Here, as the conclusion of his last discourse, Job makes the most solemn and complete protestation of his innocence; not, of course, denying what he had already owned of man's condition—of his own among the rest, but absolutely repudiating the thought of grievous wickedness concealed under a fair exterior, with which God could be now waging war, as his friends had surmised. In personal purity—and this again as a married man, in his behavior toward his domestics, in his remembrance of the poor and exposed, in his abhorrence of idolatry and avarice, in his cultivation of generous and hospitable ways, in his hatred of hypocrisy, he prays that, if false, he may be put to utter shame, appeals to the Almighty for an answer, and avers his willingness to endure the closest scrutiny, where no evil can be cloaked or tolerated; nay, more, he imprecates a curse on himself from His hand, that, if it can tell of fraud or violence, baneful weeds and thorns may take the place of wheat or barley.
I have presented a covenant to mine eyes,
And how should I think on a maiden?
And what [would be] the portion of Eloah from above,
And inheritance of Shaddai from on high?
[Is there] not destruction to the wicked,
And a strange [dream] to the workers of iniquity?
Doth not He see my ways, and count all my steps?
If I walked with falsehood, and my foot hosted to deceit,
(Let Him weigh me in a balance of justice,
And let Eloah know mine integrity,)
If my step turned aside from the way,
And my heart walked after mine eyes,
And a blot cleaved to my hands,
Let me sow, and another eat, and my produce be uprooted.
If my heart was enticed about a woman,
And I laid wait at my neighbor's door,
Let my wife grind for another, and others bow down on her.
For this [is] an infamy, and that a crime for a judge.
For a fire it [is], it consumeth to destruction,
And it would uproot all my increase.
If I despised the right of my bondman
Or of my bondmaid, in their contending with me,
What then shall I do when God ariseth?
And when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?
In the belly did not He that made me make him?
And did not One fashion us in the womb?
If I kept back the poor from [their] desire,
And the eyes of the widow made to pine,
Or ate my morsel by myself,
And the orphan had not eaten of it
(For from my path I brought him up as a father,
And her I guided from my mother's womb).
If I saw [any] perishing without clothing,
And the needy without covering;
If his loins blessed me not,
And he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
If I shook my hand over the orphan,
When I saw my help in the gate;
Let my shoulder fall from the blade,
And mine arm be broken from the bone.
For the destruction of God was a terror to me,
And before His majesty I was powerless.
If I made gold my confidence,
And to the pure gold said, My trust;
If I rejoiced because my weal [was] great,
And because my hand found much;
If I see the light when it shineth
And the moon walking splendidly,
And my heart was secretly enticed
And my hand kissed my mouth
(And this were a crime for judges,
For to God (El) above I had lied);
If I rejoiced over the ruin of my hater,
And got uplifted when evil found him;
Yea, I suffered not my palate to sin
By asking that his soul might be under a curse;
If the men of my tent said not,
Who giveth one not satisfied with his flesh?
The stranger passed not the night in the street;
I opened my doors to the traveler;
If I, like Adam, covered my transgressions,
Hiding in my bosom mine iniquity,
Because I feared the great multitude,
And the contempt of families terrified me,
So that I am silent, I go not out of the door.
O that One would hear me! Lo, my sign.
Let Shaddai answer me,
And mine adversary with the charge:
Would I not carry it on my shoulder?
I would bind it as crowns on me.
The number of thy Steps I would tell Him,
As a prince would I go near to Him.
If my land cry out against me, and its furrows weep together,
If its strength I consumed without wrong,
And caused the soul of its owners to expire,
Instead of wheat let thorns come up,
And weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Deeply interesting and instructive is this closing burst of indignant self-defense on Job's part. Valuable as the law might be—for surely God does nothing in vain—we can see how high was the moral standard for the soul and for the walk of godly men outside Israel, before the legislation from Sinai, as appears in the patriarchs of Genesis. Nor is it only in matters of right and wrong, of which the conscience could judge with more or less precision, according to the amount of light possessed; but we see the effect, in the soul and its affections and judgments, divine revelation. God had spoken words, and had wrought too in solemn ways with men individually and universally, in grace and in judgment, long before He had. inspired men to write His mind by divine power. And faith received His word, and pondered on His dealings, to rich profit, before scripture; though scripture, when it was vouchsafed, added much to the blessing, and increased the responsibility, of those who possessed it, and alas! of all who despise it.
