Theology with a Hammer: Zophar's Folly Text: Job 11:1-20
Introduction: Miserable Comforters
We come now to the third of Job’s friends, Zophar the Naamathite. Eliphaz came with a spooky vision. Bildad came with the wisdom of the ancients. And now Zophar arrives, not with a vision or with tradition, but with a hammer. He is the most dogmatic, the most blunt, and in many ways, the most brutal of the three. He represents the kind of theologian who has his systematic theology so neatly arranged that there is no room for mystery, no room for a sovereign God to act outside the tidy boxes he has constructed. His theology is a machine, and when you feed the data of Job’s suffering into it, the machine spits out one answer and one answer only: sin. Unconfessed, hidden, grievous sin.
Now, we must be careful. Much of what Zophar says is, in the abstract, true. God is wise. God is sovereign. God punishes sin. Repentance leads to restoration. You could take many of his sentences, embroider them on a pillow, and they would be perfectly orthodox. But truth misapplied is a lie. A good word spoken at the wrong time to the wrong person for the wrong reason is a profound evil. Zophar’s speech is a master class in how to beat a man with a Bible. He takes glorious truths about the majesty and wisdom of God and weaponizes them against a suffering saint.
This is the great danger of what we might call retribution theology. It is the simplistic formula that says, "If you are righteous, you will be blessed with health and wealth. If you are suffering, you are being punished for sin." This is a half-truth that functions as a whole lie. The Bible certainly teaches that obedience brings blessing and disobedience brings curses. The covenant is structured that way. But it is not a vending machine. God is not a cosmic accountant who settles every score by the end of every business day. Zophar and his friends are blind to the heavenly drama unfolding behind the scenes. They see the suffering, and their rigid system demands a corresponding sin. They cannot conceive of a God who would allow a righteous man to suffer for His own sovereign, glorious, and inscrutable purposes. And in their zeal to defend God's justice, they slander both God and His servant Job.
Zophar’s speech is a warning to all of us. It is a warning against a theology that is all sharp corners and no grace. It is a warning against assuming we know the secret counsel of God. And it is a warning against the kind of pride that would rather condemn a brother than admit that God is far more mysterious and wonderful than our systems can contain.
The Text
Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said, "Shall a multitude of words go unanswered, And a man of lips be in the right? Shall your boasts silence men? And shall you mock and none rebuke? You have said, ‘My learning is pure, And I am innocent in your eyes.’ But would that God might speak, And open His lips against you, And tell you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides. Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity. “Can you find the depths of God? Can you find the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth And broader than the sea. If He sweeps by or shuts up, Or calls an assembly, who can turn Him around? For He knows worthless men, And He sees wickedness, so will He not carefully consider it? Yet an empty headed man will obtain a heart of wisdom, And the foal of a wild donkey is born a man. “If you would set your heart right And spread out your hand to Him, If wickedness is in your hand, put it far away, And do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents; Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral defect, And you would be steadfast and not fear. For you would forget your trouble, As waters that pass by, so you would remember it. And your lifetime would arise brighter than noonday; Darkness would be like the morning. Then you would trust, because there is hope; And you would search around and rest securely. You would lie down and none would make you tremble, And many would entreat your favor. But the eyes of the wicked will come to an end, And escape will perish from them; And their hope is the expiring of their soul.”
(Job 11:1-20 LSB)
The Accusation: A Torrent of Empty Words (vv. 1-6)
Zophar begins with an insult. He is exasperated by Job's defense.
"Shall a multitude of words go unanswered, And a man of lips be in the right? Shall your boasts silence men? And shall you mock and none rebuke? You have said, ‘My learning is pure, And I am innocent in your eyes.’" (Job 11:1-4)
Zophar dismisses Job's profound, agonizing cries as a "multitude of words." He calls him a "man of lips," which is to say, a windbag. He accuses Job of boasting and mocking. This is a complete misreading of the situation. Job is not boasting; he is clinging to his integrity before God. He is not mocking; he is lamenting. But Zophar cannot hear this. His theological grid has already interpreted the data. Since Job is suffering, he must be a sinner. Since he denies being a great sinner, he must be a liar and a boaster as well. He twists Job's claim of integrity into a claim of sinless perfection, which Job never made.
Having caricatured Job's position, Zophar then expresses his pious wish:
"But would that God might speak, And open His lips against you, And tell you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides. Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity." (Job 11:5-6)
This is dripping with condescension. Zophar is so confident in his diagnosis that he wishes God Himself would show up to prove him right. The irony, of course, is that when God does finally speak, He will rebuke Zophar and his friends for not speaking what was right, as His servant Job had. Zophar wants God to reveal the "secrets of wisdom," but he thinks he already knows them. He believes wisdom has "two sides," and he's ready to tell Job what they are. And his great revelation? "Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity." This is a staggering piece of pastoral cruelty. He tells Job that not only is he being punished for his sin, but his punishment is actually mercifully light. God is letting him off easy. Far from being unjust, God is holding back the full measure of wrath that Job truly deserves. He is kicking a man who is already down, and doing it in the name of defending God's honor.
The Sermon: The Incomprehensible God (vv. 7-12)
Zophar now launches into a sermonette on the greatness of God. And again, what he says is true, but the application is all wrong.
