Job 20 Devotional

A Truth Turned Into a Weapon

Zophar feels insulted (20:3), and his second speech is sharp. He insists that ever since people were placed on the earth, the success of evil people has never lasted (20:4-5). Evil may taste sweet, but it turns to poison inside him (20:12-14). He oppressed the poor, and so his plenty will turn to misery and God's anger will rain down on him (20:19-23).

There is real truth in this. Sin does not deliver what it promises, and God does see the oppression of the poor. But Zophar's speech has a target, and it is Job. He takes a general truth about the end of the wicked and uses it to explain a particular man's suffering. And the LORD's verdict on Zophar and his friends is that they did not speak accurately about him (42:7). Truth about God's judgment is meant to warn our own hearts and comfort the oppressed. It was never meant to be a weapon against people already crushed.

To think about: When you think of God's judgment, do you apply it first to your own heart or to someone else's?