Job 11:1 – 12:12 - When Truth Is Used Cruelly (Session 16)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 11–12, Reasoning Through the Bible introduces Zophar, the third of Job’s friends, and shows how even words that contain truth can become harmful when they are wrongly applied to someone in deep suffering. Zophar accuses Job of hidden guilt, tells him to repent, and assumes that if Job would just get right with God, everything would become bright and peaceful again. 

This session explains why that advice is not only wrong for Job, but also cruel. The study highlights the danger of blaming all suffering on secret sin, the misuse of spiritual truth without compassion, and the false promise that if a person is right with God, life will always go smoothly. It also draws practical lessons about being quick to listen, slow to speak, and careful not to lecture hurting people. 

The second half of the transcript turns to Job’s response in chapter 12. Job answers with biting sarcasm, pushes back against his accusers, and reminds them that even nature teaches that the life of every living thing is in God’s hands. The passage becomes a warning against both judgmental cruelty and cavalier indifference toward suffering. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 11–12 explained 
•  Zophar’s speech 
•  half-truths in spiritual counsel 
•  blaming suffering on hidden sin 
•  why harsh advice hurts 
•  Job’s sarcastic response 
•  the breath of mankind in God’s hand 
•  how to help suffering people 
•  truth joined with compassion 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Directions That Lead You Astray

SPEAKER_01 0:16

If someone gives you directions and as you're traveling, you find that some of the directions were true, but some of them were wrong, then you're still not going to get to where you're intended to go. If any of the directions were false, then you're going to find that you're lost before you get to your destination. Today on Reasoning Through the Bible, we're going to meet a man who gives some of God's directions that are true, but some of them are very false. Hi, my name's Glenn. I'm here with Steve. We have a ministry called Reasoning Through the Bible, where we go verse by verse through the Word of God. And today we're in the book of Job. If you've been with us so far, we learned in the first two chapters of Job that Job was blameless and upright, that God declares. God initiated a conversation with Satan. Have you considered my servant Job? And in heaven, we learned in chapters one and two that everything is running smooth as clockwork. God is in total control of everything. In chapter three, we saw Job's suffering. Job ended up cursing the day he was born, and he wished he had died as an infant, but he has never cursed God and he has never abandoned God as Satan accused him of. In chapter four, we saw Job's friend Eliphaz tell Job that God only punishes those who deserve punishment, suggesting that Job's problems were his own fault. Job responds to Eliphaz, and then Job responds to Bildad, his second friend. And so far we've seen that the first friend Eliphaz was very Eridite and polite, but he blamed Job for his own troubles. Bildad was a traditionalist. If it was passed down to us, it must be true. He never questioned tradition, but he still blamed Job for his own problems. Next we're going to see the third of Job's friends, Zophar, and what he has to say. He mixes some truth with error and does not help Job. If you have your Bibles, turn to the book of Job, chapter 11, and Steve, can you read the first six verses?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Then Zophar, the Naamathite, responded, Shall a multitude of words go unanswered and a talkative man be acquitted? Shall your boast silence people? And will you scoff and no one rebuke? For you have said, My teaching is pure, and I am innocent in your eyes, but if only God would speak and open his lips against you and show you the secrets of wisdom, for sound wisdom has two sides. Know then that God forgets part of your guilt.

Quick To Listen Slow To Speak

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Sophar is accusing Job of talking too much. He accused him of many words, asking, Shall a talkative man be acquitted? He's saying, Job, you've got a lot of answers, but it's not going to help you before God. He tells Job that just because Job has a lot of words in his defense, it's not going to silence Job's critics. So, Steve, that brings us into a very practical application today. What is wiser to talk a great deal or to be silent and listen?

