Beloved, I have the joy of sharing with you today the above theme from Job 31:1 onwards. Indeed, in ch. 29, Job dwelt at length on the good he was doing; here he exposes in equal detail the evil he did not do: immorality (vv. 1-12), injustice (vv. 13-15), selfishness (vv. 15-23), idolatry (vv. 24-28). We can boast in one way or the other by forgetting that it is God alone who encourages us to do well as it is He who protects us from doing wrong. The fact remains that if anyone had the right to rely on his works, it was the patriarch Job. Paul writes the same thing about himself in Philippians (Phr. 3:1-11). “But,” he adds, “the things which for me were a gain, I looked at them, for Christ’s sake, as a loss…” His natural advantages as a good Israelite, his past righteousness as a conscientious Pharisee, all of which he now regards as garbage. So that God needs nothing to take away from him as he did from Job; Paul, by grace, has already set aside all that was not Christ. Note the many ellipsis in the text; they seem to imply all the good things Job thinks of himself and his past works. Finally, in concluding this exposition of all its merits, Job solemnly affixes his signature to it and challenges God to answer it (v. 35).
The simple patriarchal life that put boss and employee in direct personal relations knew little about the antagonism of class interests and the bitterness of feelings that often threaten revolution. None of this will cease until simplicity resumes and the customs that keep people in touch with one another, even if they do not recognize themselves as members of God’s one family. When the servant who has done his best is, after years of exhausting labor, dismissed without hearing by some subordinate charged with examining the so-called “interests” of the employer, is the latter beyond reproach? Job’s question: “What shall I do when God arises, and when He visits, what shall I answer Him? strikes a note of fairness and brotherhood that many so-called Christians seem to have never heard. To the poor, to widows, to orphans, to perishables, Job then refers. Beyond the circle of his own servants, there were needy people whom he had been accused of neglecting and even oppressing. He has already done ample defense under this head. If he raised his hand against the orphan, having good reason to assume that the judges would be on his side, then his shoulder may fall off the shoulder blade and his arm from the collarbone. God’s calamity was a terror for Job, and recognizing the glorious authority that enforces the law of brotherly help, he could not have lived in proud joy and selfish contempt.
Then he repudiates the idolatry of wealth and the sin of worshipping the creature instead of the Creator. Rich as he was, he can say that he never thought too much about his wealth, nor did he secretly boast about what he had amassed. His fields produced abundantly, but he never said to his soul: You have many goods in store for many years, take your ease, eat, drink and be joyful. He was only a steward, holding everything to God’s will. Not as if the abundance of goods could give him true value, but with constant gratitude to his Divine Friend, he used the world not to abuse it. And for his religion: faithful to those spiritual ideas which have elevated him far above superstition and idolatry, even when the rising sun seemed to claim homage as an appropriate emblem of the invisible Creator, or when the full moon shining in a clear sky seemed a most goddess of purity and peace, He had never, as others were wont to do, put his hand to her lips. He had seen the worship of Baal and Ishtar, and it might have come to him, as to whole nations, impulses of wonder, delight, religious reverence. But he can say without fear that he never gave in to the temptation to worship anything in heaven or earth. The Almighty said, “Thus have we shown Abraham the kingdom of heaven and earth, that he may become one of those who firmly believe.
And when night darkens him, he saw a star, and he said, This is my Lord; But when he put on he said, I don’t like those who put on. And when he saw the moon rising, he said, This is my Lord; but when he saw him composed, he said, Verily if my Lord does not direct me, I will become one of those who go astray. And when he saw the rising sun, he said, This is my Lord; it is the largest; but when he was fixed, he said, My people, verily I am clear of what you associate with God; I turn my face to the One who created the heavens and the earth. “Thus from the earliest times until that of Muhammad, monotheism was in conflict with the form of idolatry which naturally appealed to the inhabitants of Arabia. Job confesses attraction, denies sin. He speaks as if the laws of his people were strongly against the worship of the sun, whatever can be done elsewhere. He then declares that he never rejoiced in a fallen enemy or that he did not seek the curse. He lives himself of anyone with a very clear distinction from those who, in the ordinary Eastern manner, lavished curses without much provocation, and from those who kept them as mortal enemies. This resentful spirit was so far from him that his friends and enemies were welcome for his hospitality and help. Job 31:31 means that his servants could boast that they could not find a single stranger who did not sit at his table.
Their business was to furnish it every day with guests. Nor will Job allow that, in the manner of men, he skillfully covered up transgressions. “If, guilty of something vile, I hid it, as men often do, because I was afraid of losing the caste, afraid that the big families would despise me” Such a thought or fear never presented itself to him. So he couldn’t live a double life. Everything had been above the edge, in the clear light of day, governed by one law. In this regard it is that he comes with princely appeal to the King. “Oh that I had one to hear me! – Here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me. And oh that I was in charge of my opponent! I would surely wear it on my shoulder, I would bind it to me like a crown. I would declare to him the number of my steps, Like a prince, I would approach him.” Words are to be defended only on the grounds that theeternal to whom a challenge is addressed here is God misunderstood, God wrongly accused of making unfounded accusations against His servant and punishing him as a criminal. The Almighty did not. The vicious reasoning of friends, the erroneous belief of age make him appear as if he had done it. Men say to Job: You are suffering because God has found evil in you.
