Job 11:4 Commentary and Bible Study

Job hadn’t quite said this; he had only said he was not a hypocrite. He also says things grand and true. It was their doctrine that a man could be pure, and in their eyes Job was far from pure. It is a mistake to have too much respect for what they say; their conclusions are always false. Zophar sees all Job’s defence of himself as self-righteousness. Job has protested his innocence and this is the great problem. Again he assumes that such great troubles could not befall someone who was innocent and that God’s attitude to a man can be discerned from the circumstances of his life. Although the three friends are having great difficulty getting Job to admit that he is a hypocrite, they are sure this is the problem. That, after all, is the trouble with hypocrites: they will not admit that there is anything wrong with them, and the only way to deal with this is to apply more pressure. Zophar is offended to hear such protestations from Job and they ring in his ears. The word ‘doctrine’ is a Hebrew word meaning ‘learning’, ‘teaching’, or ‘what is received’ from the verb ‘to receive’. Zophar charged Job with defending himself and finding fault with God. The situation was complicated, for while Job was not guilty of the general fault which the friends charged him with, he was not without error. They, however, totally missed the mark and failed to see the real problem. Job had not said that he was without fault before God; far from it. He had said that no one can be clean in God’s eyes, but that he was however free of insincerity and duplicity. Zophar misunderstood, and could only interpret the words ‘I am blameless’ (9:21) and ‘you know that I am not wicked’ (10:7) as a claim to innocence. As we think about what each one is saying, we have to keep in mind the very different theologies held by Job and his friends. It is an indication of his erroneous doctrine of justification that Zophar was incapable of understanding the distinction between the claim of a man who, believing in justification by faith, says that he is not a hypocrite, and the claim of another who thinks that he can attain to a degree righteousness which is enough to satisfy God without an atonement. Job made the former claim, and Zophar and his friends made the latter.