Some disagreements are more sass than substance. This one has plenty of substance if you know where to look.
This is Scripture for Students. I’m Steve Whitacre, president of Trinity College and a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville. I want to help students build a daily habit for life-long Bible reading. Today is February 13, 2025 and this episode of Scripture for Students is called Nuh-Uh! Yeah-Huh!. Grab your Bible and let’s get started.
Our readings for today are Genesis 46, Mark 16, and Job 12.
Please open your Bibles to Job 12.
When we were little, my sisters and I would sometimes get into arguments that ended up being more about disagreeing with each other than actually trying to make a point. We reached a point in the argument where all I could do was deny that my sister was right. And then I would insist that I was right. This is what it sounded like: “Nuh-uh!” “Yeah-huh!” It was ridiculous and my mom would come by and stop us by asking, what are you even arguing about? Sometimes we weren’t even sure.
If it is your first time reading through the book of Job, it can feel a little bit like Job and his friends are actually having an “Nuh-uh!” “Yeah-huh!” kind of argument. They seem to talk past each other in these long speeches. But unlike my sisters and I, they weren’t disagreeing just for the sake of disagreeing. Both sides are making a point, which we can learn to recognize if we read carefully.
Please follow along with me as I read Job 12:1–12,
1 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.”
May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing and the keeping of his Word.
I’ll say it again: if you’ve never read the book of Job before, this long stretch in the middle of the book of speeches back and forth can seem confusing and irrelevant. But it only seems that way if you haven’t learned yet what is going on.
Here’s the lay of the land: in chapters 1 and 2, Job had all these terrible things happen to him. At the end of chapter two, we learn that Job has three friends: Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Apparently they heard about the sudden misfortune that fell on Job and then came by to visit him. It says in 2:12 that at first they didn’t even recognize him, his suffering was so great. And then in 2:13 it says, “They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Believe it or not, these seven days of silence was the best that Job’s friends did for him. It would have been better if they had just continued keeping their mouths shut. But they don’t: they start talking, and each time they do, Job responds. From Job 2, there are three sets, or cycles, of speeches. In each cycle, each of the friends gives a speech, and Job responds to each one. So we hear from Eliphaz, then Job, then Bildad, then Job, then Zophar and then Job. That’s one cycle. We get two more cycles, except on the last cycle, Zophar gets left out for some reason. Maybe all he had left was “Nuh-uh!”
If we start at chapter 3 and start turning through the pages and just looking at the chapter headings, we’ll get a pretty good idea of the flavor of the speeches that Job’s friends make. Chapter 4; Eliphaz Speaks: The Innocent Prosper. Chapter 8; Bildad Speaks: Job Should Repent. Chapter 11; Zophar Speaks: You Deserve Worse.
Some friends, huh? The gist of what Job’s three friends are arguing here is that Job must have done something wrong. They have a simplistic view of the world and they believe that suffering follows wrong-doing. If you suffer in some way, you must have done something wrong. If you have some small suffering, you must have done some minor transgression. Big suffering? You must have done some monster sin.
So Job’s friends are convinced that he is suffering because he did wrong and that he should repent and turn away from his sin. But I’m sure you have noticed that in each of Job’s chapters, he responds that they are wrong, that he is innocent, and that he is suffering unjustly. Basically, “Nuh-uh!” So here, at the end of the first cycle of speeches, it takes three chapters to record Job’s response to his three friends.
Let’s notice a few things about Job’s response. First, he opens with a bit of sarcasm in verse 2: “No doubt, wisdom will die with you.” As if these three friends are the only wise ones around. But then in verse 3, Job shakes off the sarcasm and insists that he has wisdom, too. But Job’s beef with his friends is actually not so much about wisdom. It’s more about their attitude towards him. In verses 4 and 5, Job says that his friends have made him a laughingstock and that they have contempt for him.
In fact, verse 5 is particularly insightful. Job says, “In the thought of one who is at ease, there is contempt for misfortune.” This is as much true in our day as it was in Job’s: when people are not suffering, they can sometimes look on those who are suffering with contempt or scorn. Sometimes those who are not suffering feel like they are better than those who are. A verse like this should help us try to stir up compassion in our hearts for those who are suffering.
But verses 7 and 8 lead towards Job’s real point. In verses 7 and 8, Job rebukes his friends and tells them to learn from the beasts, the birds of the heavens, the bushes of the earth, or the fish of the sea. Go learn from them, Job says, because—here is the payoff in verse 9—”Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?” Job thinks that his friends should have recognized that he is suffering because of his righteousness, not because of his sins, and that God has sent this suffering into Job’s life for a definite plan and purpose.
It isn’t the only or the last time that someone in the Bible suffered for being righteous rather than for sins. If we learn to read Job well, we’ll see how the book prepares us for suffering with the confidence that God doesn’t use suffering in our lives to punish, but to make us more like his Son. That’s the message of Romans 5:3–5
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Let’s pray that we will learn from Job’s story and be prepared to suffer well when the time comes.
That’s all for today. If you enjoyed this episode please share it with a friend and follow us on Apple Podcasts.
This content is sponsored by Trinity College of Louisville. We shape young men and young women for Christ and for the church. Learn more at TrinityCollegeLou.com. Until next time, keep growing!