Zophar’s Verbal Attack
“The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him. The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of His wrath. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.” Job 20:27-29
It is possible that Zophar interrupted Job before he was finished speaking because Zophar couldn’t listen to another word after he heard Job chastise his friends for their judgmental rebuke of him. Zophar was angry at Job and at Job’s insistence that he was an innocent man. Zophar even blamed Job for causing him (Zophar) to fly off the handle. He felt that Job was insulting his intelligence, but Zophar wasn’t the one who was suffering for his sins.
Zophar indicated that it was basic knowledge that the wicked will not prosper for long. They might prosper for a time, but they will eventually lose everything and end up like Job, poor, in pain, and miserable. Zophar believed that Job was nothing more than a hypocrite who pretended to be pious, but his evil doing finally caught up with him. He was like those who walk around with their noses in the air, looking down on the lowly people from their high horses, thinking that they are better than everyone else. But their day was coming, just like it came for Job. It seems to me that these three friends had all led sheltered lives and had not experienced anything like Job was going through, not because they were righteous, but because all evil people don’t suffer during their lifetimes. These three friends were sinners, just like Job. “Judge not, that ye be not judged”, said Jesus (Matthew 7:1). Zophar, Eliphaz, and Bildad were like the fellow who had a utility pole in his eye who criticized the other fellow who had a speck in his. However, we are all guilty.
Zophar began to list all of these horrible things that would happen to the wicked person. His children will be forced to repay what their father had received through fraud causing the children to beg or do hard labor. His riches will turn on him, making him sick and giving him a lop-sided view of life. Long endured pain and eternal death await the wicked man. He thought his life would be like butter and honey but would find nothing of the sort. When at last his sin is discovered, he will be forced to use his riches to pay restitution to those whom he defrauded, leaving him miserable, poor, and depressed. His worst sin was that of oppressing the poor, foreclosing on their homes, and tossing them out into the street. For this, his guilt will make him sick to his stomach. His possessions will be divided among those he cheated with nothing left for his children to inherit. Just when he thinks everything is going perfectly fine, he will lose it all. Other wicked folks will have no mercy upon him. They will swoop down like vultures going after prey. No rest for the weary and no rest for the wicked.
Just when the wicked man sits back to enjoy his bounty, like the rich man in Luke 12 who decided to “take his ease, eat, drink, and be merry”, God’s wrath will come upon him, raining furiously down upon him. He thought everything was in his favor until it wasn’t. Zophar may have been alluding to the deaths of Job’s children as they were feasting at the older brother’s home and a fierce wind blew the house in on them killing them all (1:18-19). If that was Zophar’s meaning, then that was a terribly cruel thing to say to a father who had lost all of his children. Zophar also indicated that it was no use to try and escape because God has multitudes of weapons in His arsenal to arrest, try, and sentence those who sin.
The wicked will find nothing but darkness. The wicked man cannot get away without judgment. If he looks toward heaven, his sins will be for all the world to see. If he looks toward earth, every person whom he defrauded or oppressed and all those who heard about his evil will declare war against him. It will be him alone against God and everyone else. He will lose everything. All that he spent years accumulating will be gone in an instant. Paraphrasing, Zophar said, “This is it, Job. This is all your fault. You can’t expect to be blessed when you are such an evil man, pretending to be righteous, but really a man of sin. What you are suffering is what happens to hypocrites”.
Job’s friends just kept piling on their accusations and judgments against him. They were right in saying that the wicked are judged by God, but wrong in their assumption, based strictly on what their eyes saw and thus what their minds computed, that Job was the wicked of the wicked. How would he respond?
Next week: How much more can Job take?