Job 11:4: “For you [Job] have said, / `My doctrine is pure, / And I am clean in your eyes.'”

December 6th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The last “counselor,” Zophar the Naamathite, stepped up to interrogate Job, bringing the same condemning counsel as the others. Zophar was irritated by Job’s claims of innocence and basically demanded that Job repent. He started out by calling Job a man full of talk, a windbag, much like Bildad had in Job 8:2: “How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?” Zophar viewed Job’s so-called blamelessness as a “mock,” an insult, both to Job’s friends and God. He accused Job of claiming complete innocence, but that was not true. Job never claimed sinlessness. In fact, he said to God, “Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity?” (Job 7:21).

Job could have defend himself if he had only known about the earlier scene in heaven between God and Satan, but at this point Job didn’t know the compliment God had given Job: “Have you considered my servant Job . . . a blameless and upright man?” (1:8). Job kept short accounts with God, repenting quickly of any known sin. We must do the same if we too would be “blameless and upright.”

Pastor Henry Ward Beecher said it this way:

When a man undertakes to repent toward his fellowmen, it is repenting straight up a precipice; when he repents toward law, it is repenting into the crocodile’s jaws; when he repents toward public sentiment, it is throwing himself into a thicket of brambles and thorns; but when he repents toward God, he repents toward all love and delicacy. God receives the soul as the sea the bather, to return it again, purer and whiter than he took it.

“LORD, we humbly repent again of our sins before You, the most holy God. Forgive us we pray and use us again we ask in Jesus’ name.”

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Job 11 KJV

¹ Then answered Zophar the Naamathite, and said, ² Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?  ³ Should thy lies make men hold their peace? and when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed?  ⁴ For thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes. ⁵But oh that God would speak, and open his lips against thee; ⁶ And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is! Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. ⁷ Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? ⁸ It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know?  ⁹ The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. ¹⁰ If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?   ¹¹ For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it ? ¹² For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt. ¹³ If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; ¹⁴ If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. ¹⁵ For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear: ¹⁶ Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember itas waters that pass away: ¹⁷ And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.  ¹⁸ And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety. ¹⁹ Also thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee.  ²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.