Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,
Job 20:6 comes from the second speech of Zophar, the last of Job's three friends to answer him. He paints a man whose greatness climbs to the sky — and in the next verse that man falls. The real question is not whether the picture is true, but whether it fit the man it was aimed at.
Zophar's One Idea
Zophar has one idea, repeated in image after image: success built on wickedness never lasts.
William KellyThe last of the three speaks again. He even admits the haste, if not the irritation, with which he tried to deal with Job. Zophar's main point is the short-lived character of the evil-doer's triumph. Such a man may rise fast to the highest peak of prosperity. It only ends in a sudden fall into the lowest pit of misery and disgrace, as the obvious object of God's anger.
Zophar aims that idea straight at Job. The labels in his speech are meant for the man sitting in front of him.
William KellyThat is the one thought of Zophar. "The exulting of the wicked is short, and the joy of the godless but for a moment." Job was the wicked; Job was the godless man… And so, right to the end of the chapter, he keeps up this reckless attack on a man far better than himself. I can call it no less.
From The Clouds To The Dust
The verse gives the height. The next verses give the fall — and the picture used for it comes from daily life in the East.
Samuel RidoutHis hopes may have risen to the heavens, and his head to the clouds, in his imagination. But he burns away like fuel stored up for the winter. In the East people dried the dung of cattle for fuel, and that well-known custom explains the picture used here… The section begins with heaven and ends with the grave! Such is the downward path of those who do not know God.
Another writer puts this man beside the man of faith.
William KellyLift up his head as he may, he perishes for ever. He ends like the most offensive thing that men sweep away. Those who see him say, Where is he? This is the fullest contrast with the positive blessing of faith. The one who does the will of God remains for ever. The one who does not is like a dream, or a vision in the night.
True Words, Wrong Man
But did it fit the real Job? One writer measures the charge against the man.
Leslie M. GrantThese words were cruelly unfair to Job. He was careless in the way he spoke of God. But no one can rightly call Job's words haughty. Zophar speaks as though Job's haughtiness was extremely bad. He even predicts that Job would perish for ever! Of course this was completely false about Job, though it is true of the wicked.
That raises a wider warning about how we handle truth.
William KellyThings that are true, but misunderstood and misapplied, may do more harm than many a false thing. Misapplied truth gives an error the apparent authority of God. That error carries all the more weight, because it comes as the truth… And if someone uses the truth of God wrongly — if he applies it to crush a person who at that moment is the object of God's intense interest — how foreign and offensive to His mind!
Where The Rule Breaks Down
Zophar's rule says God always cuts down the wicked now. One writer answers that the facts are different.
William KellyGod has always allowed a large part of the world to prosper, to all appearances, in their evil. The reason is that the time of judgment has not yet come… God was secretly holding Job up even while Job found fault with Him and thought He was very hard on him to allow all this. And God held him up not only for Job's own good, but for ours.
Does the wicked man's triumph always end quickly? Another writer answers from Psalm 73.
Leslie M. GrantWas the triumphing of the wicked always as short as Zophar implied? No. Asaph speaks of this in Psalm 73 when he "saw the prosperity of the wicked" (v.3). They might go through life with no real trouble. But their triumph is cut short at least when they die. Asaph learned this in the sanctuary, and says, "I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end" (Ps. 73:17).
Summary
- Height. The verse shows a man whose greatness reaches the clouds. Zophar's picture of him runs from heaven to the grave.
- Haste. Zophar admits he speaks quickly; his one thought is that the wicked man's triumph is always brief.
- Misapplied. The description of the wicked is true. Aimed at Job it became a cruel lie — and misused truth lends God's apparent authority to error.
- Incomplete. Much of the world prospers in evil, because the time of judgment has not yet come. Asaph saw their real end in God's presence, not in their circumstances.
- Contrast. Against the man who vanishes like a dream stands the one who does the will of God and remains for ever.