Job 11:4

"For you say, 'My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God's eyes.'" Now Job had never said either. He had never said that his doctrine was pure. What he said was, that he held to God and to His ways. And what he said about his conduct was that he was not a hypocrite. He admitted that he might have sinned in some way he did not know about. That, he thought, could explain the terrible storm of suffering that crushed his soul into the dust.

On the other hand, Job had indeed declared himself and his doctrine pure. If Zophar could have disproved that, it would have gone a long way to help matters. But he charges Job without any proof. He calls him such a terrible sinner that even his present sufferings were less than he deserved, and he ties God to this dreadful charge.

He takes up the harsh thoughts of those who attacked Job, and gives no weight at all to Job's pleading in his misery. Instead he starts to hold that sad thought which all of them voice: that some serious, hidden evil must lie underneath, and that it is the cause of Job's many disasters, worse than any others on record. He is as certain as a bad suspicion can make a man.

Since Job had said his doctrine was pure and his conduct clean, Zophar was in effect accusing God of failing to speak out against Job! So Zophar does what he thinks God ought to have done! He knew Job had criticised God, but now he was doing the same without realising it!

He was never so bold as to say, "I am clean in God's eyes." No, no, far from it. Sadly, he had rested in being clean in his own eyes, and in the eyes of other people. But he had to learn that being clean in God's eyes was a very different thing.

Job's thoughts are mixed. He is not quite meeting God as a sinner, but as a man who is aware of "the root of the matter" in his heart. His mistake is to confuse this with his own personal worth, and so spoil the very idea of grace. Who of all mankind could stand before a God who is utterly holy and say, "I am clean"?

He sees that Job is wrong to seek to be clean in his own eyes. But it is not in him to show Job how he can be a sinner and yet be justified. He can tell that if Job were not a sinner, then things would be most blessed for him. That is all that Zophar, or mere human light, can do. This is human religion. I must try not to be a sinner, and then I shall be happy, and God will not be against me.

They were not able to say anything — they could bring nothing against him. All of them said the same, and judged him in a most severe and unmerciful way. So he asked that God would speak. Well, God did speak; and when God spoke it was not to the honour of Zophar, nor of Bildad, nor of Eliphaz. But even so, it was because Job prayed for them that the anger of the Lord did not fall on those three men.