No doubt more had been said between Job and his friends than is recorded in this book, but all we know for certain is found here. Nevertheless, it seems as though Job could have drawn on some unrecorded replies from his observation of what God had created, the earth and the heavens and his creatures on land and the sea and the birds of the air. This understanding seems to fit Zophar’s remark: “Can you by searching find out God?” (Job 11:7), where searching (H2714) has to do with examining, similar to what one does with one’s senses. Zophar continued his reply by speaking of one’s inability to examine the earth, the sea and the heavens (Job 11:8-9), after which he implied Job was as stubborn as a wild ass (Job 11:12).
Job’s irony was stirred, so he replied according to Zophar’s remark: consider the wild asses of the field. “Beasts” is Job’s actual word, but the allusion to the wild ass (Zophar’s word) cannot be mistaken. Consider the beasts, and they will teach you (Job 12:7), which was Adam’s first chore (Genesis 2:19-20). Adam was created in the image of God, to behave like God etc. Therefore, since behaving like God doesn’t come naturally, Adam was given the responsibility of naming/studying the beasts of the field in order to understand his Creator. What Adam named the creatures was what each was called from that time forward, and keep in mind that in scripture names are supposed to indicate the character of what’s considered (cp. Genesis 21:31; 25:25, 30; 26:20 etc.).
Job’s point was: consider the animals. Some are violent, while some are passive and gentle. The violent prey upon the passive and gentle (verse-12), and this is the work of God. It isn’t judged. God simply did it this way, and it points to his own nature. Far from judging moral behavior, the Lord treats both the violent and the meek alike (cp. Job 9:22; Matthew 5:45). Adam was given the freedom to partake of any of the trees of the garden, except for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. If the forbidden tree was rebellion, vis-à-vis forcing God out of his creation, what would the other trees be? They had to have been similar in character (good and evil) but without removing God from his creation. God participates in his creation through mankind. If man rebels, the Lord is unable to experience his labor through the rebel’s evil heart. Nevertheless, if man tastes of the fruit of other trees, letting his palate tell him what is good for food and what is not, in other words, what reflects the God of creation and what does not, then man is participating in the Lord’s creation and allowing the Lord to instruct him. The value of Adam’s observation/study of the animals, which God created, had to do with this sort of thing. He was learning what God was and was not like (Job 12:7-8).
Mankind, from the time of Adam’s rebellion to the time of the Gospel, had been cast out of the Garden, which symbolized the Lord’s Presence (cp. Genesis 3:22-24 and Hebrews 10:19-22). However, man’s responsibility toward God was always the same, namely, to come to know him and become like him by using his palate for understanding good and evil behavior. This is all part of that process. Therefore, the Lord doesn’t necessarily judge moral behavior during this life; he treats both the good and the evil the same (cp. Job 9:22; Matthew 5:45). Understanding this, the Lord couldn’t have singled Job out from all the wicked folks of the world and did what he did to him in judgment of his sins. Something else was at work here, and Job sought an answer from God (Job 10:2). Job was accusing his friends of judging him without using their palate to familiarize themselves with his behavior. Consequently, their wisdom was bland, lacking flavor. Who didn’t know what they sought to pass off as the wisdom of the ages (Job 12:9)?
The life of all living creatures, including that of mankind, is in the hands of God (Job 12:10). Moreover, and to Zophar’s question (Job 11:7), it really is so that we are able to understand the Lord by using our senses (Job 12:11), as we investigate what the Lord had created. Nevertheless, Job agrees with his friends that the accumulated wisdom, the aged have discovered, can take us only so far, using this type of investigation (Job 12:12). What Job’s friends hadn’t mentioned was the missing element we find present in Genesis 2. There, man had the Lord as his teacher, so, if all we have are our natural senses, we may indeed know about God’s greatness, but we are not equipped to detect his presence in it all (Job 12:13; cp. Genesis 3:22-24; Job 9:11-12). Therefore, discretion is required in our judgment of one another’s behavior, which hadn’t been done in Job’s friends’ replies.
Smoodock's Blog 