Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Job had lost everything: his wealth, his children, his health. And the friends who traveled far to comfort him, they made everything worse. Yesterday on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll introduced us to Zophar, the third and perhaps harshest of Job’s so-called comforters, a man who traded sympathy for sarcasm and compassion for condescension. In today’s study, Chuck continues to recount this heart-wrenching story, picking up in Chapters 11 through 14, where Job finally pushes back against his insensitive friends. Chuck titled his message: When Rebuke and Resistance Collide.

Chuck Swindoll: Zophar makes an error in judgment that commonly occurs among legalists. He does acknowledge the infinitude and greatness of God; that’s correct. He urges Job to understand such truths and to realize their implications, and that’s necessary—not in this case, but normally would be necessary, that could be helpful. But then with veiled arrogance, he exhorts Job to fall in line, implying that he knows what Job won’t admit.

Men and women, be awfully careful about telling other people they’re going through what they’re going through because they’re sinful. Be very careful about that. If you don’t have the evidence and if you don’t have the proof, you’re terribly close to serving as a judge. And people are sometimes implicated in a wrong where they themselves are innocent. Be really careful about generalizations. Guard yourself from taking a role of prophet and priest, as Zophar does with Job. Some of you are very intelligent. You have a great grasp of God’s word, and I commend you for that. Prove it by your restraint.

And by the way, if one of your youngsters is wayward and you’re just eating your heart out because you raised them right and they’re going wrong, remember the one who has done the most perfect job of being a parent has the most wayward kids, and that’s God. Isn’t that a relief? Remember how far, remember the tether He let you have when you were going wrong, and when I was going wrong at times in our lives? And isn’t it amazing how the Lord in long-suffering and finally one day said, “That’s enough. Boom!” And like a dog on a clothesline, it runs out of chain and it kind of jerks a snot out of him when he goes, “I guess I shouldn’t run that far next time.” And it’s amazing how God can do that.

Well, Job says, “Okay, that’s enough.” Job responds and we’ve got to admire him. By the way, it’s a good time for me to tell you a story. When our older son, Kurt, was in high school, he played flute. And the flute section sat in that particular band in front of the trombone section. Kurt was a lowerclassman and there was an upperclassman who was not only further along in grade, but he was a bigger boy and played trombone. And if you know trombone, you know it has a spit valve right on the end of the slide. And you’ve got to be careful where you blow your spit, okay? And professionals don’t just go all over unless they’re in high school and they’re upperclassmen.

And so this fellow puts his finger on the spit valve and goes and blows the spit all over Kurt’s arm. So Kurt tells me about it later. He said, “So Dad, I told him, ‘Don’t do that anymore. Don’t blow the spit on me.’” Well, that kid couldn’t wait to work up more spit. I mean, he was just... so he fills up his slide with it and he blows it. Kurt says, “You know, you’re going to wish you hadn’t done that if you do that one more time.”

The third time the guy goes and Kurt goes boom! and hits the bell of the trombone and drives the mouthpiece through the teeth of the kid. Now he looks like the opposite of Bugs Bunny. He goes, “Oh! Oh!” Blood and everything. Kurt continues to play the flute. It’s amazing. It’s the last time the kid blew his spit on him. Remarkable. I would love to go further with that story, but I’m going to stop there.

Chapter 12, Job goes, “Look, you’re not going to keep talking to me like this.” Fellow Christian, listen to me. You’re not a doormat placed before the heels of every legalist that comes down the pike. You are neither ignorant nor unimportant. You are a child of God. No one has the right to shame you or take advantage of you. No one.

Job responds, having learned a little sarcasm from his friends. “Truly then you are the people.” By the way, it’s plural, so y’all. “Truly then, y’all are the people and with all y’all’s wisdom, it’s going to die when you die. Oh, what a shame. You three guys are going to die and there won’t be any more wisdom left. Isn’t that a great line? Truly, you are unbelievable,” as he scratches his sores and trying to survive.

