the Fourth Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 3 of 5
Job 12:1-25
The platitudes which Zophar has just been setting forth as if Job were inferior to him in knowledge, have only humiliated and annoyed Job. Not only has Job failed to receive the pity which he had the right to expect from his friends (Job 6:14), but he declares that he has become a laughingstock before them (v. 4; see also Job 17:2; Job 21:3; Job 30:1; Psalms 35:15). This reminds us of those who, wagging their heads, passed by the "just upright Man" (v. 4), the crucified One, mocking Him, and saying, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him" (Matthew 27:43). In other words — if God does not deliver Him, this is proof that He deserved His anger. (In short this is the reasoning of Job’s friends). "We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted", the repentant Jewish people will say when they return to Jesus their Saviour (Isaiah 53:4). Yes, Christ, precisely because He was the just upright man, knew and experienced more than anyone the bitterness of the unjust accusations. But His trust in His God and His total submission were not shaken (Psalms 56:5-6; Psalms 56:11).
What a contrast with Job who could stand neither the taunting nor the false accusations and who in the next three chapters (12-14) is to set himself up as the advocate of his just cause (Job 13:18).
