( Job 12:1–5) cannot tell me what to do?" A religious view which
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4. Self-Complacency of Sentimental Integrity ( Job 11:16–20) . . . 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. ( Job 11:16–17)
instruction used in intellectual life and apply it to moral life, and make certain people moral instructors. It is an abortion for any human being to dare to put himself in the position of a moral superior to another man, and this is what Zophar did with Job. No man is consciously a moral superior to another man; if he is superior intellectually that is largely a matter of upbringing. The real basis of moral instruction lies much deeper down, viz. in God, and God instructs us along the line symbolised by the Christian sacrament, which means the real presence of God being conveyed to us through the common elements. God uses children, and books, and flowers in the spiritual instruction of a man, but He seldom uses the self-conscious prig who consciously instructs. The "Zophar" type has recurred all through the Christian centuries—the man who assumes he knows, and frequently the average man is led to say, "If experts in spiritual matters do not know these things, who am I that I should?" There are no experts in spiritual matters as there are in scientific matters. The spiritual expert is never so consciously because the very nature of spiritual instruction is that it is unconscious of itself; it is the life of a child, manifesting obedience, not ostentation. Our Lord describes the spiritual expert in Matthew 18:4—"Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Zophar is the type of a demagogue, the man who rules with his tongue. Any kind of absolute creed ends where Zophar ended—on the sentimental line, where things reach a pitch of enthusiastic presentation not based on facts. The sentimental line blinds man's thinking by an ecstasy of thought; it enables an orator to awaken human sentiment and sympathy, but in dealing with trouble it proves a false line; it gives impertinent advice to a man who is brokenhearted. Zophar implies that he knows exactly the kind of integrity that will stand before God and before man.
Self-respecting indignation nowadays is not on the "Zophar" line, but on the anti-Zophar, i.e., the anti-religious. Before the war it was not religious but irreligious humbug that was prevalent. Men pretended they were not religious while secretly they were.
If you are a religious person of the "Zophar" type and can work up sufficient religious indignation, you will come to the conclusion that you and God must go together, it is quite impossible for you to be mistaken; then you will begin to instruct others on the same line, and will inevitably end by placing things in a totally false light.
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on the traIl
Job 12–14
True religion is betting one's life there is a God.
The friends charge Job with a lack of seeing the obvious, and Job replies, "I am facing things you have not begun to dream about; why don't you either plunge into the deeps with me, or else keep silent, if you cannot tell me what to do?" A religious view which causes a man to deal only with the shallow side has the ban of finality about it.
Donald Hankey
1. The Charge of Inveterate Intolerance ( Job 12:1–5) And Job answered and said, No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you; yea, who knoweth not such things as these. ( Job 12:1–3)
2. Common Sense of Irrefutable Inference ( Job 12:6–25) Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this? In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind. ( Job 12:9–10)
Job is speaking in a mood of annoyance, he rebels against the intolerance of his friends who do not give him credit for having any common-sense. If we talk with a man who is dealing with the fundamentals, he may appear to pay no attention to any commonsense explanation we offer because his deep is beyond our deep, so we instantly credit him with having no common-sense and get back to our own shallows.
Job accuses the friends of telling lies for the honour of God. That is the danger of putting theology first; it leads a man to tell a lie in order to be consistent with his point of view. Job is speaking not with the view