Job 12 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 12 Short Summary:

In Job 12, Job rebuked his 3 friends for their lack of logic. They thought God always punished the wicked and blessed the righteous, but Job pointed out that that was not always the case, many wicked men lived in peace without punishment. Job pointed out their oversimplified worldview. His friends thought they were super smart, but Job was their worthy opponent, and he no longer saw the world as they did.

Job 12 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• Zophar – In Job 12, Job is responding to his friend Zophar’s comments in Job 11.

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• JOB POINTS OUT THE INCONSISTENCY IN HIS FRIENDS WORLDVIEW (12:1-13):

  • Job’s frustration with his friends is obvious from the very beginning of this chapter.

  • He sarcastically said that his friends were the only wise men on earth and wisdom would vanish upon their deaths.

  • Job made it clear that he was just as wise as his friends and it wasn’t as if the points they were making were new to him, he had heard them all before.

  • Job’s friends made God sound so simple, but Job knew His dealings with men weren’t as simple as they supposed.

  • Job was a righteous man, yet he was being mocked by his friend. This happened while many thieves and proud men lived without any harassment. Job pointed this out to show his friends that life wasn’t as simple as they suggested. The righteous didn’t always prosper and the wicked weren’t always punished.  

  • The fact that righteous men didn’t always prosper and evil men didn’t always suffer wasn’t a secret. Job’s friends thought themselves to be wise, but even the animals and plants could see that their black and white thinking wasn’t true to the real world (12:7-8).

  • Job knew that God was in control of the world, and while he didn’t understand why God let some of these things happen, he trusted God’s wisdom.

  • Job had listened to his friend’s worldview and found it lacking.

  • He said, “Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?” (12:11).

  • As our tongue tests for pleasing flavor, our ears test for sound logic.  

• JOB SPEAKS OF THE GREATNESS OF GOD (12:14-25):

  • In previous chapters, Job’s friends waxed eloquent about the greatness of God, seemingly suggesting that if Job knew how great God was, he would never abandon his claim of innocence.

  • At the end of chapter 12, Job gives his own discourse on the greatness of God, making it clear that an awareness of God’s greatness wasn’t the problem.

  • Job spoke about God’s power over nature, kings, and nations.

APPLICATION

• Sometimes, a lack of respect for God isn’t the reason Christians disagree with one another.

• After a debate that ends in a disagreement, I’ve heard some people write off the opposing side by saying, “We can’t agree because they don’t respect God and His word.”  

• Some people are ready to write others off if they don’t agree with them after showing them one Bible verse.

• Job’s friends thought he didn’t respect God, but that wasn’t the case at all. Instead of jumping to that conclusion they should have engaged in more discussion and given more thought to the issue at hand. It was more complex than just a lack of respect for God.

• Many of the doctrinal disagreements between Christians are century old debates, and because of people’s religious upbringings, internal biases, and interpretive frameworks it’s going to take some time to work through doctrinal discussions.

• Don’t assume that everyone who doesn’t immediately see things “your way” lacks respect for the authority of the Scriptures, lacks reverence for God, or has a dishonest heart.

• Job’s friends made this mistake, and it prevented them from discovering the truth about Job’s situation. The same mindset can prevent us from finding the truth or from leading others to it.