SPEAKER_00 3:34

The wise thing to do is to be silent and listen first. Understand what the person is saying, not just go off of your first instincts. Think about what they're saying, mull it over in your mind before you give some sort of a response, especially in this type of a situation where you have somebody that is suffering such a great deal. It's not just that Zophar is accusing Job of speaking too much, he's also lecturing Job for claiming to be right in God's sight. He insists that Job's suffering proves that there's some sort of hidden guilt that Job has, and he implies that Job deserves even worse punishment than what he has received. He says, if only God could be down here and speak and correct you and what you've been talking about. So Zophar doesn't seem much of a friend at this point, as the advice that he has given Job is one of a lecture him. Again, Job knows that he's innocent. He knows that he hasn't done anything untowards God to cause this type of a severe suffering, not just the physical suffering, but in the past few days, he had lost his family, all of his livestock, all of his earnings, everything has gone. So Job knows, though, that there's nothing that he has done against God that would cause this type of severe punishment.

Does God Forgive Partly

SPEAKER_01 5:01

The Bible gives us quite clear advice on when we should speak and when we should be silent. The very practical James over in the New Testament says, let everyone be swift to listen and slow to speak in James 1.19. Proverbs 10.19 says that in a lot of words you're going to find sin while a wise man will restrain his lips. In most societies, it's considered foolish and disrespectful to speak too soon or to offer advice unless it's asked for. And what we notice here in Job, these friends are offering all kinds of advice, and Job never really asks for it. They are offering these solutions as to how Job may have gotten into this situation and what he should do to get out of it. But Job never really asked for this. They're volunteering things that aren't very helpful, actually quite rude. So they would have been better off if they would have just been a listening ear, prayed for them, and been there to offer help instead of trying to offer advice. Many of us, including myself, can learn from these types of things that we should listen and speak a lot less. Zophar here in this passage also says that God should speak and give Job some wisdom, is what he says. Zophar thinks that Job is not wise enough to recognize his own sin. He thinks Job is a hypocrite. We should be very careful before we accuse other people about how they should recognize their own sin. Oftentimes we're not recognizing our own sin, and it makes us the hypocrite when we're accusing them of being a hypocrite. Jesus told us to get the log out of our own eye before we try to get the speck out of somebody else's eye in Matthew 7, 3. So we have here great examples of how we should act towards others and what we'd call non-examples. We should be silent and offer help instead of offering advice. In verse 6 of this passage we just read, Zophar says that God forgives part of Job's sin. So, Steve, that brings up a question. What does the New Testament tell us about how much of our sin can be forgiven by God?

SPEAKER_00 7:27

The New Testament tells us that all of our sin could be forgiven through belief in Jesus Christ. He is the one who paid our sin debt on the cross. And through his death, burial, and resurrection, we have those forgiveness of sins if we would believe and trust on him and the promises that he has given us for eternal life and the forgiveness of those sins.

God’s Greatness Used As A Weapon

SPEAKER_01 7:50

I think you're right. It says here in this passage, he says again at the end of verse six that God forgets part of your guilt. That is quite against what we're told in the New Testament. If we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart, then we are forgiven of all unrighteousness, it says in 1 John 1.9. The next section, Zophar continues, starting in verse 7, he says this can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are as high as the heavens. What can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? Its measurement is longer than the earth and broader than the sea. If he passes by or apprehends people or calls an assembly, who can restrain him? Or he knows false people and he sees injustice without investigating. An idiot will become intelligent when a wild donkey is born a human. Part of what he's saying here is truthful. Verse 7, can you discover the depths of God? Well, Steve, can we discover the depths of God?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

We can attempt to discover the depths of God, Zar as acknowledging that God's wisdom and power transcends human understanding. But at the same time, he uses this truth to silence Job's protests rather than to comfort him. So once again, he is lecturing Job rather than consoling him and actually giving him good, sound advice.

