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Job 20:16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.
Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.
Job 20:18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.
Job 20:19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;
Job 20:20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.
Job 20:21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.
Job 20:22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
Job 20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
Job 20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
Job 20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
Job 20:26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.
Job 20:27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.
Job 20:28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
Job 20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

Introduction

Our Lord has chosen Zophar, the youngest of Job’s tormentors to give us one of the most descriptive prophecies of the fate of our self- righteous old man. That fate is to be cast into the fires which are every single one of our Lord’s Words, by which we are told all mankind must live (Mat 4:4). This is the first part of the “all things [ which] come alike to all, [ and the] one event [ the destruction of our “old man” which is common] to the righteous and to the wicked”.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

It is given to very few to accept the truth that “as is the good, so is the sinner”, that “all things” which pertain to “the beast, the false prophet, the man of sin” are all addressed to that beast, false prophet and man of sin who is by nature within every man who has ever been “in Adam”. “All things come alike to all” includes all things that are in the world, all things that have to do with life, all things present, and all things to come are ours, they all “come alike to all”.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

“All things are yours… the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours” is a rather all encompassing statement. But Zophar has not been granted to read Ecclesiastes or 1 Corinthians. It is in this capacity that Zophar is the type and shadow of each of us as before our own eyes are opened to see and understand the truth that is Ecc 9:2 and 1Co 3:21-22. This is us when we are steeped in all the self- righteousness of the various harlot daughters of Babylon the great.
In our last study Zophar was very hasty to tell Job just how astounded he was that after being told what an extreme sinner Job obviously was by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, that Job would dare to suggest that it was Zophar and Eliphaz and Bildad who had better prepare to be judged.
Zophar has already told Job:

Job 20:5 That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment?
Job 20:6 Though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds;
Job 20:7 Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?
Job 20:8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night.

Zophar’s words throughout this entire chapter are a perfect description of the fiery trials of those who are granted to be judged first, and to die daily to all that is our “old… man of sin” within us all. The only difference between God’s elect and the non- elect is that the ‘fire’ which purifies all, God’s ‘fiery’ Word, does its purifying work in His elect first so God can and will use His firstfruits to be the judges and the purifying fire that is the lake of fire.

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
Jer 5:14 Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. [ This is the “devouring fire” of this verse:]
Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Who is this “devouring fire” in whom the righteous dwell?

Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Psa 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

“Our God is a consuming fire” and you and I dwell in Him:

Joh 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

When we are granted to understand and know and believe that ‘Christ is in His Father, and we are in Him, and He is in us”, then we will understand how the righteous “shall dwell with the devouring fire” and be right at home in that “devouring fire” which “is… our God”. We are comfortable and at home in the fire only because our old, carnal mind has been devoured by that very fire, and through that fiery destruction of our old man our new man is being born. It sounds contradictory and impossible, but it is scriptural, and it is the Truth. God’s elect are all “that man of sin” before that man begins dying daily as the new man begins to “grow in grace and knowledge” daily within us.

Joh 3:30 He [ Christ within us] must increase, but I [ our old man] must decrease.

This is the message of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Here are a few scriptural examples which demonstrate this process is common to all men:

2Sa 12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man [ of sin]. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life [ maintains his own integrity and his own righteousness] shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Eph 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Col 3:5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Col 3:6 For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:
Col 3:7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

The truth of God’s Word is that all men have the same experience in which only the details vary. The Truth of God’s word is that we must all “suffer [ the] loss” and destruction of our “old man… the first man Adam”.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

That “one event” is the death of whom we were when we “were by nature children of wrath”. If we maintain, along with Job and the masses, that the “one event [ and the] all things” of Ecc 9:2 is simply the experience of physical death, then we are denying that ‘all things’ concerned with the world are ours. ‘We are denying that all things’ concerned with life are ours, and we are denying that it is our own old man who must be destroyed in death. But the scriptures emphasize that “all things are ours… all… things present, or things to come; all are ours”:

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

It is the old man in every man who is a “brute beast” which was “made to be destroyed”.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
2Pe 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Neither Job nor his friends would have ever thought of themselves as ever being mere beasts. That is not how a self- righteous spirit thinks.
Nevertheless the scriptures call us “the beast… that man of sin… the son of perdition… that wicked” which must be revealed for what he is before he can be destroyed by the spirit of the Lord’s mouth and with the brightness of His coming.” Consequently the masses of mankind who loudly proclaim that they have never blasphemed and will never experience the wrath of God, are not being judged in this age and will not be part of that “blessed and holy first resurrection”.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

