Job CCXCII

This chapter could adequately be described as Job’s innocence checklist. He begins with the covenant he made with his eyes, but does not stop there, and by the time he reaches the end of it, Job concludes that not only is he innocent of sensual sin, but also of abusing his power, trusting in his wealth, and even of not caring for his enemies. He didn’t focus on the one thing he didn’t do while minimizing the ones he did, but went through the list, proving his innocence to anyone who would hear.

He wasn’t, as has become customary in our age, attempting to highlight his own righteousness by pointing to what everyone else was doing that he wasn’t, but searching his heart to see if there was any sin or practice displeasing to the Lord that he had yet to identify and root out. He wasn’t being a Pharisee about his inward searching. He wasn’t attempting to look his nose down on those around him while simultaneously elevating himself by highlighting his virtues. This was not a contest between himself and his contemporaries, but an honest assessment of his life, the choices he’d made, and the way he’d lived in light of his understanding that God saw his ways and counted all his steps.

When we search our hearts, or ask God to search us and see if there is any wicked way in us, it’s not to prove ourselves more virtuous than others, or to boast of our righteousness to any who would hear, but to walk in obedience and faithfulness seeking to bring glory to His name.

Everyone who asks is secretly hoping that God will say there is nothing in need of remedy, nothing they need to repent of or turn away from, but such individuals are so rare as to have entire books of the Bible with their names on them. I’m not in that category, and neither are you, no matter how much we’d like to think otherwise. We’ve all fallen short, whether in attitude, consistency, priorities, or managing emotional reactions to something someone said or did that got under our skin.

In reality, the closer we draw to God, the more intimate we become with His holiness, the more we acknowledge that our righteousness is as filthy rags, and there is always something in need of pruning. Whether it’s the quick temper when seeing bad drivers on the road, or judging someone for buying ‘I can’t believe it’s not meat’ instead of a piece of chicken at the grocery store, we constantly find ourselves keeping the flesh in check and bridling it so as not to give it the opportunity to get a foothold.

One of the many profound lessons we learn from the life of Job is that we must understand the danger sin poses in the life of the believer, as well as be purposeful in our actions when guarding against temptation, whatever form that temptation might take.

Job 31:5-12, “If I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity. If my step has turned from the way, or my heart walked after my eyes, or if any spot adheres to my hands, then let me sow, and another eat; yes, let my harvest be rooted out. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down over her. For that would be wickedness; yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment. For that would be a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase.”

In order to grasp the profundity of Job’s statement, one must take into account his knowledge of God, both as a righteous judge and as sovereign over His creation, as well as his omniscience, understanding, fundamentally so that God knew his life in its entirety and there was nothing hidden from His sight. In light of this, Job had the wherewithal to declare after his self-assessment that if he had walked with falsehood, or if his foot had hastened to deceit, he was open and accepting of being weighed on honest scales, and judged that God may know his integrity.

This was neither an empty boast nor a feigned attempt at projecting righteousness. Job wasn’t hoping God had been too busy to see his life, weigh his deeds, and overlook his absence of integrity. As Paul pointed out to the church of Corinth, if we were to judge ourselves, we would not be judged, but few among us take that admonition to heart and search ourselves as Job searched himself.

If we are more permissive toward our own pet vices, sins, failures, and shortcomings, justifying them to ourselves, while we demand perfection from everyone around us, all it does is make us hypocrites, one who refuses to acknowledge the plank in our own eye, while looking at the speck in our brother’s eye.

My first duty is not to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, but to work out my own salvation with fear and trembling. All will be held to account, and there is nothing that God missed, failed to see, or failed to consider.

It is because man’s view of who God is has been diminished and whittled down that some have talked themselves into playing games with Him, thinking nothing castigatory or punitive will ever come of it. They figure they got away with it once, perhaps twice, perhaps even ten times, and if there was no voice from heaven, no thunderbolts, or quaking earth, then God must have been too busy to notice. Willful sin reveals one’s true heart and the opinion they hold of God. Though they might say it with their lips, willful sin reveals that they do not believe Him to be holy, righteous, omniscient, omnipotent, and just. Were it not so, they would tremble before Him. Were it not so, true repentance would be forthcoming and quickly so.

Anyone who has to get caught and exposed before they give a tepid apology for the sake of damage control does not possess the fear of the Lord, know the God of the Bible, nor was there any reverence for His holiness in them. They may have feigned it well enough when the bright lights and the stage demanded they perform their role, but as far as true devotion, surrender, and obedience, it was now wholly absent if ever it existed.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.