Like his own refuse

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, And the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment? Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens, And his head reaches to the clouds, Yet he will perish forever like his own refuse; Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?' – Job 20v5-7

Not everything Job’s miserable comforters said was wrong. Sometimes, like Zophar here, they just misapplied truth.

Zophar makes an excellent statement here, though he was implying that maybe this is why Job was going through his struggles. Remember where Job was when he started. He was super wealthy. He was well placed. He had it made.

Zophar says that the triumphing of the wocked is short. His joy is only fleeting. Though he may think he is living on the mountaintop with all of his heady dreams, one day he and all of that is going to perish like his own refuse. One day he will be cast off like human refuse.

While Zophar had the target of his accusation wrong, his statement is true. All of the honour and privilege and prestige that man achieves on earth is meaningless. Without faith in Christ it is all going to be a waste.

Paul applied this truth to doing good in order to please God. After a long list of all that he had done, he says that all of that is no better than human waste when it comes to pleasing God.

So where is our focus? Everything we see around us, including all the earthly honours we receive, are no better than what we flush down the toilet.

Do we really want to build our lives around that?