Lenten Study Job Ch 12
Job is running out of patience with his friends. All three of them have now had a chance to address Job’s troubles. All three of them have no evidence that Job has done anything wrong. However, all three of them still blame Job. He is about to unload on them in his frustration.
"There was a man in the land of Uz" by andrevanb is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
1 Then Job responded,
Job 12:1 (NASB)
Job is getting ready to respond to Zophar. I suspect this is not going to go the way Zophar hopes.
2 “Truly then you are the people, And with you wisdom will die!
Job 12:2 (NASB)
Job levels sarcasm at his friends. He insinuates they are the smartest people on the planet, and when they die, there will never be anyone as smart as they are. He is kidding, of course. Job doesn’t agree with his friends at all.
3 “But I have intelligence as well as you; I am not inferior to you. And who does not know such things as these?
Job 12:3 (NASB)
Job now asserts what we’ve already discussed; he knows all the things his friends have been saying. In fact, Job has already run through all of these arguments in his head well before his friends came and voiced them out loud. Job has also dismissed these arguments as not the source of his troubles because Job knows they do not have merit in his case. His friends are not convinced of this fact, but that doesn’t stop Job from railing at their accusations.
4 “I am a joke to my friends, The one who called on God and He answered him; The just and blameless man is a joke.
Job 12:4 (NASB)
Job was viewed as a fully righteous man because God answered his prayers, blessed him, and kept him from harm. All his friends know this. This does not stop them from accusing him of the very things they have brought before others before, even though they have no evidence of those sins in Job.
5 “He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt, As prepared for those whose feet slip.
6 “The tents of the destroyers prosper, And those who provoke God are secure, Whom God brings into their power.
Job 12:5-6 (NASB)
More sarcasm from Job. Everything Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar know is the exact opposite of what Job has just said. They all know this, but this is still how Job’s life is right now. None of them can explain it.
7 “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
8 “Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you; And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
9 “Who among all these does not know That the hand of the LORD has done this,
10 In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?
Job 12:7-10 (NASB)
Job’s point is that the Law of God is plain for all to see. The things of nature know this law naturally. It is instinct to them. Human beings struggle with God’s Law because we let our minds over-think it. Right and wrong are intrinsic to the Human Condition. We know it, but many times we fail to do it.
14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,
15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
Romans 2:14-16 (NASB)
We are capable of knowing and understanding God’s ways. Right and wrong are there in everyone. We have to accept that decisions and actions have consequences and stop trying to find someone other than ourselves to blame for our problems.
11 “Does not the ear test words, As the palate tastes its food?
12 “Wisdom is with aged men, With long life is understanding.
Job 12:11-12 (NASB)
In modern-day America, we have a bad movement afoot to eschew the life experiences of those who went before us. Television beginning with children’s programming for the last twenty years, has taught our kids all their problems started with their parents. The adults in their lives are bumbling, and only the wisdom of the children can save them. It is a fallacy that leads to destruction, and we may have no way back from it. Job and his friends knew there was life-saving wisdom with the elders of their day. We need to get back to this mindset.
13 “With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding.
14 “Behold, He tears down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He imprisons a man, and there can be no release.
15 “Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; And He sends them out, and they inundate the earth.
Job 12:13-15 (NASB)
All of nature is in God’s hands. He controls it all. He can cause it to go this way or that if He wishes. He set up the rules for how nature operates, turned it loose, and it is operating as designed.
16 “With Him are strength and sound wisdom, The misled and the misleader belong to Him.
Job 12:16 (NASB)
God is the source of all strength and wisdom. Those who choose to ignore His word and His ways fall victim to the consequences of their actions. God already knows how their world will end because He set up the rules and consequences. If anyone can predict the outcome with 100% certainty, it is God. It is His creation.
17 “He makes counselors walk barefoot And makes fools of judges.
18 “He loosens the bond of kings And binds their loins with a girdle.
19 “He makes priests walk barefoot And overthrows the secure ones.
20 “He deprives the trusted ones of speech And takes away the discernment of the elders.
21 “He pours contempt on nobles And loosens the belt of the strong.
Job 12:17-21 (NASB)
We have this misconception that we control the things in our world. That is an error. We control our own decisions. The consequences of those decisions are God’s to dictate as His good wisdom directs. If we want to know what those outcomes will be, we have only to study His Word.
22 “He reveals mysteries from the darkness And brings the deep darkness into light.
Job 12:22 (NASB)
Through the Holy Spirit, God helps us understand the meaning contained in His Word. We are the ones in the darkness until we choose to step into the light of His ways. We do this by puzzling out the things we see as “mysteries” in His Word.
23 “He makes the nations great, then destroys them; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away.
24 “He deprives of intelligence the chiefs of the earth’s people And makes them wander in a pathless waste.
25 “They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
Job 12:23-25 (NASB)
Why would God do these things to entire nations? Study of the Old Testament reveals that calamities happen to entire peoples when they stray from God’s Word and His ways. This happens in two ways. First, it happens when the people as a body move away from God. Second, it happens when those people put in charge of themselves foolish leaders for whatever reason. If we want to avoid these catastrophes, we should as individuals do two things. First, study God’s Word. Second, only elect leaders who have character rooted in God’s ways.