Job Chapter 31



Well, there is a third chapter (31) to which we now come, very distinct from either of these, and this is his final appeal to God. This is all said not so much to his friends as to God; but he still was harping upon the past in the first of these chapters; then upon the present misery; now he appeals solemnly to God, and in the presence of them all.

"I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?" None whatever for a corrupt man, to take advantage of another. "Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Doth not he see my ways" - he was a thoroughly pious believing man - "and count all my steps? If I had walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity." He had a perfectly good conscience, but that is not enough. There is the great principle of self-judgment; there is the grand principle also of entire submission to God and vindicating Him - that He is right and wise in all, not only in what He does, but in what He allows. It is all for good. It may be very bad on the part of others, as it was on the part of Job's friends, but God had a good purpose for Job in it all.

"If my step hath turned out of thy way," etc. (vers. 1-12). It is clear that Job was a most blameless man in his conduct, and even in the state of his heart. "If I did despise the cause of my manservant, or of my maidservant" - he now goes to other duties - "when they contended with me, what then shall I do when God riseth up? and, when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?" etc. (vers. 13-23). "If I have made gold my hope" - now he turns to a third kind of snare - "or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; If I rejoiced because my wealth was great" - and how many do - "and because mine hand had gotten much," etc., it was not inherited merely; but it was acquired by his own industry and God's particular blessing upon him.

Now he looks at another thing quite different - "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness," i.e. in the way of any adoration; in bowing down to the son or moon, which was the earliest form of idolatry. We do not hear of Baals or Ashtoreths or any of the disreputable vanities and wickedness of heathen objects of worship; but here was a work of God of the highest nature, but no leaning to it in any way - "and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand" - even the slightest form of acknowledging the creature! - "this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above." There we have very sound doctrine. "If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him" - a very common snare for people. They have a little pleasure when their adversaries come to grief, or are troubled. "Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh, that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller. If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: did I fear a great multitude" - you observe he was perfectly acquainted with the very interesting and profitable story of Adam's fall. There we have just what anyone now, looking back with the light of Christ even, sees. There was the great sin of Adam. Instead of humbling himself to God, and going to meet God to tell Him how he had disgraced himself, Adam hid himself away; and the clothing that he put upon him showed that he was no longer innocent.

"Oh, that one would hear me!" Now here is Job's final appeal. "Behold my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me" - Job wanted to hear His voice about it - "and that mine adversary had written a book, Surely I would take it" - if anyone that wished him ill laid charges "I would take it," he says, "upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me" - because he was confident that it was false. "I would declare unto him," i.e. unto the Almighty; it would seem possibly "the adversary" - "the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him." I think it is "to the Lord." "If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life! Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended."

Well, it was very magnificent; as it had been a justification of himself. But it was a great mistake as to the secret of God's dealings with Job, and accordingly a new interlocutor appears. We have not heard of him. It is a remarkable indication of primitive habits and feelings. He was a young man. And this absence of any notice taken of him is just in the spirit of olden manners. And he shows that he perfectly enters into it himself, and in no way complains of it. Elihu, however, was a man put forward by God, to bring to naught the pride of age and experience, observation and tradition. Because there you have what belonged to each of those friends. They were old men, and they were proud of their place. And Eliphaz, as we know, was a man that strongly stood upon the judgment and feeling of public opinion - of pious men, no doubt, but, after all, it was only men's. And one of the wonderful ways of God is this: that no tradition can ever meet present circumstances. The same facts even may occur; but they are in a different light, and the circumstances modify them enormously, and all that has to be taken into account.

Who, then, is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is of God. There is the need of dependence upon God. You cannot pile up wisdom in that way for divine things. It is all very fair in science, or knowledge, or art, or literature, or anything of that kind; but it is nothing in the things of God. Zophar seems to be more confident in himself than in anybody. And Bildad was one between the two. He was a man of keen observation and good power of expression. But, however that might be, all had failed, and now Elihu comes forward.