Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

I often struggle with the Book of Job because the things Job’s friends say have a lot of truth to them, but God condemns them roundly at the end of the book.  However, today I noticed that when Zophar responds to Job, her responds to a straw man, he takes something Job said and paraphrases it to make it more extreme than what Job actually said.  Zophar claims that Job said that his beliefs were flawless, but that is not what Job said.  Job did say that he was blameless, and that is not true because the Bible makes clear that all have sinned.  However, in the context one might take Job’s statement as meaning that he was no more worthy of blame than his friends, who were not suffering as he was.  Zophar went on to insult Job by essentially calling him witless.  Zophar was there to offer Job comfort in his suffering, so he should not have misstated Job’s argument, and he most certainly should not have insulted him.  Job replies by pointing out that Zophar was speaking for God dishonestly, something we should never do.  Further, Job put his claims of innocent in context by asking his friends how they would fair if God were to examine them in detail, would they show any more innocent than Job?  When our friend, or anyone else for that matter, is suffering we should not condemn them,  Also, when we debate others, something which we should save for a time when they are not suffering, we should be careful to argue against positions they actually hold, not what we think they meant by what they said.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

I have been trying to decide what to write about today’s passage for a few hours now.  I first thought to write that Job’s friends illustrate the lesson that those who are wrong can make arguments which sound convincing and right.  That is definitely true here: Job’s friends make some good points, but they were in the wrong, the argument they were making was wrong.  Then, I realized that while Job was closer to the truth than his friends, he was also wrong.  Job’s friends thought that because he was suffering, he was obviously a sinner, and because they were not suffering, they were obviously more righteous than he.  They thought they were better than him.  Job, on the other hand, challenged God’s justice and demanded that God explain to him why he was suffering.  So, I thought as I read this that this passage teaches us two things.  First, just because someone builds their argument using true statements does not mean that their conclusion is correct.  Second, just because someone reaches an incorrect conclusion does not mean that none of their arguments are valid.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

I struggle with what to write about today’s passage.  Sometimes it feels like the Book of Job uses more words to make its point than necessary.  However, in part that is because we oversimplify the point this book is making.  The writer actually makes a very nuanced and complex point.  In today’s passage, Job’s friends essentially say that those who devote their hearts and lives to God, and only those who do so, will be wealthy and happy.  They say that the wicked are constantly tormented, and subject to sudden disasters, while the righteous never suffer such things.  Therefore, they say, we can conclude that anyone who is tormented, or subject to sudden disasters, is wicked., and those who are financially secure with stable lives must be righteous.  Job, on the other hand, expresses his desire to stand before God to be judged.  It is important to remember that at the end of the book when God speaks, while He admonishes Job for challenging His justice,  He calls upon Job’s friends to ask Job to pray for them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Job 11-15.

The first thing I noticed today is that Job’s friends were guilty of the straw man fallacy.  They condemn Job for things he did not actually say.  I realized that Job became angrier as he attempted to restate his argument in order to address the ways in which they had misrepresented what he had said previously.  We can actually learn an important lesson from this: do not continue a debate with someone whose counterarguments focus on, and misrepresent, our examples or side notes rather than addressing our main point.  Actually there is another lesson as well: Job’s friends were so convinced that Job’s suffering was the result of some unknown wrongdoing that they did not really listen to what he said.

I want to revisit what I said above while looking more closely at what the characters in this passage say.  Zophar misrepresents what Job said in his first monologue, then he essentially tells Job that his suffering resulted from his sinfulness; that if Job had just been righteous he would not be suffering. Jesus addresses this idea in John 9 when his disciples asked Him whether the man born blind or his parents had sinned and Jesus replies “Neither.”  Job answered Zophar’s misrepresentation of what he had said with anger and restated his original point (and also says a few things worth thinking about, but I am not going to cover those today).  Then Eliphaz condemns Job for getting angry, misrepresents what Job had said, and also implies that Job’s suffering resulted from his wickedness.  Neither Zophar nor Eliphaz specified what wickedness Job had committed; they merely postulated that his suffering was evidence of him having committed it.  The important lesson here: suffering is not evidence of wrongdoing.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 11-15.

It is tempting to think that the Book of Job is just about realizing that just because someone is suffering does not mean that they have committed some heinous sin.  However, if that was all it was about, it would not need to be as long as it is.  Zophar voices another of the mistakes which we can make.  He tells Job that all he needs to do to end his depression and suffering is lift his hands to God in prayer and leave all iniquity behind him.  Zophar says that if Job does that, his life will be joyful once more.  Elsewhere in the Bible we see that there is something to this idea, but the context here reveals to us that it is not completely true.  Job’s response to Zophar should show us that when attempting to comfort those who are suffering sometimes it is better to remain silent than to offer what we think are solutions, but are really accusations.

In several of Job’s responses to his friends we see foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry.  In yesterday’s passage, Job asked for a mediator between himself and God.  A role which Jesus died on the cross to take.  In today’s passage, Job tells us that if the dead can live again, then he could have hope in the anguish he suffered.  Further, Job tells us that if the dead can live again, God would guard our steps and cover over our sins.  Jesus rose from the dead to fulfill that very hope.