"Can you find the depths of God? Can you find the limits of the Almighty? They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth And broader than the sea." (Job 11:7-9)
This is magnificent poetry. It is a powerful statement of God's transcendence and incomprehensibility. God is infinitely greater than we are. His wisdom is unsearchable. His ways are beyond our full grasp. This is all true. Paul says something very similar in Romans: "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33). But look at how Zophar uses this truth. He uses the incomprehensibility of God as a club to silence Job's questions. His argument is essentially this: "God is infinitely wise and you are not. Therefore, shut up and accept your punishment. Who are you to question Him?"
The biblical response to God's transcendence is not to shut down our minds, but to bow in worship and trust. Zophar uses it to enforce a gag order. He continues:
"If He sweeps by or shuts up, Or calls an assembly, who can turn Him around? For He knows worthless men, And He sees wickedness, so will He not carefully consider it? Yet an empty headed man will obtain a heart of wisdom, And the foal of a wild donkey is born a man." (Job 11:10-12)
Zophar rightly affirms God's sovereignty. No one can thwart His purposes. He also rightly affirms God's omniscience. He knows worthless men and sees all wickedness. But then he draws his flawed conclusion. Since God is sovereign and all-knowing, and since Job is suffering, God must be judging Job for his wickedness. He then delivers his final insult in verse 12, comparing Job to an "empty headed man" and a "wild donkey's foal." It is a proverbial way of saying that it is impossible for a fool like Job to become wise. He is utterly dismissing Job's capacity for reason or spiritual insight.
The Altar Call: Repent and Be Blessed (vv. 13-20)
Having diagnosed the problem (Job's sin) and explained the theology (God's sovereign justice), Zophar now offers the solution. He gives Job a call to repentance, outlining a clear path back to blessing.
"If you would set your heart right And spread out your hand to Him, If wickedness is in your hand, put it far away, And do not let unrighteousness dwell in your tents; Then, indeed, you could lift up your face without moral defect, And you would be steadfast and not fear." (Job 11:13-15)
This is the classic formula of retribution theology. It's an "if/then" proposition. If you repent, then you will be restored. The conditions are clear: set your heart right, pray, and put away your sin. The promised results are glorious: you will be able to lift your face without shame, you will be secure, and you will have no fear. This sounds like good, biblical counsel. In another context, for someone caught in flagrant sin, it would be exactly the right thing to say.
The problem is that Job is not that person. Zophar's entire premise is wrong. He is offering the right medicine for the wrong disease. He continues to paint a beautiful picture of the blessings that await a repentant Job.
"For you would forget your trouble... your lifetime would arise brighter than noonday... you would trust, because there is hope... you would lie down and none would make you tremble... many would entreat your favor." (Job 11:16-19)
This is a wonderful description of covenantal blessing. Security, peace, hope, honor, and light after darkness. This is what God promises to His people. But in Zophar's mouth, it becomes a tool of manipulation. It is a carrot dangled in front of Job to induce a false confession. He is essentially saying, "Look, Job, just admit you're a sinner, and all this can be yours again. It's a simple transaction."
He concludes with a final, stark warning, contrasting the hope of the repentant with the fate of the wicked, a category in which he has firmly placed Job.
"But the eyes of the wicked will come to an end, And escape will perish from them; And their hope is the expiring of their soul." (Job 11:20)
This is his final shot. He is telling Job that if he continues on his present course, maintaining his integrity and questioning God's ways, his only hope is death. There is no escape. This is the dead end of a theology that has no category for the suffering of the righteous. It is a theology that cannot make sense of the cross.
The Cross and Zophar's Folly
How does the gospel of Jesus Christ blow up Zophar's neat and tidy system? It does so at every point. Zophar’s theology, and all retribution theology, shatters on the rock of Calvary.
Consider the central event of all history. The only truly innocent man who ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ, suffered the most excruciating and unjust punishment imaginable. If Zophar were standing at the foot of the cross, his system would force him to conclude that Jesus was the greatest sinner who ever lived. He would have to say, "Look at His suffering! God is clearly pouring out His wrath upon Him for some terrible, hidden sin. He is getting what He deserves, and God is probably even letting Him off easy."
And in a profound way, Zophar would be accidentally right about the wrath, but for entirely the wrong reason. God was indeed pouring out His wrath on the Son. But it was not for Jesus' own sin, for He had none. He was suffering for our sin. He was the righteous for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18). The cross is the ultimate refutation of a simplistic one-to-one correlation between personal sin and personal suffering in this life. God had a purpose in the suffering of His righteous Son that was far beyond anything Zophar could imagine: the redemption of the world.
The cross teaches us what Job was learning in a dim and shadowy way. It teaches us that God’s wisdom is deeper than our formulas. It teaches us that suffering in the life of a believer is not always punitive; it is often formative, purgative, and preparative. God uses it to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29). It teaches us that our comfort in suffering is not found in figuring out the secret reason why, but in clinging to the God who entered into our suffering in the person of His Son.
Zophar’s counsel was miserable because it was Christless. He offered a transactional religion: you do your part, God will do His. The gospel offers a substitutionary Savior. Job needed a mediator, an advocate, a redeemer, and he knew it (Job 9:33, 19:25). Zophar offered him a tidy formula. We must never make that mistake. When we counsel the suffering, we must not come with hammers of dogmatic certainty about the specific cause. We must come with the balm of the gospel, pointing them to the Man of Sorrows, who was acquainted with grief, and who, through His suffering, secured for us a hope that does not fade, a peace that surpasses understanding, and a restoration that is brighter than the noonday sun.