Repent And Everything Gets Better

SPEAKER_01 9:19

In this passage, Zophar correctly says some things that are quite true. He says God's ways are higher than the heavens, lower than Sheol, longer than the earth, and wider than the sea. He correctly says that God is all-knowing and all-wise. We're not going to be able to discover and figure out the deep things of God by ourselves. We can know what he reveals to us, and we can know that, but we're never going to be able to plumb the depths of God. God must reveal his truths. We will not discover God's profound truths on our own, or through our own strength, or through our own wisdom. So some of what Zophar is saying is quite true. False teachers usually mix truth with error. They often say things that sound godly and have some truth to them. If it was a total, complete lie, no one would believe it. So a false teacher will very often say some things that are true, but then they mix in the error. For example, in verse 11, God even knows who is false and deceitful. So that part's true. However, Zophar is not helpful to Job. Verses 11 and 12, Zophar gives a quite severe insult to Job. He's hinting that Job is deceitful and stupid like a donkey. He says, if an idiot becomes intelligent when a wild donkey is born a human, he's telling Job a very severe insult. So, like the other friends, Zophar is being hurtful to Job. So let's see what he says next. Steve, can you read from verse 13 down to verse 20?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

If you would direct your heart rightly and spread out your hands to him. If wrongdoing is in your hand, put it far away, and do not let malice dwell in your tent. Then indeed you could lift up your face without moral blemish, and you would be firmly established and not fear. For you would forget your trouble, like waters that have passed by, you would remember it, your life would be brighter than noonday, darkness would be like the morning. Then you would trust, because there is hope, and you would look around and rest securely. You would lie down and none would disturb you, and many would flatter you. But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and there will be no escape for them, and their hope is to breathe their last.

Why We Must Not Blame Suffering

SPEAKER_01 11:51

In this passage, Zophar is telling Job that all he needs to do is turn to God. He's telling him basically to repent. Well, of course, Job all along in the book has been pleading with God all along. Like the others, Zophar tells Job that there must be sin in his life that's causing all of this suffering. Many of us, hopefully, don't have friends that are as cruel as Job's friends, but we often have a voice in our head. Our own mind tells us some of the same things as these friends. We often question whether the problems in our life are brought on by some secret sin that I have. We often say, is there some sort of hidden thing? Have I done something wrong? Is God punishing me because of some arbitrary thing or because some disobedience on my part? And so our voice in our heads of our own false witness to ourselves is often very similar to Job's three friends. Zophar and Job's other friends have accused him of not repenting from sin. Steve, in our day, do we need to make sure that we don't blame all suffering on sin and rebellion?

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Yeah, we do. And we need to understand that pastoral care, whenever you're talking with somebody that's going through this type of situation, you must discern the timing and the context of what they're going through. So theological truth, carelessly applied to the suffering, becomes insensitive and cruel, adding pain rather than comfort. Zophar is painting a picture of one that what Job had at one point in time in his relationship with God, but now has lost. So he is right to tell Job to have devotion to the Lord, prayer, cessation of his sin, and promising that everything will be fine. But once again, Job is in this unique situation where he's innocent of any type of a sin against God. Therefore, just telling Job that and not understanding what his situation is can be cruel. And it's something that Zophar is doing. He's just being so matter-of-fact about it rather than really truly trying to understand Job's situation. Through all of these feedback that his friends are giving him, Glenn, you said in the introduction that Job really hasn't asked for this advice that he's getting from his friends. I also don't hear the friends asking Job specifically, well, is there something that you have done? Have you sinned? Is there something that your family has done or anything that you can think of that has brought this on? I don't see them asking that. They're just telling Job there has to be something that has happened. You have to have some sort of hidden sin that you're not telling us, but God knows what that hidden sin, that's the reason why you're getting punished. So to me, again, it's not really good pastoral advice that he's giving to him. They're just trying to give him practical advice to a situation that he's not guilty of.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

And it's advice to him that they really don't know what they're saying is true. They're just assuming these things. So we need to make sure that we're not blaming all suffering on some sort of hidden sin. If the book of Job tells us anything, it tells us that sometimes we suffer and it's not because of some hidden sin. That is one of the primary messages of Job. Here in this section, Zophar is telling Job that if he turns to God, then the language he used here is life would be brighter than noonday. He would rest securely, have no disturbance, and many people would come along and flatter you. So is it true that we can tell people or even tell ourselves that if our lives are right with God, then everything's gonna be sunny, it's gonna be a bed of roses, and life's gonna be all downhill with smooth sailing. Is that true? If we're right with God, are we not gonna have any suffering or problems?