Look at Verse 3. “But I have intelligence as well as you, and I am not inferior to any one of you.” I love that. You’re not going to keep blowing the spit on me. “Who does not know the things you’ve told me about the living God? Gentlemen, I am your age. I’ve been there and back, and in your eyes I’m a joke.” Verse 4, he called it what it was. He didn’t have the gall to call him what they thought of him. “I am a joke to my friends. I am the one who called on God and He answered him. I am the just and blameless one. I am the one you think of as a joke.”

Are there worst insults in life than being seen in the eyes of another as a joke? Maybe not. Probably worse than being seen as a pawn is to be seen as a joke. “Me, the one who has talked with the living God; me, the one who understands who He is and what He is about. I am a joke in your eyes. He who is at ease holds calamity in contempt as prepared for those whose feet slip.”

And then he goes into the whole subject of the control of God and he asks them to visit the beast of the field and the birds of the air, Verse 7, and the fish of the sea, Verse 8. “Who among these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? It is of God, Zophar, and Bildad, and Eliphaz. Listen to me. It is of God. You can’t explain it. I can’t explain it. But the beasts of the field acknowledge it. Built within them are all of these God-controls and they would be able, if they could speak our language, to tell you their story.”

He starts to get sort of a roll on, if you will, beginning at Verse 16 down through 24. Look carefully at the list of things. “With him are strength and sound wisdom. The misled and the misleader belong to him. He makes counselors walk barefoot, makes fools of judges. Who’s in charge here? It’s the living God. He loosens the bond of kings and binds their loins. He makes priests walk barefoot.” He likes that word picture. “And overthrows the secure ones. He deprives the trusted ones of speech and takes away the discernment of the elders. He pours contempt on nobles and loosens the belt of the strong. He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deep darkness into light.”

It is God. It is the inscrutable Almighty God who is in charge of such things. Don’t you think I know that? And what a creative way to say it. The God I serve takes delight in undoing human doings and in dismantling human enterprises. In executing His miraculous undertakings, He alone is in full control. Daniel wrote: “All the inhabitants of the earth are as nothing. He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can say unto Him, ‘What are you doing?’” Daniel 4:35.

Job says, “That’s the one before whom I bow.” And Job implies, “I’m not sure you’ve ever met Him. Don’t bully me. While I cannot answer why I am suffering like this, I can tell you somehow and in some way, the God of heaven, the silent God, the one who seems to be the absent God from my setting right now, is still in control. You think I’m a hollow-headed dummy?” Verse 1, Chapter 13. “My eye has seen all of this, my ear has heard and understood it. What you know I also know; I am not inferior to you, I repeat.”

“Matter of fact, you are of no help to me. But I would speak to the Almighty and I desire to argue with God. But you smear with lies.” Look at his diagnosis. “You are all worthless physicians.” I’d say that pretty well puts it on the line right there. “And look, oh, that you would be completely silent, that it would become your wisdom.”

Turn to Proverbs 17. 17:27, okay? Just hold your place here and look at Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Proverbs. There it is. 17:27. I want you to see the wisdom of keeping your mouths closed. This is a great verse. 17:27. “He who restrains his words has knowledge. He who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool when he keeps silent is considered wise.” See, why take away the question? If you open your mouth, they’ll know. If you don’t ever open your mouth, they’ll think you’re wise. “When he closes his lips, he’s considered prudent.” There you have it.

That’s what Job is getting at. “Would to God that you would just stay silent. If you would just come to sympathize and if you would just come to comfort, then your silence would have conveyed all of that and more. But you open your mouths and you are such fools, though you speak as though you were wise. You’re worthless physicians.”

Look at the indictment of Verse 9. “Will it be well when He examines you?” Great question. Verse 13. “Be silent before me so that I may speak, then let come on me what may. Though He slay me,” Verse 15, “I will hope in Him. Listen carefully to my speech. Let my declaration fill your ears. Behold, now I have prepared my case. I know that I will be vindicated. Who will contend with me? For then I would be silent and die.”

With that, he closes his comments to the men and he opens his words to the God he loves at this point, the one he wishes he could get an audience with. “Don’t remove Your hand from me and don’t let the dread of You terrify me.” Verse 23. “How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my rebellion and my sin. Just reveal it, Lord. Just show me whatever it may be.”

