“Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?”
~ Job 11:7
Hi James and Ellen,
What do you think that your lives would be like if sin did not exist? Would you like to be living lives that are not affected, effected and infected by sin? Sin is equated with evil. Evil is equated with living a life that has not become God centered. Living a life that has not become God centered is equated with being unfulfilled with how life has unfolded and is unfolding. Pulling a Zophar is assuming the right to judge the life of another guy or gal. Pulling a Zophar is assuming that condemning another guy or gal without demonstrating compassion is the thing to do. Pulling a Zophar is blaming the tribulations that another guy or gal is having on him or her having unconfessed sin in his or her life. Pulling a Zophar is assuming having a more moral and blessed life than the guy or gal whose relationship with God is being tested. Pulling a Zophar is putting down another guy or gal by communicating that he or she is being seen as a shallow, knowledge challenged guy or gal. Pulling a Zophar is to negate and/or deny the role that God is having in the lives of guys and gals who are experiencing testing life challenges, hardships, plights, etc. Zophar – in Job 11, comes out of his self-righteous blaming shell that he was hiding behind with an ‘in your face’ criticism of Job’s failure to confess the sin that obviously had to be to him causing all the grief and pain that had become a part of Job’s daily life. Zophar had heard Job’s argument in which Job said that his beliefs in God were true, flawless and blameless. Zophar was not convinced of Job’s self-proclaimed piety in God so . . .
Do you think that a sin in Job’s life was what caused God to permit Satan to raise havoc with Job’s life? Sin was a critical topic in the discourses between Job and his three so-called friends. If sin had not been in play during Job’s lifetime, Satan would not have had the power to cause the kind of mayhem in the life of Job that he did. A life reality is: because of one fallen, arrogant, self-serving angel, sin has permeated and is permeating all that God has created. Another life reality is: because there is a Divine Being Who is omniscient – meaning that He is all-knowing, Who is omnipresent – meaning that He is ever-present and Who is omnipotent – meaning that He is all-powerful, the vain, bigheaded, defeated angel whose name is Lucifer – who is known today as Satan, and the sins that he is always propagating are totally under the Divine Being’s controlling thumb – which has absolutely no dimensions, and completely within the Divine Being’s master schematic for the entire duration of His creation. As Zophar is censuring Job about why Job should confess an unconfessed sin, Zophar thinks that he is on target with Job when he says in verse 7, ““Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?” Pulling a Zophar is conveying an assumed knowledge of God that presupposes that another guy or gal does not have the same knowledge. Have you ever thought that you were better than another kid because you just knew that you had a lot more smarts than what that kid had? Have you ever thought that you had the answer for another kid’s life dilemma because you just knew that you had a whole lot more pull with the Divine Creator than what that kid did?
Just because something catastrophic happened in the life of a guy or gal, this does not mean that sin caused what happened Your grandpaa bought a gray 125 Yamaha motorcycle with money that your grandmaa inherited after her ma died. Your grandmaa and grandpaa thought that if your grandpaa had a motorcycle that it would help them in Santa Cruz, Bolivia to better get from one place to another place than by walking, going on a bus or riding in a taxi. Until your grandpaa bought the 125 Yamaha street bike, your grandpaa had never driven a motorcycle. Your grandpaa somehow managed to get the 125 Yamaha motorcycle to the place where your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn were living in Santa Cruz. Even though your grandpaa would drive the 125 Yamaha motorcycle to different places in Santa Cruz – such as taking your Aunt Lynn on the back of the 125 Yamaha motorcycle to the Santa Cruz Christian Learning Center where she went to school, your grandpaa never felt all that comfortable or safe driving his motorcycle around Santa Cruz. While he was traveling one afternoon on his 125 Yamaha street bike on Santa Cruz’s inner circle – which is a major street that circles one kilometer out from and around the central plaza in Santa Cruz, your grandpaa swung out to pass a bus that was stopping. After your grandpaa passed the stopped bus, your grandpaa pulled in front of the bus. As your grandpaa pulled in front of the bus, your grandpaa looked into his motorcycle’s left mirror. Just as your grandpaa looked into his motorcycle’s left mirror, your grandpaa saw a taxi whipping past the stopped bus and then directly towards the street that your grandpaa was just getting ready to cross. Your grandpaa thought for sure that the taxi was going to run right into him as he rode his 125 Yamaha street bike through the intersection but . . . your grandpaa tried to turn his motorcycle like he would turn the steering wheel of a car. The left handle of your grandpaa’s 125 Yamaha motorcycle scraped down the right side of the taxi as the taxi sped past your grandpaa. Your grandpaa’s motorcycle toppled over immediately after the taxi had gotten past your grandpaa. Your grandpaa remembers hearing a turn signal lens breaking, his helmet scraping on the street and a guy running towards him to tell him that it was not his fault what just happened. Do you think that God – Who is the Divine Being, was using this accident and causing a bone to be chipped in your grandpaa’s left elbow to punish him because of your grandpaa having unconfessed sin in his life? Your grandpaa believes that God allows calamitous things to happen in the lives of His specially elected guys, gals and kids so that He can reveal His mercies to them.
Job 11 (554)