SPEAKER_00 16:04

That's not completely true because we live in a fallen world in fallen bodies. And as I mentioned many times before, there's diseases and pathogens that are out there that are gonna attack our body. We're gonna be affected by that. We're gonna be affected by the worldview of the non-believers that are around us and that are making political decisions and decisions that affect us that don't have a godly decision behind them. So we will get caught up sometimes in the things of the world, not of any fault of ours, or not because we have some sort of distancing from God. It's just the situation that we're living in a fallen world, and we should acknowledge that. One of the things I'm thinking of here is that these friends sound like to me of giving advice similar to some people that are of some sort of a sickness or something. A person comes to them from a church and says, you're sick because you don't have enough faith. If you only had enough faith, you wouldn't be sick. And that comes from a particular area of belief of what you're talking about, Glenn, is that if you just have enough faith and you have a right relationship with God, you're always going to be healthy. You're always going to be prosperous because God is a loving God and that's what he wants to do. But that's really not reality. It's a false argument that they're making, and it's a cruel argument because here the person is, again, they're sick, and I'm just using that as an example. It could be some other type of a situation, but they're sick not because of anything that God has against them or not because they don't have enough faith. It's just that their body has contracted some sort of disease. What we have to look forward to, and I think the correct advice at that point to give them would be to console them and to let them know as a believer where our future is. We're going to have a glorified body. We're going to have eternal life. We're going to be spending that with Jesus and we're going to be spending that time worshiping him. That's where we're ultimately heading. And to me, that is more of a consolation to people that are suffering like that, rather than going to him and saying matter-of-fact statements that sound like they're objective truth, of saying you're sick because you don't have enough faith. That doesn't help things in a situation like that.

Job Fires Back With Sarcasm

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Oh, I would agree entirely. What we don't see from Job's friends is coming to Job and saying, Is there anything I could do to help you? Is there anything I can say, or can I offer a sacrifice or prayers for you? They're instead offering suggestions that are really insensitive and borderline are cruel. The last thing Zophar says is, but the eyes of the wicked will fail, and there will be no escape for them. And their hope is to breathe their last. He's basically saying that for the wicked, the best thing they can hope for is to die. He's insinuating that Job, that's your only hope here. He's wrong about Job sinning, and he's wrong about how God acts. Zophar is giving half-truths. He's suggesting that Job can then bargain with God. If Job will repent, then God gives him his health and money back. That's sort of this bargain relationship. It's a give and take relationship. I do some things for God, he's going to do some things for me. Most false teachers have some element of truth, but they have the poison of false truth mixed in. And that's what Zophar has done. He has a very wrong view of God that we can manipulate God into blessing us by how we act and things like that. My friend, a relationship with God is a love relationship, and we should trust him because we love him and he's been good to us. Next, we're going to see is Job's response to Zophar in chapter 12 says this. Then Job responded, Truly, then you are the people, and with you wisdom will die. But I have intelligence as well as you. I am not inferior to you. And who does not know such things as these? I am a joke to my friends, the one who called on God and he answered him. The just and the blameless man is a joke. He who is at ease holds disaster in contempt, and prepared for those whose feet slip. The tents of the destroyers prosper, and those who provoke God are secure, whom God brings into their power. But just ask the animals and have them teach you, and the birds of the sky, and have them tell you, or speak to the earth, and have it teach you, and have the fish of the sea tell you. Who among all those does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In whose hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind? Does the ear not put words to the test as the palate tastes its food? Wisdom is with the ages, and with long life comes understanding. So, Steve, what do you get out of that passage?

SPEAKER_00 21:11

I think Job is speaking out against his accusers and telling them, you really don't know what's going on. And he's using all these different examples here that he goes through in regards to the animals and nature and everything else. You don't know what you're talking about. You're accusing me of something that's not true and accurate. Therefore, what you're telling me is not accurate.

