Reading: Job 20-23, Psalm 140

Right on cue, Job’s third friend, Zophar, takes his second turn at the mic. He does not address Job’s desire for God’s attention that dominates the previous chapter, but instead goes back to how the wicked will certainly suffer. His response to Job is to ask if he does not see that the exalting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless is but for a moment? Zophar apparently feels he has to double down on his claim that the wicked suffer terribly. The very idea that the wicked might not get their just desserts spurs Zophar against Job. He cannot accept that God lives outside the box he has constructed for him. Job’s suffering has pushed on his understanding of God, but Zophar refuses to move.

Job responds to the second speeches of his friends with frustration that they have not listened to him, but have mocked his condition. He asks them once more to pay attention: bear with me, and I will speak, and after I have spoken, mock on! Job has figured out that his friends are more interested in confirming their own view of the world than in learning anything new about God from Job’s experience, but he is willing to try once again. He appeals to his own observations, as well as those of people who have traveled far, to support his claim that God is not so simple in meting out blessing and suffering to the righteous and the wicked. He asks them to carefully observe the world around them and see if there are not wicked who prosper. He denies that it is enough that the following generations feel the effects of a man’s evil. Let their own eyes see their destruction, and let them drink the wrath of the almighty. For what do they care of their houses after them? Job sees the whole idea of punishment on the children of wicked men absurd, for if they are wicked, they won’t care what happens after they die. Job ends his speech with an accusation that his friends have lied to him, and suggests that they know these things quite well but are in willful denial.

Eliphaz once again steps up to speak, and it is worth carefully reading his opening series of questions. Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are in the right?… Is it for your fear of him that he reproves you and enters into judgment with you? All three of Job’s friends have built their entire understanding of God on their assumed answers to these questions. They cannot conceive that God is afflicting Job for his right fear of God, but we the reader know that this is exactly the case! Eliphaz asks if God gets any pleasure from Job’s righteousness. Again, having read the framing story we know that God has bragged on the righteousness of Job in a way that shows he is quite pleased with him. But Eliphaz does not know the whole story. He doesn’t see the big picture. So rather than entertain the possibility that Job might be right, he directly accuses him of willful sin. He rolls up a list of offences that we know from the early part of the book are completely out of the character of Job, and then tells Job he must immediately repent.

Job appears to ignore him. He launches into a speech in which he begs for the opportunity to present his case before the only judge that matters. Though he understands he has no standing to challenge God, Job still believes that God would judge him justly, if he could stand before his throne. There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge. Job is uninterested in defending himself to his friends. As is often the decision of the suffering and the oppressed, he has chosen to fear God much, and men very little. He is frustrated and annoyed at his friend’s false accusations and misunderstand of him, but it is to God that he directs his appeal. It is God alone that Job believes can vindicate him. When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. He has kept all God’s commands, but when he calls out God is not there. All Job wants now is an audience with his creator.