For it is an immense favor to have God's words in a permanent as well as perfect form, as communicating His mind, whether about Himself and His ways, or about man and man's ways: how much more when He spoke ἐν Υἱῷ, not by servants, but in His Son, by whom He wrought eternal redemption! On this, however, we dwell not now, but weigh what God gives us of those early days, where we see, as here, how the Holy Spirit, spite of scanty revelation, enabled saints, like Job, to feel so becomingly as to God, no less than in their ordinary walk of every day. But let us remember that the same faith which turned the little then to such admirable account will not be satisfied now without a deep and growing entrance into all the written word, and a hearty fellowship with Christ in all of joy or sorrow that His name entails on us, whether we think of our being in Him above, or of His being in us here below. Grace never enfeebles the sense of what is due to God's nature or authority, but, on the contrary, strengthens him who knows it by faith, to walk, and worship, and testify. accordingly. Knowledge or privilege, however precious intrinsically, is to us worse than useless, if we love not the good and hate the evil, as He judges each. And now our responsibility is measured by the fullest light and the nearest relationship; for Christ is revealed, and the Holy Ghost given, and we are His children by that Spirit, crying Abba, Father.
Law, as the apostle teaches us, came in by the bye (παρεισῆλθεν), not as a rule of life, as men perversely imagine, but rather of death and condemnation. (See 2 Cor. 3) Christ is really that rule—Christ as revealed in the word of God as a whole, and applied by the Spirit. Law came in parenthetically that the offense might abound, the power of sin, not of holiness, as grace is, the exact counterpart of law. Hence we see right ways and holy thoughts before the law; as we are called so much the more, that sin should not have dominion over us, because we are not under law, but under grace. We have died with Christ to law as distinctly and assuredly as to sin: such is the teaching of the Holy Ghost in Rom. 6-8, where it is a question of life, not of blood, as the ground for holy walk, not for the remission of sins. Would that God's children cast their theological idols to the moles and to the bats, and sought to know and enjoy better the liberty wherewith Christ sets free! Let them be assured that as they would be all the gainers in solid peace, so His name would have glory in their exceeding and abounding in love toward one another, and toward all, to the confirming of their hearts unblameable in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.
To return, then Job formally and minutely tests himself by the comprehensive bill of delinquency, and this toward God as well as man, by failure in good, as well as by self-gratification or other sins. We may be assured that not one of the friends who virtually arraigned could have afforded to try himself as Job proceeds to do here. He judges unclean lusts as well as actions; and this in the fear of Him who had power to cast soul and body into hell—Him who meanwhile took cognizance of all his steps. Vanity or falsehood, too, was just as far from Job's spirit and ways as impurity. Whatever men might think who drew conclusions from appearances, he could ask God to weigh him in a just balance, whether he had resorted to deceit, or turned aside from the way, and if so, that another should reap the results of his labor, and that retribution, even as to his own wife, should follow any such consuming evil on his part. Most touchingly does he show that, if in an exalted position, his heart never forgot that his servants were of the same race, of the same human family as himself, to the exclusion of unfeeling personal pride. Nor was it merely a strong sense of relationship within the household, for his compassion ever went out to suffering humanity—the widow and the fatherless, the needy and the naked—and this not casually, but with constant and unwearied care as a father, and with vigilance against taking the least advantage through influence with others: so powerfully, he could say, had the fear of God, and his indignant vindication of all such acted within him, as to render that hardness a total stranger to his heart. And trust in gold, the covetousness which the New Testament calls idolatry, was as abhorrent to his spirit as the giving to the highest orbs of creation the glory due to God alone; which iniquity would seem to have been in those patriarchal days as distinctly punishable before the judge, as the insidious corruptors of domestic sanctity. (Compare vers. 9-11 with vers. 26-28.)
Further, he most solemnly abjures all joy over an enemy's calamity, though he had not in the most indirect way asked it; and he could appeal to those most familiar with the habits of his life, whether a single soul had ever gone from him discontented with his fare, or even a stranger near him was left shelterless; and he could absolutely deny the tendency to conceal evil, which we have all derived from our first father, uninfluenced by the fear of man which is its habitual motive.
Finally, he again renews his desire for the Almighty Himself to answer, this being his affidavit, as we say, with his mark or signature, as he earnestly wishes the counter-statement in the case, which, far from dreading, he longs for, and declares he would wreathe it round his head like chaplets of honor, and, far from hiding, tell all out, as he drew near like a prince, instead of a conscience-stricken coward. No violence nor fraud lay within; not a field could cry against Job, nor its furrows weep together, as the ground did where Abel fell, as many a plot has since testified against kings and queens, down to the basest of men throughout this world's sad history. But he asks that, if any wrong had sullied his life, even in such transactions as these, thorns and darnel might curse his toils, instead of the wheat or barley he had sown.
The friends were wholly wrong, unjustifiable, and uncharitable; what Job says was true, but he knows not yet all the truth about himself, as none could of God, till He came who is the Truth, and proved it in grace to the uttermost in His cross. But Job was occupied and satisfied with himself. From this God would deliver him, and bless him then more than ever. No flesh shall glory in His presence; and this Job must learn to glory only in Him. We shall see in the sequel how he was taught it, humbly and graciously. But Job ended his words before it was even begun.