“I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.”
– Job 21:27
Hi James and Ellen,
Have you ever been lectured by a well-meaning friend who thinks that he or she knows exactly why everything has suddenly gone south for you? Have you ever been told by a well-intentioned friend that the primary reason why the world has suddenly gone upside down on you is because of some life compromise that you have evidently made? Have you ever been given well-meant criticism by a self-proclaimed friend who thinks that he or she has a better feel than you have on why your future has been suddenly tossed up into the air? Have you ever been cornered into listening to a well-worn argument by a self-asserted friend that you know is something that is totally in the pale? Have you ever had to pull a Job? When God – as God the Father, gave Satan His okay to take Job though a very, dark, trying time, Job discovered that his real nemesis was not a lingering emotional anguish from his kids having been killed, from having lost all his life possessions, from having gone from living in style to living in squalor and from having constant physical pain from nasty looking boils that totally covered his body; it was the mental torment of being trapped into having to listen to the absurd conclusions that were coming out of the mouths of four guys who used Job’s debilitating life lesson to elevate their perceived knowledge over Job’s lifetime of having had navigated challenging life tests to establish a future that was underpinned with kids, wealth, servants, animals and land. By the time when Job 21 was written, Job was fit to be hogtied. Because Zophar is the last guy – at this time, to speak his peace to Job, Zophar is who possibly had Job began directing his ‘in your face’ replies. Job begins by sarcastically telling Zophar that he needs to listen very carefully to his words as what he is about to tell him is probably going to come across just as consoling to Zophar as they have come across to him. Job continues to tell Zophar that he is just going to have to bear with him while he unloads on him just as Zophar and the other two guys who were with him had already done to him and then he or they can return to mocking him just like they have been doing.
Job then sets the stage for his response to Zophar by telling Zophar that he is holding God responsible for his complaints; that his impatience is towards God and not towards what seems to be like a morally upside-down life situation. The three so-called friends who had been confronting Job had disparagingly contended – through their misconstrued knowledge of how God – as God the Father, does what He does that God – as God the Father, will sooner or later discipline and snuff out the wicked. The implication to Job and to whoever reads the Job Book is that Job’s ‘friends’ were absolutely convinced that Job had to be living a double life or God – as God the Father, would never be taking Job through the kind of wretched misery that Job was having to suffer. Job then sardonically tells the three guys to clap their hands over their mouths for all the absurdities that have come out of their mouths as well as to act astonished for having spoken so idiotically. Job then begins to articulate his thoughts to his wannabe therapists for having tried to put over on him that God – as God the Father, tears down wicked guys and raises up good guys. Job tells the three duds that he has known plenty of wicked guys who have lived on, who have grown old, who have had their power increased, who have seen their kids have kids, who have safe homes, who have reproducing herds, who have happy families, who have enjoyed life, and who have lived prosperous lives and gone to their grave in peace. Job basically is telling the three guys to cut the rot as he is not buying it at all. Verse 27 has Job blurting out what he is thinking, “‘I know full well what you are thinking, the schemes by which you would wrong me.” Job is not about to be fooled into believing what the three clumsy dupes are trying to tell him – that something wicked that he has hidden in his life has been the catalyst for God – as God the Father, having to punish him. Job had seen too many guys die who had been full of vigor and completely secure and at ease with life and guys die who had been filled with bitterness and a distaste for life’s joys. Job had seen the same worms cover these different guys who had different outlooks on life as they lay side by side in their graves.
Instead of having four guys doing all that they could do to encourage him, Job was stuck with having four guys using nonsensical fabrications to try to push him even further into the ground than he already felt like he was. When your grandpaa was in Guatemala last month, your grandpaa went with several short term ministry team participants to the house where a gal was staying whose ten year old niece had been swallowed up in a small mudslide that also totally obliterated the house where she had been living. After your grandpaa listened to the gal’s heartrending story, he asked the gal how she was feeling. The gal told your grandpaa that she knows that God had a reason for letting a random mudslide do what it did. Your grandpaa is thankful that the gal could reconcile with her deep emotional pain as something that is in God’s hands but . . . your grandpaa still finds himself asking the question why God would have an innocent ten year old gal die in San Pedro La Laguna and 22 guys, gals and kids die in San Antonio Palopó by mudslides that were caused by tropical depression Agatha and why God would have over 1,000 guys, gals and kids die in 2005 in Panabaj from mud – that hurricane Stan triggered, flowing down the side of volcano San Pedro?
Job 21 (1079)