“That day” refers to the “day of Christ” (verse 2), which is the day of our judgment. That judgment does not begin until we see ourselves for the ‘fallen away’ apostates we are. Only then is it revealed that we “are the man… of sin”. From that day ‘the sword does not depart from our house’, which is what we need to accomplish the destruction of “that wicked… man of sin” sitting on the throne of God within the temple of God, which we are.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

This destruction must be accomplished in all men of all time, and that destruction is accomplished through the pouring out upon the kingdom of our beast, the seven plagues of the seven angels. As we have seen, “No man can enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels is fulfilled” (Rev 15:8).
It is given to Zophar in his parting words to Job to describe for us the effect of these seven last plagues upon the kingdom of the beast within all men.

Job 20:16 He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him.

John the Baptist called the religious leaders of his day a “generation of vipers”:

Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

A viper is a poisonous serpent, and the serpent is the symbol of the Adversary, Satan.

Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

While we are absorbing all the false doctrines by which “that old serpent… [ by] which [ he] deceives the whole world”, we are ‘sucking the poison of asps and being slain by the viper’s tongue’.
It is instructive to know that the Hebrew definition for the word ‘asps’ means ‘to twist’, as in twisting the word of God.

H6620
pethen
peh’- then
From an unused root meaning to twist; an asp (from its contortions): – adder.

When God’s word is twisted and perverted, it becomes poison and deadly and destructive to our spiritual health.

2Pe 3:16 As also in all his [ Paul’s] epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Job 20:17 He shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter.

The word translated ‘rivers’ here is better translated ‘a small stream’ and the word translated ‘floods’ is what we would call a ‘river’. ‘He shall not see the small streams that are dug from the larger river to water much larger areas. “The brooks of honey and butter” are symbols of true prosperity, being the products of that which is generated from the streams which come from those rivers.
Our old man will never see or understand the blessings that are produced by the rivers of living waters which can come only from the spirit of God in “the belly” of the new man.

Joh 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
Joh 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Joh 7:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Only after we come out of Egypt and have fought the giants and the inhabitants of the land, do we come to know true prosperity.

Exo 3:17 And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

This all paints a picture of great prosperity which shall not be the inheritance of our self- righteous old man.

Job 20:18 That which he laboured for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down: according to his substance shall the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice therein.

When we are being judged, all these plagues are realized in this age as the Lord tells us through the prophet Haggai:

Hag 1:5 Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
Hag 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Haggai’s prophecy tells Israel they are being cursed because they have been busy building their own homes while neglecting the Lord’s house. A self- righteous spirit does the same thing spiritually. That spirit is building its own spiritual temple and is sitting on the throne of God within that temple, and while neither Job nor Zophar know it, they are both self- righteous, and are building their own righteousness instead of acknowledging the righteousness of God in bringing us to see that we are by nature very self- righteous.

Job 20:19 Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not;

Of course Zophar is accusing Job of literally oppressing the poor, but we know that these are words with a personal, internal, spiritual application for us (Mat 4:4). Our old man is guilty of oppressing and forsaking the new man, the “poor in spirit” man within us. We have “violently take away… the temple of God” which indeed, ‘we did not build’.

Job 20:20 Surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

Pro 23:5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.

If we are being judged, we will not prosper in our rebellion against our judge. We cannot ‘feel quietness… nor save that which we desired’.

Job 20:21 There shall none of his meat be left; therefore shall no man look for his goods.

Our old man and his whole world are made manifest for the emptiness they are.

Job 20:22 In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand of the wicked shall come upon him.
Job 20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.

“In the fulness of his sufficiency… when he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of His wrath upon him”. This is God’s modus operandi. This is His way of doing things. When we are at the peak of our physical self- righteous accomplishments, then, if we are loved by God as His elect in this age, He strikes us down and crushes us to powder. Only then will we give him our undivided loyalty and attention, and ask “What will you have me to do, Lord?”. The apostle Paul is a perfect example of our Lord’s M. O.

