When Zophar’s turn came to speak, he insisted – as had Eliphaz and Bildad before him – that all of Job’s suffering resulted from God’s righteous punishment for Job’s secret wickedness. Indeed, Zophar proposed that Job should realize “that God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves” (Job 11:6).

Job hit back with a wonderful line of sarcasm: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you!” (12:2). He also pointed out that the friends who came to comfort him in his bereavement had switched over to accusation and mockery: “I am a laughing-stock to my friends; I who called upon God, and he answered me, a just and blameless man, I am a laughing-stock. Those at ease have contempt for misfortune” (12:4-5).
We have all noticed examples of obvious wrongdoers who manage to live quite comfortable lives. Job had noted this, and he was confident that his friends knew it too: “the tents of robbers are at peace, and those who provoke God are secure” (12:6). We should clearly see, then, that it’s not the case that God autosmacks the wicked, in some cause-and-effect manner.

Yet if we have all seen that, then we know that the conventional wisdom is wrong when it asserts that if good things happen to you it’s because God is blessing you for your goodness, and if bad things happen it’s because God is punishing you for your failings. How, then, could Job’s friends still be insisting that if Job has suffered much it must be because he sinned much?

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We are so quick to believe in our own virtue, O Lord, and in the wickedness of others: even though we ourselves are so often the wrongdoers who provoke you, to whom you nevertheless show astonishing mercy. Protect us from our own arrogance, we pray, and teach us to trust in your grace for all the world.