He makes you according to your iniquity. They maintain that, for no other reason, calamities could have befallen him. Thus God is made to appear as man’s adversary; and Job is forced to prove that he has been unjustly condemned. “Here is my signature,” he said: I declare my innocence; I put my mark; I stand by my claim: I can’t do anything else. May the Almighty prove my fault to me. God, you say, has a book in which his accusations against me are written. I wish I had this book! I would tie it on my shoulder as a badge of honour; Yes, I would wear it as a crown.
Is it audacity, impiety? The author of the book does not mean that it is understood as such. There is not the slightest hint that he abandons his hero. Every statement made is true. Yet there is an ignorance of God, and this ignorance puts Job at fault so far. He does not know God’s action while he knows his own. He must reason from the misunderstanding of himself and see that he may not understand Elohim. When he begins to see this, he will believe that his sufferings have a complete justification in the purpose of the Most High. Job’s ignorance represents ignorance of the old world. Despite the tenor of his prologue, the writer is without a theory of human affliction applicable to every case, or even to Job’s experience. He can only say and repeat, God is supremely wise and just, and for the glory of his wisdom and justice, he orders everything that happens to men. The problem is not resolved until we see Christ, the Captain of our salvation, perfected by suffering, and know that our earthly affliction “which is for the moment, produces for us more and more an eternal weight of glory.”
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped for your better understanding. The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped for your better understanding.
Job talks about his conduct: if I have sinned, may God finish me
- Chastity
John 31:1 I had made a pact with my eyes, And I would not have stopped my eyes on a virgin. Prov. 5:20 And why, my son, should you be in love with a stranger, and kiss the womb of a stranger? Mt 5:28 But I tell you that whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Rev. 14:4 They are those who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; they follow the lamb wherever it goes. They were redeemed from among men, as first fruits to God and to the lamb;
- Divine vision, includes the whole life of man
Psalm 11:4 The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord has his throne in heaven; His eyes look, His eyelids probe the sons of man. Psalm 34:16 The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cries. Psalm 139:16 When I was but a shapeless mass, your eyes saw me; And on your book were all inscribed The days that were destined for me, Before any of them existed. Jr 32:19 You are great in council and mighty in action; You have your eyes open to all the ways of the children of men, To render to each according to his ways, According to the fruit of his works.
- Earth vision, a source of temptation
-For Eve Gen. 3:6 The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was precious to open the mind; she took of its fruit, and ate it; she also gave it to her husband, who was with her, and he ate of it.
-For Lot Gen. 13:10, 12 Lot looked up, and saw the whole plain of the Jordan, which was fully watered. Before Jehovah had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it was, until Tsoar, like a garden of Jehovah, like the land of Egypt. 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan; and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tents as far as Sodom.
-For Acan Jos 7:21 I saw in the booty a beautiful cloak of Schinear, two hundred shekels of silver, and a gold bar weighing fifty shekels; I coveted them, and I took them; they are hidden in the earth in the middle of my tent, and the money is underneath.
-For Christ Mt 4:8 The devil carried him again to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory,
- Honesty, (required) business virtue
Lev. 19:35-36 You shall not commit unfairness in judgments, in measures of size, weights, or measures of capacity. 36 You will have just scales, right weights, right epha and right hin. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. Deut 25:15 You shall have an exact and just weight, you shall have an exact and just epha, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you. Rom 12:17 Do not repay evil for evil’s sake. Look for what is good in front of all men. Rom 13:8 Owes nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves others has fulfilled the law.
From all of the above, we note that Job speaks as a landowner who did not encroach on other people’s fields but honestly acquired his estate, and as a farmer who ploughed it well. This seems an insignificant issue compared to others that have been considered. Yet, as a kind of afterthought, completing the balance sheet of his life, the detail is natural. “If my land cries out against me, And its furrows weep together, If I ate the fruits without money, Or have caused the owners to lose their lives: Let the thistles grow instead of wheat And hull instead of barley. Job’s words are finished.” A farmer of the right species would be greatly ashamed if crop failures or wet furrows screamed at him, or if he could otherwise be accused of mistreating the land. The touch is realistic and powerful. Yet it is clear at the end that Job’s character is idealized. Can much be received as material for true history; But on the whole life is too beautiful, pure, holy for even an extraordinary man. The image is clearly typical. And so, it’s for the best of reasons. A real life would not have put the problem fully in sight. The writer’s aim is to awaken thought by throwing the contradictions of human experience so vividly onto a prepared canvas that all can see. Why do the righteous suffer? What does the Almighty mean? The urgent questions of race are made as insistent as art and passion, ideal truth and sincerity can make them. Job lying in the filth of misery, yet proclaiming his innocence as a prince before the eternal King, demands from humanity the justification of providence, the sense of the world plan. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOR
I now invite anyone who wants to become a new creation by walking in truth to pray with me:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as my personal Lord and Savior. I acknowledge that you died at the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and my faith, so that your light may shine in my life right now.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for accepting me into your divine family, so that I too can contemplate the wonders of your kingdom by walking according to your ways.
I will now choose a nearby waterpoint to be baptized by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
To you all worship, power and glory, now and for ever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow “Elihu, a new speaker.” (Jb 32)
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.