Next up for the fray is Zopha the Naamathite.
Now at one level Job has been babbling, talking a load of nonsense, so Zophar seeks to address the errors in Job's logic. But he is missing the point, and this is something we can so easily do as well. Job is suffering emotionally, his words are not nice carefully thought out logical statements, they are the expression of a tormented heart. So if we seek to treat them as a logical argument we will completely miss the real issues.
So Zophar addresses the theological failings in Job's utterings. Then he makes some suggestions, which are essentially to say Job should commit himself totally to the Lord, then everything will be alright. Now we all give similar advice, and there is a large grain of truth to it. But the blunt fact is, and one recognised by the Bible, that there are times when what we see and what we experience seem to make no sense at all, and we cannot square it at all with a loving and righteous God. And if we are suffering personally, or someone we love dearly is, then we will feel this all the more acutely.
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