Act 9:3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
Act 9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

We may think we are serving God in our self- righteousness (Pro 16:2), but we are fooling no one but ourselves. God is not fooled for one split second.
“It [ God’s wrath] shall rain upon him while he is eating” means that while we are exalted in our own self- righteousness and are ‘eating’ its self- pleasing fruits, as we are glorying in our own accomplishments on our own ‘road to Damascus’, God strikes down our old man and crushes him to powder.
It is all the work of the Lord Himself. Even our self- righteous and evil thoughts are given us “from the Lord” via evil spirits which are given that commission. We must be sinners before we can come to see our need for a redeemer.

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15 And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
Psa 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 16:2 All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.
Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart [ the heart of our self righteous old man] from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Job 20:24 He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through.
Job 20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrorsare upon him.

“He shall flee from the iron weapon and the bow of steel” because a self- righteous man thinks that he does not need God. So God Himself is not standing with our old man. He is the enemy of our old man. God strikes terror into our hearts for our own good. We will listen to Him when He wants our attention.

Lev 26:15 And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
Lev 26:16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
Lev 26:17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
Pro 1:24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
Pro 1:25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:
Pro 1:26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;

Pro 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

Only after we are brought to see the self- righteous man within, will we be given to listen attentively to every word out of His mouth. Then when He gives it us to do so, this promise is given us:

Exo 15:26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Job 20:26 All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.

In scriptural symbolism, the light is Christ and the knowledge of the Truth, which is Christ. Darkness is the absence of that knowledge, the absence of Christ.

Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Of course, if Christ is indeed in us, we too, become “the light of the world”.

Mat 5:14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

When we do not know the Truth, we are in darkness, and darkness necessitates that we live in the wickedness which brings on us our own chastening birth pains:

Pro 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

When this process begins within us, it becomes both a physical natural experience as well as a mental and spiritual experience, where our own conscience witnesses against us and torments us, until we are brought to our “wits’ end.”

Job 20:27 The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; and the earth shall rise up against him.

This is “the heaven… and the earth of our old man” which “heaven” is being “purified”.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God speaks to us concerning our self- righteous old man as “Judah and Jerusalem”.

Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

He then calls them the “heavens, [ and the] earth”.

Isa 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.
Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

The heavens God is purifying with the blood of Christ is the kingdom of God within His elect:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

This “kingdom of God” is also referred to as “the kingdom of heaven” because Christ’s sacrifice purifies our “heavens”.

Mat 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

But “the kingdom of the heaven… within you”, must be cleansed with better sacrifices than the blood of bulls and goats.

Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Christ is not entered into the pattern but into “the heavenly things themselves… into heaven itself”. And exactly where is Christ at this time? Here is where Christ is to be found at this time, “till the end of the age”:

Mat 28:20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

At this point in Job’s story, neither he nor Zophar know any of this. Nevertheless Job and Zophar are given to see the fate of their self- righteous old man, even though they are completely unaware of the curse of self- righteousness.

Job 20:28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his [ God’s] wrath.
Job 20:29 This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.

What a revelation! “That wicked” man is our old man (2Th 2:4-8). If we deny that our old man needs to “fulfill… the seven plagues of the seven angels” to qualify to enter into the temple of God, then our self- righteous old man will never be destroyed.

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels [“the wrath of God”] were fulfilled.

It is only “in the day of His wrath” that “this… the portion of [ our self- righteous] wicked [ old] man” is inherited and in which he is destroyed. So our old “marred… vessel of clay” is doomed, and our old man will be destroyed. This is his “portion”.
Next week, if the Lord wills, we will hear again from Job, as he continues to contend with, reprove, and condemn his own Creator as he defends himself again the false accusations of his friends.

Job 21:1 But Job answered and said,
Job 21:2 Hear diligently my speech, and let this be your consolations.
Job 21:3 Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
Job 21:4 As for me, is my complaint to man? and if it were so, why should not my spirit be troubled?
Job 21:5 Mark me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth.
Job 21:6 Even when I remember I am afraid, and trembling taketh hold on my flesh.
Job 21:7 Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?
Job 21:8 Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes.
Job 21:9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
Job 21:10 Their bull gendereth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf.
Job 21:11 They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Job 21:12 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.
Job 21:13 They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave.
Job 21:14 Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.
Job 21:15 What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
Job 21:16 Lo, their good is not in their hand: the counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Job 21:17 How oft is the candle of the wicked put out! and how oft cometh their destruction upon them! God distributeth sorrows in his anger.