Then he describes life in Verse 1 of Chapter 14. “Man who is born of a woman is short-lived and full of turmoil.” Living Bible says, “How frail is man, how few his years, how full of trouble.” Isn’t that a good commentary on life? How frail, how few, and how full of trouble. He describes himself with three word pictures: like a flower, Verse 2; like a shadow, Verse 2; like a hired man, Verse 6. Man is frail like a flower. Man is fleeting like a shadow. We humans are full of trouble like a hired man. This is a vulnerable man. This is a hurting man.

Now he really searches an issue that plagues every person with a terminal illness. Job doesn’t see himself getting better and so he now deals with life beyond. He says in Verse 7, “Don’t let your mind wander here. Track this. There is hope for a tree when it’s cut down, that it will sprout again. Its roots will not fail. Though its roots grow old in the ground, its stump dies in the dry soil, at the scent of water it will flourish and put forth sprigs like a plant.” That’s why when you clear a field, the old, seasoned woodsman will say, “Pull them out by the stump. Don’t leave the stump. You leave a stump, as soon as rain comes, the green sprouts. The tree will come back, the shrub will come back. That’s the way it is with a plant, with a tree.” Verse 10. “But, but man, man dies and lies prostrate. Man expires and where is he?”

Job’s questioning life beyond. “As water evaporates from the sea and a river becomes parched and dried up, so man lies down and does not rise.” He mentions he rises later on, but understand something. This is an ancient book. Stay with this. This is an ancient book written in the probably the patriarchal era when very little progress of revelation had run its course. Job knows very little about the doctrine of resurrection. And it’s recorded here exactly as he thought. That doesn’t mean that’s all there is to the subject, for we have a whole Bible full of further truth. The progress of revelation has revealed more and more so that today we can pretty well describe what happens at death, immediately after death, and beyond—even the destinies of heaven and hell.

Job has a question mark and he says, “A man dies, he lies down and he doesn’t rise.” Verse 14. “Unlike a tree, if a man die, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait until my change comes.” Then the chapter ends in sort of a depressed whimper. The message renders it: “Meanwhile, mountains wear down and boulders break up; stones wear smooth and soil erodes, as You relentlessly grind down our hope. You’re too much for us, oh God. As always, You get the last word. We don’t like it, our faces show it, but You send us off anyway. If our children do well for themselves, we never know it. If they do badly, we’re spared the hurt. Body and soul, that’s it for us, a lifetime of pain, a lifetime of sorrow.” End of Job’s response.

We know now that when one dies, we live on. Jesus Himself taught: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in Me, even though he may die on this earth, yet shall he continue to live. He that lives and believes in Me shall never die.” In fact, we all have eternal life. We all have eternal life, but the destinies are different. Some will spend eternity with God in heaven. Some will spend eternity without God in hell. Those are the only two alternatives. And He says more about hell than about heaven in the Scriptures. Sobering.

Yes, Job, when we die, we live again. In fact, we live on. It’s always a challenge to know how to wrap up a message that is this broad. You’ve been very patient to sit through this and to listen to these comments. Let me close with three questions, all three from the text: one has to do with depth, one has to do with discovery, and one has to do with destiny.

Depth. Job 11:7. Are you seeking to know the depths of God or are you just skimming the surface? You’ve got to answer. I am so busy answering for Chuck Swindoll, I can’t answer for another person here. I do not know you well enough to know. And we’re all good at faking it, so we can look like we’re going to the deep things when in fact we’re just skating. So you answer. Are you seeking to know the depths of God or are you just skimming the surface? Just going to religious meetings, just reading religious books, learning religious language?

I’m finishing Larry Crabb’s fine latest book titled The Pressure’s Off, where he writes: “As a culture, present-day Christianity has redefined spiritual maturity. The reformers knew we were saved to glorify God. We moderns live to be blessed. The mature among us are now thought to be the successful, the happy, the effective people on top of things and doing well. We’re more attracted to sermons and books and conferences that reveal the secrets to fulfillment than to spiritual direction that leads us through affliction into the presence of the Father. We seem more interested in managing life into a comfortable existence than in letting God spiritually transform us through life’s hardships.” Wow. That cuts to the quick, doesn’t it? Don’t run from the hardship. Don’t seek a friend who’ll help you get out from under it quickly. Stay there. Stay in it. He’ll get you through it, but He’ll take you through it. Friends will try to get you out of it. Because after all, we want to be blessed. He’ll bless us for going through it. Are you seeking to know the depths of God or are you just skimming the surface?

