Job to Zophar: Audi alteram partem.
I. THE SPIRIT OF JOB'S REPLY.
1. Intense earnestness. Indicated by the respectful invitation addressed to his friends to attend to his discourse, the nervous reduplication of the verb "hear," and the assurance that such behaviour on their part would more effectually console him than all their eloquent and laboured harangues. Job's character of eminent sanctity, Job's condition of extreme wretchedness, and Job's condemnation by the three friends, all entitled him to receive from them a generous and patient hearing. Good men and great sufferers are usually in earnest when they do speak, especially when justifying the ways of God to man, and are well worthy of being listened to for both their own sakes and their subject's. It is one of a saint's sweetest consolations to be allowed to vindicate the cause of God and truth.
2. Absolute confidence. So satisfied did Job feel that what he was about to advance was in perfect accord with truth and right, that he was completely indifferent to all personal considerations in the declaration of it. It might expose him to further ridicule and calumnious animadversion, might intensify the suspicions already existing against him, and even lead to angrier and more direct accusations. He was prepared to meet these for the sake of liberty to publish what in his inmost conscience he believed to be the truth. Job's example is well worthy of imitation. First, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind that what he purposes to speak is true, and then let him manifest the courage of his convictions by suffering for them if need be.
3. Self-justification. Job vindicates himself against the oft-repeated charge of impatience.
4. Profound reverence. Job could not contemplate the awful problem to which he alluded without trembling and bewilderment, The prosperity of the wicked was a theme that filled him with silent astonishment, that dazed his intellect the more he reflected on it, that seized his spirit with a sort of stupefaction—seeming as it did on the one hand (i.e. on the theory of the friends) to suggest blasphemous thoughts of God, and on the other hand (i.e. on the hypothesis advanced by him) to foreshadow appalling woes for the wicked. Job, who was not terrified by Eliphaz's spectre, who was not moved by the prospect of Hades, was overpowered with consternation at what appeared to tarnish the Divine glory or to impair the happiness of man. So Abraham was jealous of the Divine honour (Genesis 18:25), and David was afraid of the Divine judgments upon the wicked (Psalms 119:20). So by all men, and in particular by all saints, should God's Person be held in reverence (Psalms 89:7), and God's Word be listened to with awe (Isaiah 66:2), and God's works and ways in both the Church and the world be studied with silent wonder (Psalms 46:10; Habakkuk 2:20; Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13).
II. THE ARGUMENT OF JOB'S REPLY. The dogma of Zophar and his companions was contradicted by:
1. The facts of experience. (Verses 7-21.) In enlarging upon these, Job draws attention to three points.
(a) Long-continued, "the wicked" being permitted "to live and become old" (verse 7). Eliphaz had affirmed that the ungodly transgressor should die before his time (Job 15:20, Job 15:32), and Zophar had declared that the joy of the hypocrite was but for a moment (Job 20:5). These statements, Job asserts, were notoriously incorrect.
(b) Greatly augmented, "the wicked' not simply living long and happily, but, as if once more to confute Eliphaz (Job 15:29) and Zophar (Job 20:15), becoming "mighty in power, "attaining to vast wealth, and therefore to what wealth represents—influence, honour, pleasure—the three principal ingredients in the world's cup of felicity,
(c) Firmly established, the good fortunes of the wicked descending to their families, who, in express contradiction to the teaching of Eliphaz (Job 15:34), Bildad (Job 18:19), and Zophar (Job 20:10), grow up to manhood and womanhood, and permanently settle beside the patriarchal tents—one of the best and most highly valued blessings a parent can enjoy, as Job formerly knew from personal experience (Job 1:4, Job 1:5).
(d) Perfectly secured, their houses being safe from fear, or "in peace, without alarm," and having no rod of God upon them (verse 9), as his had when attacked by Chaldean robbers, and desolated by Divine judgments—again in flagrant antithesis to Eliphaz (Job 15:34), Bildad (Job 18:15), and Zophar (Job 20:26).
(e) Richly varied, consisting of material increase (verse 10), in opposition to Eliphaz (Job 15:29) and Zophar (Job 20:28); family enlargement (verse 11), against Bildad (Job 18:19); and social felicity (verse 12), instead of the lifelong misery awarded to them by Eliphaz (Job 15:20), Bildad (Job 18:11-14), and Zophar (Job 20:18).
(f) Absolutely uninterrupted, their affluence and ease never ceasing throughout life, but attending them to the grave's mouth, into which they quietly and quickly drop without experiencing either physical disease or mental misery (verse 13), thus attaining to the very culmination of mundane felicity—a picture widely different from that sketched by Eliphaz (Job 15:24), Bildad (Job 18:18), and Zophar (Job 20:11).
(g) Divinely bestowed, Job adding (verse 16) that the true source of all the felicity and prosperity enjoyed by the wicked, though not recognized as such by them, was the hand of God, who is the primal Fountain of every benefit conferred on man, whether temporal or eternal, material or spiritual (James 1:17), who makes his sun to shine upon the evil and the good (Matthew 5:45), and who so deals with the ungodly to lead them to repentance (Romans 2:4).
(a) The strangeness of it. On the theory of the friends, these favourites of fortune ought to have been good; "and yet" (verse 14) they were the opposite. Though designed to engender piety in the heart, material prosperity, in point of fact, seldom does. Yet God's goodness to the sinner is an aggravation of the sinner's criminality against God.
(b) The wickedness of it. The prosperous say to God, "Depart from us," not as Peter said to Christ (Luke 5:8), but rather as the Gadarenes besought him (Luke 8:37), desiring that God would leave them to the enjoyment of their lusts, as these latter wished to have their swine, not troubling them with either the reproofs of conscience, the checks of Providence, the precepts of his Law, or the prickings of his Spirit. What the sinner most fears the saint most desires—the presence and fellowship of God. What makes the wicked man's hell constitutes the good man's heaven.
(c) The foolishness of it. The arguments adduced in its support are three: that the ways of God are undesirable—which was not the opinion of Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24), or of Noah (Genesis 6:9), of David (Psalms 138:5), of Solomon (Proverbs 3:17), of Isaiah, (Isaiah 55:2), of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:12-14), of St. Paul (Philippians 4:4), of St. Peter (1 Peter 1:8), or of St. John (1 John 5:3), and certainly not of Christ (Matthew 11:28-30); that the service of God is unreasonable—which it cannot be, considering who God is, Elohim, Jehovah, Shaddai, the All-powerful, All-sufficient, Self-existent, wonder-working Supreme, and the relations he sustains to man as Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Judge; that the worship of God is unprofitable—which it is not, since, besides having the promise which belongs to godliness generally (1 Timothy 4:8), prayer has the special guarantee that its desires shall be fulfilled (Matthew 7:7; John 15:7), while it is inconceivable that a creature could commune with his Creator, or a saint hold fellowship with his Saviour, without experiencing therefrom, in continually augmenting measure, peace, joy, illumination, holiness, everything comprehended in what is styled "growth in grace."
(d) The repulsiveness of it. The counsel of the wicked Job regards with abhorrence (verse 16); and so do all truly pious souls.
2. The plan of providence. (Verses 22-26.) This Job characterizes as
3. The testimony of ordinary men. (Verses 27-33.) The "tokens" of "them that go by the way," i.e. the observations made by them, abundantly declared six things concerning the ungodly, viz.
III. THE APPLICATION OF JOB'S REPLY.
1. The consolation of his friends was vain.
2. The answers of his friends were wicked.
Learn:
1. That a good man should never weary in contending for the cause of God and truth.
2. That a man who has God and truth upon his side has the best possible allies in debate.
3. That they who have no difficulties in their creeds are not the most likely to be possessed of truth.
4. That the best souls on earth are not necessarily those who have no hard problems to solve.
5. That on the whole continuous prosperity is less desirable as an earthly portion than perpetual adversity.
6. That God confers many of his best gifts upon the worst of men—families and flocks upon tyrants, Christ and salvation upon sinners.
7. That great wealth is prone to separate the soul from God.
8. That God's people should shun the counsel, avoid the company, and abhor the conduct of wicked men.
9. That wicked men's "Depart from us," will yet be answered by Christ's "Depart from me."
10. That it is better to be God's wheat than the devil's chaff, since though the former may be bruised, the latter shall be blown away.
11. That the God who is able to judge angels is not likely to prove incapable of judging men.
12. That the wicked man's glory upon earth is little better than the paraphernalia of a funeral procession.
13. That God's ever-watchful eye is a better guardian of a saint's dust than gilded mausoleums and monumental columns.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON