Leading up to this chapter, we have dealt with the rightness of God. God has been proven right before the heavenly court. He has shown Himself to have sovereignty. Now we are in the earthly room, so to speak, and we are dealing with how man can figure out the ways of God. Trying to figure out if God is right or wrong and if man is right or wrong. The answer is a twofold answer. The first step is to realize that humans can’t figure it out. Human logic is faulty because it comes from humans, that is what Job has pointed out to Bildad. Creation should show you that you don’t know anything.
Job uses this chapter to point out that his friends are faulty.
Job 27:2
Notice: “As God lives”. Job is making a truth statement, an oath. Since Bildad made it his word against Job’s word, Job joined the battle with this word. He told him as Job before the Lord.
Job 27:3-4
Job is not saying he will never speak a lie or say anything wrong; it is that he will not say anything wrong about this specific situation.
Job 27:5
Job will not declare that his friends said the truth or the right thing. Job will not acquit his friends, and at the same time he’s not going to think that he did anything wrong. He will not make himself look as if he had any fault.
Job 27:6
Instead, Job will cling to his righteousness, not in his whole life, but in this situation. Why did he say all of this and where could he go wrong? The reason he is saying this is to show the futility of a postmodern-like argument. There is no resolution to the argument if it is “I said” versus “you said”. This is true even in a modern (i.e., current) court. At the same time, we have to be careful because Job clinging to his righteousness makes him potentially in danger of becoming self-righteous. We don’t know that for sure, but it could be there. Clinging to your righteousness in a situation could make you self-righteous, it is true. It can make you one who prizes your righteousness to the exclusion of anything else. If you really believe you are righteous and you talk about ungodly people, you could view yourself as better than them. No one has said Job is self-righteous yet, but Elihu will. It isn’t what Job said but how Job said it that might give Elihu an edge.
Job 27:7-8
This throws everyone for a loop. Some people say that this is the missing speech of Zophar. There is no evidence for that other than the fact that it seems out of place. What throws people off is “may my enemy be like the wicked.” On one hand, this seems random in chapter 27, but on the other hand, if this is Zophar language, it is weird because Zophar has no enemies right now. Job does have enemies though: his friends. One counter-argument is that Zophar is making a complex pun, and that could be it. No matter how you look at it there is a series of counter arguments.
Nonetheless, Job, not Zophar, talks about these things. The hope for the godless when he is cut off, is repenting. That is part of how the Divine Retribution Principal works. Job is asking what is the hope of the godless?
Job 27:9
If God always judges the wicked man, then Job’s next question is: why would God listen to a wicked man? If your Divine Retribution Principal says that God always repays evil with justice, and you're evil, then you always get justice.
Job 27:10
The “he” here is the godless man. The godless man will not take delight in God. Job is saying, “Let's take a look at your DR Principal and how it is set up. Why would God ever allow repentance and why could anyone even repent?” That is the gaping hole which makes way, in Job’s mind, for a new system which we would call the gospel. The very fact that there is a notion for repentance at all indicates that there can be change.
Job 27:11-23
Job uses his friends' words against them; he is sarcastic here. Job says, “When the wicked die, they die.” There is no change. The end is the end, which means there is no room for repentance. By their own words, their advice to him is impossible. If you can’t change it, you can’t repent. DR Principal precludes real change. Job points out that their fundamental advice does not match up what they say. The whole DR Principal collapses.