WHY IS IT MY FAULT

June 9, 2013 

·         These friends ostensibly come as comforters, but Job soon discovers that they torment him instead of comforting him.

·         They will actually act in the role testers or accusers, and are close to the place of Satan in the first chapters.

·         The entire dialogue moves increasingly from accusation to accusation, much like that of a court proceeding.

·         Sometimes it is hard to tell who is on trial (Job, God, or the friends) or even what the issue is.

·         Each is coming from the viewpoint of believing that Job must have committed some sin for all of this to happen.

·         Although the Dueteronomic Formula was not yet in writing this belief prevailed (If you are righteous then God will bless you, and if you are rebellious then God will punish you in this life.).  This simple belief would not admit to any exceptions.

·         Job broke the silence by shocking his friends by cursing the day of his birth to which the friends could be silent no longer, because they felt they needed to respond to Job’s words and correct him for the error they though he was uttering. 

1.     AN APPEAL TO JUSTICE (JOB 4:6-7, 6:2-3, 24)

6 "Is not your fear of God your confidence,

And the integrity of your ways your hope?

7 "Remember now, who ever perished being innocent?

Or where were the upright destroyed?      NASB               

2 "Oh that my vexation were actually weighed,

And laid in the balances together with my iniquity!

3 "For then it would be heavier than the sand of the seas,

Therefore my words have been rash.      NASB

24 "Teach me, and I will be silent;

And show me how I have erred.     NASB 

·         Eliphaz started out being polite and nice to Job, but soon would lead to the accusation that Job had to have committed some sin and he needed to repent.

·         Along the way he said some things that were true about God, but they were mixed with his limited belief system and therefore contained some error.

·         Satan appears as an angel of light telling just enough truth mixed with error to led us far astray.

·         Eliphaz could not accept the thought that God was unjust; for that is what he would have to do if he accepted Job’s assertion of innocence.

·         Job wavered in his thoughts; he knew he was innocent but then doubted in wondering if he had actually done something to asking God, “What did I do?”. 

2.     AN APPEAL TO TRADITION (JOB 8:4-8)

4 "If your sons sinned against Him,

Then He delivered them into the power of their transgression.

5 "If you would seek God

And implore the compassion of the Almighty,

6 If you are pure and upright,

Surely now He would rouse Himself for you

And restore your righteous estate.

7 "Though your beginning was insignificant,

Yet your end will increase greatly.

8 "Please inquire of past generations,

And consider the things searched out by their fathers.     NASB           

·         Bildad knows a lot of old sayings and proverbs and pious platitudes, but he actually offers nothing new at all.

·         He is more crude than Eliphaz.

·         Bildad puts the knife into Job and twists it a little. He in effect says, "Job, listening to you is just like listening to the wind blowing!"

·         Now this is an awful thing to say. Bildad is suggesting that the reason Job's children were destroyed was because they were sinners.

·         Bildad is saying that the past is the proper teacher for the present, but he too has enough error mixed with truth to come to a wrong conclusion.

·         By this time Job is begging to understand that on top of all of his losses, he has also lost his reputation, as everyone now believes that he no longer has any integrity, but is instead a great sinner.           

3.     AN APPEAL TO LOGIC (JOB 11:6B, 13-15, 13:4)

6 Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity.     NASB

13 "If you would direct your heart right,

And spread out your hand to Him;

14 If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away,

And do not let wickedness dwell in your tents.

15 "Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral defect,

And you would be steadfast and not fear.     NASB

4 "But you smear with lies;

You are all worthless physicians.     NASB           

·         Zophar is the crudest of the lot, and he is a legalist.

·         He assumed (and rightly so far as he goes) that God works according to law.

·         He thinks he knows what God will do in a given circumstance.

·         Zophar is different from Bildad who was a traditionalist.

·         Zophar puts the emphasis on laws.

·         Zophar holds that God is bound by laws and never operates beyond he circumference of His own laws.  He speaks very dogmatically.

·         Zophar is real put out by Job’s argument.

 

Job 11:2-5

2 "Are all these words to go unanswered?

Is this talker to be vindicated?

3 Will your idle talk reduce men to silence?

Will no one rebuke you when you mock?

4 You say to God, 'My beliefs are flawless

and I am pure in your sight.'

5 Oh, how I wish that God would speak,

that he would open his lips against you     NIV 

·         It is as if Zophar thinks that since God is not speaking to Job, he will do it for Him!

 

Job 12:2

2 "Truly then you are the people,

And with you wisdom will die!     NASB 

·         Job is sarcastically saying that you know-it-alls are the only wise ones alive and after you die then no one will be able to attain to your wisdom!.

Job 12:4-5

4 "I am a joke to my friends.

The one who called on God, and He answered him;

The just and blameless man is a joke.

5 "He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt,

As prepared for those whose feet slip.     NASB 

·         Job sees the ridicule that his friends are heaping onto him.

Job 12:7-8

7 "But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;

And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.

8 "Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;

And let the fish of the sea declare to you.     NASB 

·         Job is saying that the animals are smarter than you and you are dumber than rocks!

Job 13:5

5 "O that you would be completely silent,

And that it would become your wisdom!     NASB 

·         It is better to remain silent and be thought of as wise than to open your mouth and become known as fools. 

4.     AN APPEAL TO GOD (JOB 13:22-25)

22 "Then call, and I will answer;

Or let me speak, then reply to me.

23 "How many are my iniquities and sins?

Make known to me my rebellion and my sin.

24 "Why dost Thou hide Thy face,

And consider me Thine enemy?

25 "Wilt Thou cause a driven leaf to tremble?

Or wilt Thou pursue the dry chaff?     NASB 

Job is learning that God knows all things and cannot demand anything of Him.

Here we see Job asking for communication from God, and is agony over God’s silence.

Implied is a request for mercy.