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READ: Job 30
CHALLENGE: Live right regardless
Job does not see life as being even or fair. He treated people well, yet when he was in trouble, he did not get the same compassion. His investment into others did not seem to pay off. His own friends gathered around him and scolded him for sinning.
Job 30:1 – says that young people mocked him. Their dads he would not have allowed with his sheep dogs. That’s pretty bad!
Vv25-26 – Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? 26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.
What a statement. When I craved light, I found darkness instead. How sad! His actions and life went the exact opposite way of what he would have forecast based on his own good patterns of living. Have you ever felt that way? You did the right thing, but it didn’t pay off?
No good deed goes unpunished, right? So why even try? I know sometimes you might wonder if consistently doing the right thing is worth it. You work hard but you fall behind. You just started to save money but then the freezer dies. You started working out, but you gained weight – what’s the point?
You might be like Job, “When I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness”. When you do right you figure that good will come and often it does, but it doesn’t always. It didn’t for Job in this season of his life. It’s like some people with Christianity. I trusted a Christian to tell me the truth and they lied to me. That dirty Christian did me wrong and now I want nothing to do with church. Should you never talk to a Christian again for as long as we live? Are they all bad? You looked for good but found evil. