#8 Job Continued

Job knows that his redeemer lives and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh will I see God (19:25). This is a remarkable statement that may suggest not only that Job was aware of life after death, but of a bodily resurrection to follow at some point in the future.

The argument between Job and his friends continue and grow more extreme and acrimonious as they go. New thoughts are introduced as they go. For instance in chapter twenty, Zophar admits that the wicked may at times prosper, but only for a little while before God destroys them. This is what he thinks has happened to Job. Job replies in the next speech that he knows of evil men who spend all their earthly years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace (21:13). For Job, this observation is sufficient to explode Zophar’s argument. He concludes by saying, So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!

In Chapter twenty two Eliphaz makes terrible accusations against Job. He charges him with stealing from the poor and from abusing widows and orphans. Job doesn’t even answer this. Instead he returns to making direct address to God. He wishes he knew where to find God. He wants to approach him and fill his mouth with arguments for the Almighty and see what God would have to say for Himself. This is one of the times where Job has clearly crossed the line. Though it is not the line of blasphemy or cursing God, but it is a line of presumption. When God does reveal Himself to Job at the end of the book, we will find Job far less prepared to fill his mouth with arguments than he thought.

Bildad makes a short speech in chapter twenty five that doesn’t address Job. It seems by this point that communication has completely broken down. They are all speaking past each other and making no attempt to listen or respond to one another’s points. This is what often happens in arguments and as a side point, we should avoid this error when discussing controversial matters with each other.

In Chapter twenty six Job launches into his longest speech which continues through chapter thirty one. In it Job makes some excellent observations. He seeks after wisdom and acknowledges that it is the gift of God and that no man has discovered it’s fullness. There are mysteries that lie beyond the edge of the map of human reckoning. Neither Job, nor his three friends have been able to discover what is going on with Job. The wisest men of that age, applying themselves to problem of Job’s suffering were utterly unable to provide a right explanation of the problem. We would do well to understand that there is much we do not understand and the simple explanations we often resort to are often not the whole of the matter.