Companion: Deep Study
A condensed companion to the full study. For each section of the expanded outline: key insights, applications, and the application questions for discussion.
Section 1 — A Multitude of Words and a Misquoted Friend (Job 11:1–4)
Key Insights
- Zophar, the third friend, opens the harshest speech of the first cycle with contempt for Job’s many words (v. 2).
- He treats Job’s lament as babble and mockery rather than as the cry of a grieving man (v. 3).
- He puts words in Job’s mouth, claiming Job said, “My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in God’s eyes.” (v. 4)
- Job had confessed his sin but denied hypocrisy, and Zophar collapsed that difference (Job 7:20).
- Christ was also misquoted and condemned by false witnesses, and He sympathizes with every believer who is misjudged (1 Peter 2:22).
Applications
- Listen before you answer, and answer what a hurting person actually said (Proverbs 18:13).
- Put the best construction on a friend’s words, not the worst (1 Corinthians 13:7).
- Correction is still a duty, but it must be accurate, humble and gentle (Galatians 6:1).
Application Questions
- When someone I love says something extreme in a season of pain, do I respond to their words or to their wound?
- Have I ever misrepresented someone’s words to make my rebuke of them easier to deliver?
Section 2 — “Oh, That God Would Speak”: The Secrets of Wisdom and a Cruel Sum (Job 11:5–6)
Key Insights
- Zophar wishes God would speak against Job, and God does speak in chapter 38, but He vindicates Job and rebukes the friends (Job 42:7).
- God’s wisdom has hidden folds; the Hebrew kiplayim means double or manifold (v. 6).
- Zophar tells a bereaved and blameless man, “Know then that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.” (v. 6)
- The principle is true of every sinner, but applied as a verdict on Job it becomes a false accusation.
- At the cross God exacted the full debt from Christ, so that there is no condemnation for those in Him (Romans 8:1).
Applications
- Apply God’s undeserved mercy to yourself with gratitude, never as an argument against a sufferer (Psalm 103:10).
- If you are suffering, reject the lie that your trouble is a partial payment for sin; Christ has paid in full.
- Crucial warning: never tell the sick or grieving that their suffering proves hidden sin, for Jesus rejected that reasoning (John 9:3).
Application Questions
- Do I ever interpret another person’s suffering as evidence of their sin, even silently in my own mind?
- Do I live with a thankful awareness that God has not dealt with me as my sins deserve?
Section 3 — The Deep Things of God: Higher Than Heaven, Deeper Than Sheol (Job 11:7–9)
Key Insights
- Zophar asks whether anyone can find out “the deep things of God” (v. 7) or reach the limit of the Almighty.
- God’s wisdom is higher than heaven, deeper than Sheol, longer than the earth and broader than the sea (v. 8).
- These words are true, and God Himself presses the same questions in chapters 38–41 (Job 38:4).
- Zophar’s error is to confess God’s mystery and then claim to know God’s hidden verdict on Job.
- The deep things of God are revealed by the Spirit in Christ crucified, and Paul applies Zophar’s dimensions to the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18).
Applications
- Let God’s incomprehensibility lead you to worship, not to distrust (Romans 11:33).
- Say “I do not know” about God’s reasons where Scripture has not spoken (Deuteronomy 29:29).
- Seek God where He has revealed Himself: in His Word and supremely in His Son.
Application Questions
- When I cannot understand what God is doing in my life, do I treat His mystery as a reason to distrust Him or a reason to worship Him?
- Do I speak confidently about God’s reasons for specific events in other people’s lives when Scripture has not revealed them?
Section 4 — The Judge Who Sees and the Insult of the Wild Donkey (Job 11:10–12)
Key Insights
- God is the Judge no one can turn back, but Job had never denied God’s power (Job 9:12).
- God sees iniquity, yet Zophar uses God’s knowledge to cover his own ignorance of Job’s heart (v. 11).
- The wild donkey proverb is an insult: a hollow man will get understanding when a donkey’s colt is born a man (v. 12).
- This verse is contempt, not wisdom, and it is not God’s word about Job.
- What Zophar called impossible, Christ’s grace accomplishes in the new birth (Ezekiel 36:26).
Applications
- Refuse contempt and ridicule, even when you are sure you are right (Ephesians 4:29).
- Use God’s all-seeing knowledge for self-examination, not for suspicion of others (Psalm 139:23).
- Never despair of anyone, because God can give a new heart.
Application Questions
- Have I ever used contempt or ridicule to win an argument, especially with someone who was already suffering?
- Do I use God’s knowledge of hidden things as a comfort for my own soul or as a weapon against others?
Section 5 — Prepare the Heart and Stretch Out the Hands (Job 11:13–14)
Key Insights
- Zophar calls Job to prepare his heart and spread out his hands in prayer (v. 13).
- He tells Job to put iniquity far from his hand and his tents, assuming hidden sin that was not there (v. 14).
- The Pulpit Commentary calls the advice sound in general but insulting to Job.
- The heart is prepared by God’s grace, not by unaided effort (Proverbs 16:1).
- Job longed for an arbiter, and God has given the one Mediator, Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).
Applications
- Let go of any cherished sin as you pray (Psalm 66:18).
- Come to God through Christ with confidence, not on the strength of your own preparation (Hebrews 4:16).
- Crucial warning: never press repentance on a sufferer as the explanation of his suffering.
Application Questions
- Is there any sin I am holding in my hand while I lift my hands to God in prayer?
- When I call others to repentance, do I do it as one sinner pointing another to grace, or as a judge who assumes their guilt?
Section 6 — The Promised Brightness and the Failing Eyes of the Wicked (Job 11:15–20)
Key Insights
- Zophar promises a lifted face, forgotten misery, a life brighter than noon, and rest (v. 16).
- He ends with a threat: the hope of the wicked expires with their last breath (v. 20).
- His whole promise rests on the false assumption of Job’s hidden guilt.
- God’s later restoration of Job is free grace, not the payout of Zophar’s formula (Job 42:10).
- In Christ believers have a living hope, and in the new creation every tear will be wiped away (Revelation 21:4).
Applications
- Anchor your hope in Christ, not in improved circumstances (1 Peter 1:3).
- Comfort sufferers with the resurrection hope, not with guarantees of earthly recovery.
- Crucial warning: verses 13–19 are not a promise of health, wealth or honor for those who repent.
Application Questions
- Is my hope anchored in Christ, or in the expectation that my circumstances will improve?
- How do I speak about future restoration to someone who is suffering right now?
Zophar was right that no one can find out the deep things of God, but God has revealed them in Christ crucified, who bore what our guilt deserved so that we may draw near with hope.
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