Here we learn the precious nature of God’s revelation, for Zophar is at least right in this: that God and the knowledge of his truth are utterly unreachable by mortal man. We cannot ascend up to heaven to obtain God’s truth; we cannot go down to the grave and bring it back. God has set limits on man to humble him. Moses uses the same figure: ‘It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? (Deuteronomy 30:12-13), and Paul quotes it: ‘Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) 7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) (Romans 10:6-7). Since we cannot go to God, revelation is essential if we are to know God, to know Christ, and this is Moses’ point and Paul’s point. The covenant of grace was revealed by Moses in Deuteronomy 30, and Paul tells us that Christ is incarnate and he is risen from the dead, and that by believing these things we have salvation. We do not have to go to heaven, because Christ has come to us; we do not need to raise him from the dead because he has raised himself. He is with us, and what he tells us are truths which we could obtain in no other way. He has spoken into our world. He has told us what he knows we need to hear. He given us a revelation which is reliable, and understandable, and sufficient to bring us to know him. While it is true that no man can trace all the workings or God or ask him to give an account of himself, yet we can have certain knowledge of the things that God has revealed. We can know that we are loved by him and that we are forgiven. We can know that we are his children and are justified and will finally be brought to heaven. Many things he does not explain to us, but those things that are revealed have become the foundation of our lives. This was what the comforters denied. Zophar talked as if nothing about God’s way could be known by us.
The liberal view is that you cannot really know much about God. It is a point of view held by people with the kind of religion picked up from the market place of religious ideas. You cannot know much about God; all religions point in the same direction. ‘Don’t tell me about an infinite God, a God so perfect that we must not take ourselves too seriously. God is not interested in every little detail of our lives. Supposing you have a cat, you don’t expect it to understand your views on politics: that is another world. God’s world is another world. He is not as concerned as we might imagine about all our iniquities and sins, and therefore broadly speaking we can do what we like in our everyday life.’ But the Bible teaches that we are made in the image of God, therefore the situation is nothing like that of pets and masters. We are made in such a way that we can grasp the knowledge of God, and the conscience in us reflects the character of God. Zophar is utterly wrong. He wants to lose his sin in a vague idea about God. But when we sin according to our conscience, God will judge. Let none be tempted to think they can live as they like.