Job 20

Are you feeling like I am about the speeches of Job’s friends? Come on, enough already. When I opened my Bible to chapter 20 today and saw that Zophar was going to launch off yet again into the same, old thing, I felt a huge yawn coming on. It’s like being on the telephone with an automated answering service—no matter what number you press, you get the same recording: Thank you for holding. One of our representatives will be with you shortly. It gets frustrating when there’s no way to break through the monotonous drivel and reach someone who is actually alive and breathing.

I think Job must have felt that same kind of frustration. No matter what he said, he was constantly met with the same recording: Wicked people suffer. You are suffering. Ergo, you are wicked. Repent. By this time, at least to me, I’m not even able to distinguish differences in the speeches of Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz. It’s as if, the longer they try to hit Job over the head with their theology, the more they meld into one, monotonous voice.

Job, on the other hand, is growing more profound and inspired. All the way back at the beginning, he started off wishing he was dead—actually, that he’d never even been born in the first place. As time passed, he acquiesced to the idea that all human life is brief and he would be dead soon enough, never to return. Then, he declared that—although he was majorly displeased with God—he would trust in God even if God killed him. And in the last chapter, he boldly stated that he knew his Redeemer, and he was planning to see him with his own eyes—after his death.

Yes, as time goes on in this ordeal, Job is gaining wisdom and insight. Little pinpricks of light are starting to pierce the darkness surrounding his heart. His friends, on the other hand, are one-hit wonders. They have a story and they’re sticking to it. They are incapable of doing anything except repeating—regurgitating, actually—what they’ve always been told. Saying what they’ve always said, doing what they’ve always done.

By the end of the book, we know who is speaking correctly. Job is revealed as the friend of God—the one who has the relationship. In this relationship, God is always bringing us new light. We grow, we learn, we understand more and more as we remain connected with Him.

By contrast, Job’s friends—it seems—didn’t have much of a relationship with God. In this chapter, I thought these verses were most telling: Zophar warns, "The heavens and the earth will testify against [the wicked], and all their possessions will be dragged off when God becomes angry." (vs 27-28) Zophar (and his friends) spent the majority of their time focused on the material aspect of the wicked’s "punishment." Here, Zophar mentions the loss of possessions.

This, to them, was the thing to fear, the ultimate punishment. The loss of wealth is seen as grave judgment. The loss of God’s friendship doesn’t seem to occur to any of them as a far worse fate. Yet, for Job, the startling absence of God in the midst of his suffering is the thing that fills him with dread. This God—whom he thought he had such a great relationship with—is suddenly not speaking to him anymore. That’s what Job cares about.

It’s amazing to see the difference between the two, isn’t it? Job, who indeed does have a relationship with God, is finding strength and hope and courage—even as he is assaulted from all sides. Even in his darkness, he is being impressed with new light. His friends, on the other hand—who don’t even have the disadvantage of dealing with their own personal suffering in this instance—are stuck in their religious darkness and blind to God’s light. When one doesn’t have a relationship with the Light of the World, one can’t see.

Satan was so wrong about Job. He said Job only cared about "the goodies." But, when it came down to it, it was shown that Job only cared about God. He would have loved Andrae Crouch’s song, "If Heaven Never Was Promised to Me." Can’t you hear him singing it? If heaven never was promised to me, neither God’s promise to live eternally, it’s been worth having the Lord in my life. I was living in a world of darkness, but He brought me the light.

God is in the business of bringing light to dark places. For those who are connected to the Sun of Righteousness, there will always be new light to be discovered in His Word. Nobody should ever sit back and feel satisfied that there is no more truth to be revealed. For if Job could, in the midst of his darkest hour, see the light of his Redeemer, how much more light is there for us to discover!