (vv. 13-24). This indicates that Job expected that he and God would go to a law court to be judged. Job would be the plaintiff, and God would be the defendant. Here Job as the plaintiff had a wrong concept, thinking that God the defendant was dealing with him in anger. However, God's dealing with Job was not God's anger but God's good pleasure. It was not God's judging but God's stripping, consuming, and tearing down that He might rebuild Job with God Himself.
Job considered that he was a man living in the days which were fleeing away and that he could not be judged together with God and be held innocent (vv. 25-35).
Job complained that God, knowing that he was not wicked and not acquitting him of his iniquity, ill-treated him without cause on his side and attacked him again and again according to what was hidden in God's heart (10:1-17). Job said to God, "Make known to me why You contend with me" (v. 2b). In verse 13 he went on to say, "You have hidden these things in Your heart;/I know that this is with You." This indicates that Job could not find the reason for God's treatment of him, but he believed that there had to be some reason hidden in God's heart. Job was right; something was hidden in God's heart. Ephesians 3:9 tells us of the mystery hidden in God. This is the mystery of the ages.
According to Job 38:7 the angels of God (the sons of God) shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth. The angels might have wondered what God's purpose was in creating the earth and man. Adam himself did not know why God created him in His image after His likeness (Gen. 1:26). God kept His intention hidden throughout the ages, not telling Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, or any of the prophets. The Creator did a lot in His creation, but before the New Testament time He did not unveil to anyone what His purpose was.
The hidden mystery is that God in His Divine Trinity desires to be dispensed and wrought into His creation, man, to make man His duplication, to make man His expression. Not knowing this, Job misunderstood God and thought that God was angry with him and was judging him and punishing him. God's intention was not to judge Job or to punish him but to tear him down and then rebuild him with Himself. God knew that after Job had passed through a time of suffering, he would be rebuilt and become another person — a new man in God's new creation. This is the answer to Job, to the book of Job, and to Job's vindication.
The Bible of sixty-six books is for only one thing: for God in Christ by the Spirit to dispense Himself into us to be our life, our nature, and our everything that we may live Christ and express Christ. This should be the principle that governs our life. In a practical way, it should be today's tree of life for our enjoyment.
The Bible is not mainly a book of prophecy, teaching, or types. The Bible is a book of God's economy. To say merely that the Bible is a book consistently on Christ is not adequate. The Bible is on Christ in God's economy. God's economy is to dispense Himself in His Divine Trinity in Christ by the Spirit into us that we may have Him as our life, nature, and everything. When we experience this, it is no longer we who live, but it is Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). This is the tree of life.
Job wished that he had died at his birth and expected that God would let him alone that he might be somewhat revived before he went to the shadow of death (Job 10:18-22).
Job's unyieldingness was due to the fact that he was devoid of the divine revelation and was thus unable to comprehend that God's dealing with him through disasters was not in the realm of ethics, that is, did not depend on whether he did good or evil, or on whether he was right or wrong, but was in the sphere of God-gaining that he should be turned from seeking perfection in ethics to seeking and gaining God instead of anything else.
In chapter eleven we have Zophar's blind argument.
Zophar was the third one to answer Job in the first round of their debates (v. 1).
Zophar felt that Job was too vindictive, that his doctrine was not pure, that he was not clean in God's eyes, and that God had forgotten some of his iniquity (vv. 2-6).
Zophar taught Job that God the Almighty is unlimited, higher than heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. No one can stop Him from judging the man of falsehood, iniquity, and the man empty of intelligence (vv. 7-12).
In verse 12 Zophar said, "An empty-headed man acquires intelligence/When the foal of a wild ass is born as a man." This surely was not a word of fellowship or of lovingkindness. Zophar was saying that Job was an empty-headed man, a person altogether lacking intelligence. In his despising and even sarcastic speaking here, Zophar went so far as to liken Job to a foal of a donkey without any intelligence. It is no wonder that Job blamed his friends for not showing any lovingkindness to him.
Zophar also taught Job that if he would set his heart right and stretch his hands out to God, and if he put iniquity far away from his hand and did not let wrong dwell in his tents, then he would lift up his face without blemish and would be steadfast and not be afraid. He would forget misery, and his time would rise more brightly than the noonday, or, though dark, it would still be like the morning. He would be secure with hope and lie down without being terrified. But the eyes of the wicked will fail, the way to flee will be lost to them, and their hope will be to end their breathing (vv. 13-20). Such was the teaching that Zophar gave to Job.
Zophar was absolutely blind in the comprehension of man's standing before God, and his argument was altogether based on man's natural concept in the realm of ethics, without any enlightenment of the divine revelation regarding what man should be to God.
