Chapters 21—31
(5)
(3)
Scripture Reading: Job 31:1-40; 32:1
In this message we will consider 31:1—32:1, the conclusion of Job's final speaking to his three friends.
In chapter thirty-one Job boasted of his uprightness, righteousness, integrity, and perfection.
In order to practice his uprightness, righteousness, integrity, and perfection, Job restrained the lust of his flesh in fearing God (vv. 1-4). Job's word in verse 4 indicates that he feared God: "Does He not see my ways/And count all my steps?"
Job boasted that he did not walk with falsehood and after deceit (vv. 5-8). He said, "If I have walked with falsehood,/And my foot has hastened after deceit — /Let Him weigh me in a righteous balance,/And let God know my integrity" (vv. 5-6). Humanly speaking, it was very good that Job did not practice falsehood or deceit.
Job went on to say that he abhorred adultery as a heinous act (vv. 9-12). Adultery is evil, and we all must hate it.
Job did not despise the cause of his servant or maid when they contended with him (v. 13). This means that he took care of their need. Verses 14 and 15 indicate that in this matter also Job feared God: "What then will I do when God rises up?/And when He visits me, what will I answer Him? /Did not He who made me in the womb make him?/And was it not One who fashioned us in the womb?"
In verses 16 through 23 Job boasted about taking care of the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the needy because of the calamity from God and His majesty. Job did not withhold food or clothing from the poor, and he did not raise his hand against the orphan. Concerning this also Job feared God, saying, "Calamity from God is dreadful to me,/And because of His majesty I can do nothing" (v. 23). He was threatened by God's majesty, and he feared that if he did not do well, calamity would come upon him.
Job went on to say that he did not trust in gold and rejoice in wealth, nor was he enticed to worship the shining sun and the splendid moon and thus to deny God in the heavens (vv. 24-28). He did not make gold his hope or call fine gold his confidence, and he did not rejoice because his wealth was great. This means that what Job treasured was not gold but God. In this matter Job was different from most people, who treasure wealth but deny God.
Job said that he did not rejoice at the misfortune of the one who hated him, exult in his suffering, or curse his life (vv. 29-30).
Job also boasted that he fed everyone who had a need and that he lodged all the sojourners (vv. 31-32).
Job continued by saying that he did not cover his transgressions as Adam did nor hide his iniquity in his bosom because of the fear of the great multitude and because the contempt of the families frightened him (vv. 33-34). He realized that it would have been sinful to cover his transgressions because he was afraid of others. Then he said, "Oh that there were someone to hear me!/Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me./And let my accuser write up the charge./Surely I would carry it [the scroll containing the charge] on my shoulder;/I would bind it onto me like a crown; /I would declare to Him the number of my steps;/Like a prince I would approach Him!" (vv. 35-37).
Finally, Job boasted that he did not rob others of their real estate. He did not secure land without money or cause its owners to lose their life (vv. 38-40).
Job's boasting here indicates that he was in the realm of human ethics, not in the realm of the divine economy. Regarding human ethics, Job was quite good; however, regarding the divine economy he missed the mark. In the Lord's recovery today, we need to care for God's New Testament economy.
Job 32:1 says, "Then these three men ceased answering Job, for he was righteous in his own eyes." They could not handle Job, and they did not know what to do with him, so they stopped talking. No one forced them to cease answering Job. Having become tired of talking to Job, they decided to cease speaking to him.
Through his eight times of speaking to his three friends, Job exposed himself, exposing many negative things concerning himself.
Job exposed himself as being self-righteous (6:30; 9:20; 27:5-6; 32:1). He was righteous in his own eyes, and he held fast to his righteousness.
Job also exposed himself as a person who was full of reasons. A self-righteous person is always ready to give many reasons regarding his situation.
Job blamed his friends for not understanding him and for not sympathizing with him in love. His friends did not sympathize with him, but neither did he sympathize with them.
In his speaking to his friends, Job complained that God was not fair in treating him in an unexplainable, severe way.
Job felt that there was a case between him and God. He expected and waited to clear up his case with God, even if this meant "taking God to court."
Job's speaking exposed him as being a person who knew God only in the vain knowledge inherited from tradition. Such knowledge was altogether objective.
Job's speaking indicates that he had not received the divine revelation, as unveiled in the New Testament concerning God's eternal economy, that God's ultimate goal, as God desires for His good pleasure, is that He may be gained, partaken of, possessed, and enjoyed by His chosen people that they may be consumed by God's dealing, renewed in the divine nature (2 Cor. 4:16), and transformed in the divine life by the Spirit to the glorious image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18) as the embodiment of God for God's expression. Job lived long before this revelation was given.
Regarding ethical and moral things, Job had great success and high attainments. However, as exposed by his speaking, he was darkened by the success and attainments of his natural being.
Job was also blinded by the concept of his natural understanding.
Furthermore, Job was a person groping in darkness and in blindness concerning his relationship with God according to what God wants. Job did not see that God's intention was to strip him of all his natural attainments, of his perfection and integrity, so that he could gain God.
As indicated by his speaking, Job was a person who was contented with what he had become. He was proud of his robe of righteousness and of his crown, his turban, of integrity.
Job was unaware of his miserable situation before God. He acknowledged God in name but not in reality. He had not been saturated by God and filled with God. He had not been mingled with God and had not become one with God. Furthermore, Job did not possess any element that indicated some aspect and some feature of the New Jerusalem as God's organism to live God and to express God for eternity. Job did not know his situation, and he did not know the New Jerusalem.
