Job 29 - 31 and Psalm 17
According to chapter 29, Job has not benefitted from the fruits of wickedness (contrary to the accusations of Eliphaz and his friends); his prosperity, honor and influence are due to God’s favor: “Oh, that I were in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me… as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent, when the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were all around me” (Job 29:2, 4-5) And Job’s response to divine grace always and at all times was righteousness: “I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban” (Job 29:14).
But now that honor has been removed to the point that he is dishonored even by the most despicable of men (Job 30:1-10). To Job, the responsibility for this drastic change falls directly on the Almighty: “Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence” (Job 30:11). He doesn’t know why God suddenly changed His attitude from favor to condemnation: “But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came” (Job 30:26). Only he insists on his righteousness, determined not by man but in God’s sight (Job 31:1-34). If God would examine him, he would be justified: “Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)” (Job 31:35). With this certainty, he closes his discourse.
As we read about Job’s righteousness, we should have at least two reactions. First, how does our righteousness compare with Job’s? Would we want our actions to be evaluated as strictly and thoroughly as Job’s before God’s sight? Second, can we feel alongside Job his revulsion of suffering, especially the suffering of those who have done nothing to deserve it? Job was prosperous, revered… and above all, righteous. It’s horrible that a man like him should suffer in such an exasperating way! As we read these chapters we at least should understand why Job feels that his suffering is an injustice.
And if in our mind we go forward to the New Testament, we should feel the same sense of injustice for the suffering and death of another just man, for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There exists no other injustice greater than the execution of the Author of life. And His tortured death did not occur for any sin He had committed… but for your sins and mine.
At the same time, through this injustice committed by men, God gave us true righteousness, exchanging our sin for Jesus Christ’s righteousness: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he [God] condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Does your righteousness compare to that of Job in chapter 31? Can it compare with Jesus Christ’s righteousness? If not, repent of your sins and trust only in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for the complete payment of your sins. Trust and receive from God the righteousness that He gives freely to those who are joined in Jesus Christ by faith.
But now that honor has been removed to the point that he is dishonored even by the most despicable of men (Job 30:1-10). To Job, the responsibility for this drastic change falls directly on the Almighty: “Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence” (Job 30:11). He doesn’t know why God suddenly changed His attitude from favor to condemnation: “But when I hoped for good, evil came, and when I waited for light, darkness came” (Job 30:26). Only he insists on his righteousness, determined not by man but in God’s sight (Job 31:1-34). If God would examine him, he would be justified: “Oh, that I had one to hear me! (Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)” (Job 31:35). With this certainty, he closes his discourse.
As we read about Job’s righteousness, we should have at least two reactions. First, how does our righteousness compare with Job’s? Would we want our actions to be evaluated as strictly and thoroughly as Job’s before God’s sight? Second, can we feel alongside Job his revulsion of suffering, especially the suffering of those who have done nothing to deserve it? Job was prosperous, revered… and above all, righteous. It’s horrible that a man like him should suffer in such an exasperating way! As we read these chapters we at least should understand why Job feels that his suffering is an injustice.
And if in our mind we go forward to the New Testament, we should feel the same sense of injustice for the suffering and death of another just man, for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There exists no other injustice greater than the execution of the Author of life. And His tortured death did not occur for any sin He had committed… but for your sins and mine.
At the same time, through this injustice committed by men, God gave us true righteousness, exchanging our sin for Jesus Christ’s righteousness: “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he [God] condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Does your righteousness compare to that of Job in chapter 31? Can it compare with Jesus Christ’s righteousness? If not, repent of your sins and trust only in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ for the complete payment of your sins. Trust and receive from God the righteousness that He gives freely to those who are joined in Jesus Christ by faith.
