Charles Spurgeon Commentary Job 11

This was a very bitter and cruel speech, and Zophar was not using the language of friendship, or even of common courtesy. First, he charged Job with being a great talker, a man full of talk. No doubt Job did speak well and eloquently; but to retort upon him that he was a man abundant in words was a very cruel thing, especially when he was in such a condition of distress and suffering. Yet, dear friends, it is an evil thing to be men of tongue, and not of hand; it is a dreadful thing to be men – or, for that matter, women either – who are "full of talk," and therefore have no room for anything else.

There are some people who seem to think that, simply by their volubility, they can carry all before them. In such a case, we may say with Zophar, Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified? But he went beyond these questions, and charged Job with downright lying because he had pleaded his own innocence: Should your lies make men hold their peace? Zophar also insinuated that Job fumed and frothed, as it were, and spoke folly, which he certainly did not do, for he spoke in solemn, sober earnest if ever a man did.

Job did not say that; at least, he did not say it in so many words.

He did endeavor to prove his own innocence of the false charges that were brought against him; but he never said that he was clean in God's eyes.

But oh that God would speak, and open His lips against you; And that He would show you the secrets of wisdom, that they are double to that which is!

Oh, that God would enable you, dear friends, to see your sin, and make you perceive that there is a double meaning in His law — a deep, underlying, spiritual meaning, as well as that which is apparent on the surface, so that a person may be guilty of transgression even when they think it is not so!

Oh, that God would unveil the secrets of His wisdom so as to make you see that He is wiser than all His works, that His hidden wisdom is double that which you have been able to perceive in nature, or in providence, and infinitely greater than He has ever made to appear before men's eyes.

Know therefore that God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

That was a hard thing for Zophar to say to Job; but, still, it was true, and it is true in the case of all of us: He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Even when a man sits down among the ashes, robbed of all his property, and bereaved of all his children, and when he has to scrape himself with a potsherd because of his many sore boils, even then it may be truly said to him, God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

What wonderful questions these are! How they ought to convict those who glibly talk of God as if they could measure him with a measuring stick, and understood exactly what he ought to do and ought to be. We are constantly meeting with statements that a particular thing, which is revealed in Scripture, cannot be true, because it is inconsistent with the modern idea of the benevolence of God. Our only answer to the objector is, Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?