Judgmental Or Cavalier Both Harm

SPEAKER_01 21:34

He opens that section being more than a little bit sarcastic. In verse two, he says that with you, wisdom will die, as if you're the holder of wisdom. And when you're gone, there's no more wisdom left. It means that they think they're the only wise men. The next verse, verse three, Job says he is just as intelligent as they and just as wise as they are. Job complains that even though he He's blameless, his friends think he is a joke to be laughed at. So even though the friends may have been trying to help, Job perceives it as mockery and laughter. And we should never put ourselves in that situation where we may be trying to help, but the recipient thinks that we're being cruel. Job complains that even though he's blameless, his friends think he's a joke. Notice how Job understood his friends. The friends thought they were helping, but Job thinks this is very insensitive and interprets their friends as thinking they're smarter than he. We always need to be careful what kind of advice we give to others. Then in verse five, quote, he who is at ease holds disaster in contempt. What he's saying there is that the people who are not suffering seem to think that disaster is no big deal. If there's a disaster and it impacts somebody else, oh well, not such a bad problem. You'll get over it. Are we sometimes guilty, Steve, of knowing about other people's suffering and not really feeling the disaster like they would, or thinking that, well, at least I'm not in the same category as you. Do we feel better sometimes when we think that the other person must have maybe they deserved it, or it's really not that bad?

Nature Shows God Holds Life

SPEAKER_00 23:24

This is the opposite end of the spectrum of what we've been talking about. We've been talking about them being very judgmental in their accusations with Job when they really don't know what's going on. This, what you just got through mentioning, Glenn, is the other end of the spectrum of being cavalier about it, of seeing somebody that's having some serious suffering, and yet you're passing it off of, oh, it's really no big deal. Just get up and walk it off. You'll, you're gonna come out of this, okay. Don't worry about it. That's the opposite end, and that's just as cruel, I think, as it is the other way of being too judgmental. Not taking it seriously and really empathizing with the person that's suffering and trying to understand the situation that they're going through and just being with them. They all they really need to do sometimes is just have somebody there with them. There doesn't need to be any conversation sometimes. It just needs to be a presence that they might know that you're there praying for them and that you wish that they weren't going through that type of a situation. But being cavalier about it and passing it off as something that's not a big deal. You need to get over it is not a good thing either.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Job then reminds his friends that the life of every living thing is in God's hands. If we look at nature, we can determine the exact same things. It can tell us that God is in control of all things. Modern science often thinks they know better than God. They take a very mechanistic view of creation, thinking that God does not exist and that all of nature is an unintelligent physics and chemistry, can explain everything. They think if we just understand how the mechanism works, then we've understood all of nature. Job says that even the animals, even the birds, even the fish know that they're in God's hands. So, Steve, we find that to be true today. Many people have to go to school for quite a long time before they're so dumb that they look at nature and see that there's not a designer there, not a God there. If we look at verse 10, is it true that the breath of mankind is in the hand of God?

SPEAKER_00 25:33

What happened whenever God created man? He created him from the dust of the earth, and then he breathed into him, and he became a living soul. So, yes, the life of everything is in the living. It's the breath of mankind from the very beginning even through to today.

Wisdom With Age And Closing

SPEAKER_01 25:52

The last part of that speech that we just read, Job says, Wisdom is with the aged, and with long life comes understanding. He's saying there that elderly people, the people that have lived a long time, are generally wiser. Every Christian should take this into consideration. As a general rule, elderly people are indeed wiser. If nothing else, they've seen a lot and we can learn from them. They have words of wisdom that the young can learn from. I found it true that some people have 30 years of experience and some people have one year of experience 30 times. But nevertheless, we can in general learn from elderly people, and young people should be taught to go and learn wisdom from the aged and the wiser people. That's what Job is encouraging us to do. We're gonna stop here because of time, but we're right in the middle of Job's response, and we're gonna see more of what he tells us next time as we continue to reason through the book of Job. Thank you so much for watching and listening.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

May God bless you.