13th November 2025

13th November 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 20)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


It's no surprise that Job's soaring words about the resurrection have long been treated as pure gold. They speak wonderfully about our resurrection hope and have given so much comfort to suffering Christians over millennia. Sadly, their rich theology and majestic beauty made no impact on Zophar the Naamathite. 


He couldn't wait to speak (v2) and he reminded Job that the wicked have been suffering from the very beginning (v4-5). Job longed for the resurrection but his three friends longed for Job to see his own sin and repent. By this stage we know the theological position of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar - the wicked know only trouble in both life and death whilst the righteous person has no reason to expect dark clouds.


Zophar's second speech was more of the same. The wicked might celebrate for a time but it is only for a moment (v5), the evil doer will not be remembered or missed (v7-9) and the sinner will find no joy in food or riches (v12-15). His future is bleak (v21), he will know distress even when his cupboards are full (v22) and only darkness (v26) and the wrath of God wait for him (v28). "This is the wicked man's portion from God, the heritage decreed for him by God." (v29).


We must say that Zophar, like his friends, was not entirely wrong - the future for the one who rejects Christ is awful indeed and one day they will surely know the wrath of God. However, it is simply not true that the wicked's lives are completely joyless whilst the lives of the righteous are always lived in sunshine. I think Solomon was right when in Ecclesiastes he suggested that "life under the sun" was fleeting and frustrating.


I'm convinced that the wicked aren't sitting at home with big smiles on their faces. I'm sure that even though they seem to prosper they face what G.K. Beale calls "pre-wrath wrath and pre-judgement justice." or in other words the Lord is in the business of punishing evil even before the final judgement. God is not blind or deaf and he sends both the rain and the sunshine to the wicked and righteous alike. Zophar wouldn't agree but I think the Biblical position is different from the one he preached to Job.


Brothers and sisters, the wicked will not prosper in this life or the next. The Lord restrains evil and opposes it in all of it's ugly ways. I am sure that even when the wicked seem to be winning, they are merely fooling themselves and storing up further judgement for the day of Christ's visitation (Romans 2v5). Do not fear or fret, Jesus is coming soon and Jesus wins.  


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q18 Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
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