Chapter 19 closed with Job singing out his “Hymn of the Redeemer” and warning his friends they will suffer God’s sword of judgment if they don’t turn from their wrongdoing. The time has now come for Zophar to erupt in anger once again and lecture his friend. Notice the key question he asks Job in 20:4-5,

⁴ Do you not know this from of old,
since man was placed on earth,
⁵ that the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless but for a moment?

Here then is Zophar’s law of life on earth: The joy of the wicked lasts but a moment. He says, “The wicked never persevere in prosperity, at some point – normally much sooner than later – everything will go bad for bad people.” And so what he does for the rest of chapter 20 is give Job three promises about the fate of the wicked.

ZOPHAR’S 3 PROMISES ABOUT THE WICKED’S FATE

The wicked will lose their status (20:6-11). Notice how Zophar illustratively makes this point in 20:6-7,

Though his height mount up to the heavens,
and his head reach to the clouds,
⁷ he will perish forever like his own dung;
those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’

Although the wicked are perched on high right now, they will soon be cast down and disappear. Their unrepentant wickedness will cause the wicked to “give back his wealth” (20:10) and youthful vigor to “lie down with him in the dust” (20:11).

The wicked will lose their satisfaction (20:12-19). The dominant image in this section is that of food that tastes good, but eventually turns out to be horrible. Just as the sweet fruit Adam and Eve ate in the Garden of Eden only brought death and destruction, so too will the wicked man eventually lose his satisfaction and delight in life. Look at what Zophar says about this in 20:15,

He swallows down riches and vomits them up again;
God casts them out of his belly.

The wicked will lose their safety (20:20-28). In this final part, as one commentator says, Zophar “becomes more blunt than ever.” He says that evil does not merely result in inevitable evil, it ultimately warrants the terrible wrath of God. Notice the end of 20:21-23,

. . . his prosperity will not endure.
²² In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress;
the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.
²³ To fill his belly to the full,
God will send his burning anger against him
and rain it upon him into his body.

Not only does burning anger rain down on the wicked, Zophar – like Bildad before him – wants Job to know that God pursues the wicked with inescapable punishment (cf. 20:24-25). Notice then how Zophar concludes it all in 20:29,

This is the wicked man’s portion from God,
the heritage decreed for him by God.

 “I’m warning you pious and pompous Job. God has decreed that a wicked man’s lot in life is to inevitably and invariably lose his status, satisfaction, and safety.”

Like his friends before him, Zophar comes close to the truth but falls just short. Where has he gone wrong? He has taken a wrong turn and is driving down a road named, “False Teaching.”

In the next chapter, Job declares God is just toward the wicked, but his justice often doesn’t make sense to us in this life. And that’s where Zophar goes wrong. He says the wicked eventually get all the punishment they deserve before death, but Job sees too many wicked people dying in peace. Therefore, God’s justice must ultimately fall on them in the life to come.¹ The, “When?”, question of justice is echoed all throughout the Bible, particularly in the prophets. God’s people often complain that evildoers prosper while they suffer. And you know how God always answers that complaint, “Just wait. Their time of justice will come – at the end of all things. They prosper now, but will suffer forever. You suffer now, but will prosper forever.”

Zophar has a short perspective on God’s justice (“It all comes in this life!”), while Job takes the long – and right – perspective on God’s righteous judgement of the wicked.

WHERE ARE THE TEARS?

We should also not miss the lambasting and devastating Zophar is his portrayal of God’s wrath. I once heard a story of a church who needed a new preaching pastor that had invited several different candidates to preach. One pastor arrived and preached on Psalm 9:17 and the terrifying phrase, “The wicked shall be turned into hell.” When the elders met later in the day to evaluate the sermon the chairman quickly concluded he was not the man for the job. A few weeks later another candidate came to preach and took for his text Psalm 9:17. The chairman of the elders convened the evaluation meeting that afternoon by saying, “We have found our man.” The other elders were not a little surprised, but the chairman said, “When the second man emphasized that the lost will be turn into hell, he said it with tears in his eyes and concern in his voice. That first preacher seemed to gloat over the sinner’s death.”² The great Robert Murray M’Cheyne was right when he said, ”The man who speaks of hell should do it with tears in his eyes.”

If we could go back to that ancient day, do you think we’d see any tears in Zophar’s eyes? I’d be shocked to seem them. He seems to gloat over the plight of Job and the promises of judgment coming his way. Just like Bildad last week, Zophar gives no application, instead concluding, “This is your portion Job, deal with it.” Oh what tears must often cover the truth we confess! We confess the Bible to be true, and it tells God is angry at sin and his judgment will rain down if sinners don’t turn from their unbelief.³ What will you do with such truth? Don’t go to the opposite extreme of Zophar and apologize for God’s wrath, but do announce it with appropriate agony.

This post is adapted from my recent sermon on Job 20-21, “Suffering with Zophar Again.”

—————————————————————————————————————-