Yesterday, we considered Job 26, which concluded the cycle of speeches with Job’s three friends. There is still one more friend, yet unmentioned in the book, who will deliver a lengthy speech of his own. For the meantime, however, Job’s friends had said all they had come to say.
Throughout the book, we have witnessed Job on trial. His friends had come to see him, persuaded of his guilt, and had spent speech after speech trying to persuade him of that guilt. Their arguments had petered out over time as they had come to realise that there was seemingly no hope of extracting a confession from Job. Chapters 27–31 contain Job’s closing argument in The Trial of the Three Counsellors. In it, he summarises his case (chapters 27–28) before resting his case before God (chapters 29–31).
Job began his closing argument by again asserting his innocence (27:1–6). He would not confess to sins of which he was not guilty but would hold fast his righteousness and maintain his integrity. He then adopted the Eastern custom of calling down a sort of curse on those who had mishandled God’s truth to wrongfully accuse him of sin (27:7–10). This may sound harsh to our ears, and no doubt his emotional frustration played into it, but we must remember that Job was a man of integrity, whom God declared to have spoken right about him.
In 27:11–23, Job turned the tables. His friends had come to teach him about God’s ways. Their theology had proved hopelessly simplistic. It was now time for Job to teach them a lesson. For all their “orthodox” theology, they hopelessly lacked understanding of God’s character.
We have repeatedly seen that the friends’ theology was desperately simplistic: God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Job had come to learn that things were usually more complex. Still, he had every confidence that, in the end, God would vindicate the righteous and punish the wicked. In 27:11–23, he reiterated several of the images of judgement that his friends had used against him to show that that was precisely how God would judge the wicked. This would, indeed, be “the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty.”
Still, this left Job in a quandary. His friends had come to comfort him but had done a miserable job because of their folly. Their simplistic theology was foolish and offered no help to the righteous in affliction. Where, then, could wisdom be found? He desperately needed wisdom to navigate his challenges, but it seemed to be in short supply.
The friends claimed wisdom, but their wisdom was, in fact, folly, since they had not found it in vibrant relationship with God. Their wisdom came from their preconceived theological system, while Job’s wisdom came from walking with God. They needed to learn, as Job had learned, that wisdom could not be mined (28:1–11) or bought (28:12–19). God alone was the source of the wisdom that Job needed (28:20–28). And so he affirmed: “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding” (28:28).
This is the summary of the problem with Job’s three friends. Their lack of true wisdom might be put down to two things.
First, they did not revere the Lord as Job did. The text explicitly tells us that Job feared God (1:8; 2:3) but it nowhere makes the same claim for his friends. They certainly revered their theology and the traditions on which their theology was based. But they did not revere God. And since “the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom” they lacked the wisdom to really help their friend.
Secondly, they lacked wisdom because they had never asked for wisdom. They believed that they had all the wisdom they needed in their pre-packaged theological system. But nowhere do we see the friends asking God for wisdom. Unlike Job, who is seen speaking to God time and again in the book, the friends never spoke to God. They lacked wisdom, therefore, because they never asked for wisdom (Job 1:5).
We need to avoid the error of Job’s counsellors. If we will have real wisdom for navigating the challenges of life, we must realise that God is the source of all true wisdom. We must find that wisdom by intentionally cultivating reverence for God and by asking for the wisdom we need.
As you meditate on Job 27–28 this morning, ask God for grace to do just that. Ask for the grace to grow in your reverence and for the humility to seek wisdom from him when you need it.
