Job 12--Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This

Job Replies: The Lord Has Done This​
12 Then Job answered and said:

2 “No doubt you are the people,
    and wisdom will die with you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you;
    I am not inferior to you.
    Who does not know such things as these?
4 I am a laughingstock to my friends;
    I, who called to God and he answered me,
    a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
5 In the thought of one who is at ease there is contempt for misfortune;
    it is ready for those whose feet slip.
6 The tents of robbers are at peace,
    and those who provoke God are secure,
    who bring their god in their hand.

7 “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
    the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
8 or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;
    and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
    and the breath of all mankind.
11 Does not the ear test words
    as the palate tastes food?
12 Wisdom is with the aged,
    and understanding in length of days.

13 “With God are wisdom and might;
    he has counsel and understanding.
14 If he tears down, none can rebuild;
    if he shuts a man in, none can open.
15 If he withholds the waters, they dry up;
    if he sends them out, they overwhelm the land.
16 With him are strength and sound wisdom;
    the deceived and the deceiver are his.
17 He leads counselors away stripped,
    and judges he makes fools.
18 He looses the bonds of kings
    and binds a waistcloth on their hips.
19 He leads priests away stripped
    and overthrows the mighty.
20 He deprives of speech those who are trusted
    and takes away the discernment of the elders.
21 He pours contempt on princes
    and loosens the belt of the strong.
22 He uncovers the deeps out of darkness
    and brings deep darkness to light.
23 He makes nations great, and he destroys them;
    he enlarges nations, and leads them away.
24 He takes away understanding from the chiefs of the people of the earth
    and makes them wander in a trackless waste.
25 They grope in the dark without light,
    and he makes them stagger like a drunken man.

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Job seems to have reached his limit with his friends and replies quite sarcastically that wisdom is going to die with them--that they must possess something beyond the reach of anyone else (meaning him), but then he comes back and says that he too has wisdom and his wisdom has been granted to him by the Lord, and that means his wisdom is not inferior to theirs (in fact since their wisdom seems to come from themselves and from the world, I would argue that their wisdom is foolishness is the eyes of God).  Job says that he, a righteous and upright man has become the laughingstock of his enemies (which is understandable) and his friends as well, which is cruel and unusual punishment given his situation.

Then Job states something interesting--it seems that he at least has some concern that the name of God is at stake here in all of this, because the wicked and those who provoke God and those who worship idols that they can hold in their hands are looking at this situation and laughing and feeling comfortable because it looks like the true God of the universe isn't real or is inferior to the gods of their creation and that they have nothing to fear from a God who cannot protect his own.

He then returns to some sarcasm to say "Thank you, Captain Obvious" for filling him in that God was doing this to him--Job says anyone and everyone and everything should know that--all of creation, even the beasts and the bushes have that kind of knowledge.  God is wise and powerful.  We know that!  God's judgments and acts are sure, we know that too!  If he wants to destroy a city, none will rebuild it (I think of the mockers who said that the Bible had to be false because they could never find the city of Nineveh for such a long time because it had been destroyed by God in a massive mudslide and buried so deep that no one could find it for millennia.  Boy, did the scoffers have egg on their face when not only did the archaeologist find it, but it was exactly where the Bible said it was supposed to be and seemed to be destroyed exactly as the Bible foretold it would be!).

Then Job spells out for us that "God is no respecter of persons," meaning that God does what He wants without regard to how people view their status and privileged among men--all men are equally subordinate to God as He created them all, and everything they have comes from His hand.  There is so much there in that last paragraph, but ultimately Job once again argues that "God is sovereign" (and I am not).

Even in all this, Job continues to hold fast to God and put his hope in the Lord (we'll see that next time in chapter 13).