Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

We're in the Book of Job for nine more days. We're already 25% of the way through it. This book

can be challenging for some people. Maybe it tries their patience or just feels like a real

downer. Interestingly, though, a lot of people say Job is their favorite book of the Bible. But most of them

don't feel that way until they write it all the way through. So if I may, let me offer you a challenge.

Don't quit in Job. You can quit before Job or you can quit after Job, but don't quit in Job.

Obviously, it's too late for you to quit before Job, so you're stuck with us.

The good news is, this book ends with praise and triumph, so be sure to stick around for the party.

We're getting closer to it every day.

We've already heard from Elifaz and Bildad, who gave

their reasons they thought were responsible for Job's life falling apart. Today, we meet Job's

third friend, Zofar. The hard part about listening to these guys is that sometimes they do say

things that are true. It's not like it's all wrong. For example, when so far is talking about God in 116, he says,

He exacts less of you than your guilt deserves. First of all, this is generally true of all of us,

not just Job. We talked about this yesterday. God is merciful. We all deserve death,

yet he lets us live. That's his mercy. And the fact that we get to live on

God's earth and breathe God's air and eat God's food, that's so much more than we deserve. That's

his grace. He does exact less of us than our guilt deserves. Zofar says a lot of true things

about God. It's when he starts drawing conclusions about Job

that things take a left turn. And we got to hear Job's reply, where he started getting sarcastic

with his friends. Did you catch that? In 12, 2, he said, no doubt you are the people,

and wisdom will die with you. In 12.5, Job has some words of wisdom for those of us who want to comfort grieving friends.

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