Shouldn’t someone answer this torrent of words?
    Is a person proved innocent just by a lot of talking?
Should I remain silent while you babble on?
    When you mock God, shouldn’t someone make you ashamed? (Job 11:2-3)

Listen! God is doubtless punishing you
    far less than you deserve! (Job 11:6b)

And in this way enters Zophar the Skeptic I mean Naamathite. Here are the current standings: Job claims he’s completely innocent. Eliphaz insists he messed up on the basis that no human can be perfect. Bildad is perfectly willing to blame Job’s obviously naughty dead children. And Zophar is – well – skeptical, to put it politely.

For he knows those who are false,
    and he takes note of all their sins. (Job 11:11)

Color Zophar unconvinced. Eliphaz gently suggests accidental, ignorant sin, Bildad plays the blame game, and Zophar comes right out and says, “Job, man, give it up, we know you lyin’.” What, we ask, is his conclusive proof? Same as the other two. Input = output, therefore output = input. He’s not as generous as Eliphaz to think it’s an accident, not as loyal as Bildad to think it’s someone else’s fault. He mercilessly says, “This is your fault and you know it. Stop acting like this is an outrage.”

All right. Now. In Zophar’s defense, we humans do have a tendency to play dumb when we do something wrong. “I don’t know how the cookies vanished,” we say. “My dog ate my homework. Traffic was terrible. It wasn’t me! My brother did it.” Or, my three-year-old thieving self’s best try: “It just fell from the sky!” Yeah. Sure it did.

It made more sense to Zophar that Job would deviate from his character than that God would deviate from God’s. That’s honestly not bad reasoning. God is unchanging. You want us to believe now that he has done something totally unlike anything he’s ever done in the past so that we will believe you have not. <raised eyebrow> Yeah. Sure he did.

You want us to believe that he split open a sea and an entire nation walked through it on dry land.

You want us to believe a flour jar and an oil jar never ran dry while there was need.

You want us to believe a little boy came back from the dead.

You want us to believe the sun went backwards up the steps.

You want us to believe a pregnant teenage girl is a virgin.

You want us to believe the blind saw, the dead were raised, the lame leapt, and the storm was stilled.

You want us to believe in the resurrection.

Frankly, dear, faith requires us to believe some pretty wild things. And at the heart of them all is that God sometimes deviates from how he usually operates. That’s not to say he changes. It’s just to say sometimes more (or less) of him is revealed than we usually see, like with a rainbow. Did you know from an airplane a rainbow is a complete circle? Well. We usually only see an arch. Sometimes only a sliver. But that’s because our view is limited, not because the rainbow changes. When he has determined the time is right and the need is there, for his own purposes to be accomplished, God is fully capable of surprising us. How, then, are we supposed to know the difference between someone who is lying and someone who has seen God act out of the ordinary? These are muddy waters.

If only God would speak;
    if only he would tell you what he thinks! (Job 11:5)

Ironically, Zophar wishes God would speak to Job what he thinks – but Zophar does not appear to have asked God first. If he would have only taken his own advice! Eesh, Zophar. Aren’t you an unflattering mirror. But the point! Back to the point. The point I’m trying to make is – if you’re not sure, ask.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. (James 1:5)

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Believe it or not, Zophar, God does speak. God does tell us what he thinks. I can usually tell when God is speaking to me because what he thinks is nothing like what I think. I often, like Zophar, expect I know what God is going to say to me. I often, like Zophar, am immensely, entirely, devastatingly wrong! But God’s knowledge is solid, and mine is only vapors. He holds onto tangible truths, rocks of fact and reason; I reach out my hands for truth, but find only clouds. I guess; he knows. So if I want to know, my best hope is to ask him.

If only God would speak indeed, Zophar. Hold on to your hat, Sir. His turn is coming. But first, you’ve got to deal with Job.