13:9. Will it be well when God examines your life or will it be a disappointing discovery? I can’t speak for you because I don’t know. But I do know that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one of us may give account of the things done in his body, whether they were good or evil, even whether the motive was right or wicked. We’ll give an account. Is that going to be a disappointing discovery or will it be well with you? Probing, isn’t it? Haunting.

You anticipate already the last one. 14:14. When you die, where will you live again? With Him or away from His presence forever? If you know the Lord Jesus Christ, at the time you die, you will spend forever in the presence of the Father in what is called heaven. The bliss and the rewards of glory with Him are almost beyond, they are beyond our imagination. Or if you in this life choose not to take the Lord Jesus Christ as your substitute for sin and placing your full confidence and trust in Him for forgiveness and eternal life, then at your death you are in hell forever. There is no purgatory. There’s no praying out of that place where you are temporarily for a while until enough people pay enough money or say enough prayers to get you out. You’re a goner. Sobering, isn’t it?

C.S. Lewis wrote: “There’s no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than the doctrine of hell if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and especially of our Lord’s own words. It has always been held by the Christian church and it has the support of reason.” C.S. Lewis was no intellectual pushover. Believe the Bible. Your destiny is determined when you’re alive, not after you die.

Let’s bow together. I invite any one of you who has not up until this time given your heart to Christ to do so now. The key word is now. Now. You’re surrounded by those who have been so persuaded and they would tell you without hesitation that they have never regretted the decision. You will never know peace, you will never know real strength when hardship becomes unbearable like you can know it in Christ. Come today, believe now.

Our Father, we thank You for the searching truths of Your word, for what seems to the passerby as philosophical meanderings, what we have here are dialogues of destiny. Truths to live by, insights that prepare us for now and for eternity. We are frail, our years are few and full of trouble. They proliferate, it seems. Thank You for not leaving us when those problems surround us and we feel as though they are drowning us. Thank You for staying near. I pray for those who have never trusted the Lord Jesus that You will bring them this very day to the cross, that they might know Him and have the assurance of heaven. And we all might be able to say, it is well with my soul. In Jesus’ name, everyone said, Amen.

Bill Meyer: It is well with my soul. Those words are easy to say on a good day, but Job teaches us they mean something far deeper when life is hard, when friends disappoint, and when God seems silent. You’re listening to Insight for Living. Today, Chuck Swindoll reminds us that we may be frail, but we’re never alone. Whatever you’re facing right now, that truth is yours to hold on to. Chuck titled his message: When Rebuke and Resistance Collide.

Maybe you identified with Job’s story today. Perhaps you’re the target of someone’s harsh criticism and you can’t seem to rise above it as Job did. Well, we want you to know the entire team at Insight for Living cares deeply for you and it’s our prayer that today’s message from Chuck and this complete series on Job will provide a daily reassurance that God knows your story.

Insight for Living has produced a variety of excellent resources to help you. First, Chuck wrote a full-length book on Job. It’s well over 300 pages in length. Second, the brand new Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook for Job is ready and it’s ideal for either personal or group settings. And third, all 22 of Chuck’s full-length sermons are available on CD or MP3. You’ll find all the details on this bundle of resources at insight.org/offer or call us at 800-772-8888.

Finally, I want to give you a heads-up on something special that’s coming this fall. Behind the scenes, Chuck has been working on a personal memoir and we’d like to send you a copy as soon as it comes out. The title is Awakened by Grace. If you’d like to be one of the first to learn about its release, you can sign up to receive a notification online at insight.org/memoir. That’s insight.org/memoir.

I’m Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll continues to describe the heroic endurance of Job Friday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, When Rebuke and Resistance Collide, was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.