Tuesday: Heart and Eyes

At first glance, in the texts below, it could sound as if Job were bragging, as if Job were parading his holiness and virtue and good conduct before others. This attitude, of course, is precisely the kind that the Bible condemns (see Matthew 23). But that’s not what was happening here with Job.

Image © Lars Justinen Goodsalt.com

Again, it is crucial to remember the context: he’s being told that his past life, a life assumed to have been pretty evil, is the cause of his suffering. Job, meanwhile, knows that this simply cannot be true and that nothing he had done made him deserve what had come upon him. So, he spends this time recounting the kind of life he lived and the kind of person he was.

Read Job 31:1–23. What else does Job say about how he lived before the calamities?

Notice, too, that Job wasn’t dealing only with his outward actions. The text “ ‘my heart followed my eyes’ ” (Job 31:7, NASB) shows that Job understood the deeper meaning of holiness, the deeper meaning of right and wrong and of God’s law. Job apparently knew that God cares about the heart, about our thoughts, as well as our actions (see 1 Sam. 16:7, Exod. 20:17, Matt. 5:28). Job knew that it was wrong to lust after a woman and not just to commit adultery with her. (Again, what powerful evidence for the fact that knowledge of the true God had existed even before the Lord called the nation of Israel to be His covenant people and a witness of Him.)

Read what Job said in Job 31:13–15. Why is this message so crucial?

Here Job shows an amazing understanding, especially for his time (any time, really) about the basic equality of all human beings. The ancient world was not a place where concepts of universal rights and universal laws were understood or followed. People groups thought of themselves as greater than and superior to others, and at times thought nothing of denying basic dignity and rights to others. Here, though, Job shows just how much he understands about human rights and that these rights originate in the God who made us. In some ways, Job was ahead of not only his time but ours, as well.