That would be tough to have everything taken from you, your kids killed, and be in constant pain, and still not curse You, especially when Job’s friends convict him of something he hasn’t done and his own wife wanted him to curse You.
“Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said,
Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?
Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?” (Job 11:1-3).
“Like Eliphaz and Bildad, Zophar claims that Job’s sins have caused his troubles. Zolphar’s failure to put himself in Job’s place before condemning him shows a lack of compassion.
Zophar also is not entirely correct in his condemnation: Job has sincerely challenged what he perceives to be God’s unjust actions, but he has not mocked God, as Zophar accuses him of having done.
For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes”(Job 11:4).
In 10:7 & 15 Job had disclaimed being guilty, but in 9:21 he had said he was perfect (a spiritually upright person), which is the word God had used when He described Job to Satan (1:8; 2:3).
Zophar however implies that Job was claiming absolute purity (sinless perfection), but Job nowhere uses such terms of himself.
“But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee” (Job 11:5).
Zophar thought God should speak against Job, but eventually God spoke against Zophar himself (Job 42:7).
“And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.
Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?
It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea” (Job 11:6-9).
Zophar thinks Job is shallow and lacks an understanding of the true nature of God. In the same way that he speaks of the knowledge of God, the height, depth, length, and width of it, Paul spoke of Christ’s love:
“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18-19).
“If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?
For vain men would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.
If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him;
If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:
Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:
And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday: thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.
And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.
But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost” (Job 11:10-20).
Zophar assumes that Job’s problems are rooted in his sin; all Job has to do is to repent, and then his life will become blessed and happy. But God nowhere guarantees a life clearer than the noonday simply because we are His children.
He has higher purposes for us than our physical prosperity, or people courting our favor. Zophar’s philosophy is in conflict with Ps 73.
The Ugaritic Text of the Myth of Baal
Discovered at the site of Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit, the Myth of Baal is one of the longest literary works of the western Semitic peoples in the second millennium b.c.
It begins with a conflict over kingship between Baal, the storm god, and Yam, the sea god. Although Baal is victorious in this battle, he is later defeated and killed by Mot, the god of grain and death.
After Baal’s sister, Anat, mourns and buries him, she kills Mot in revenge for her brother’s death. She then grinds up his body and sows it as seed.
Subsequently, Baal and Mot come back to life and vie for power once again, with the result that Mot eventually capitulates to Baal.
The incident with Yam is interpreted as Baal’s victory over the sea, while the struggle between Baal and Mot is equated to the fertility cycle, with Baal seasonally “disappearing” from the earth.
Psalm 104, a creation psalm, uses some of the imagery known from the Myth of Baal.
The Lord’s power over the sea in creation is described (v.6.).
While Baal is the “cloud-rider,” the Lord “makes the clouds his chariot” (v. 3).
Unlike Baal, however, the Lord is neither killed nor needs help in making the earth produce food (v. 13).
The attribution of aspects of Baal to the Lord, along with a demonstration of his superiority to Baal, served to exalt and praise the Lord as the true King and God of creation in an environment in which the temptation to worship Baal was rampant.
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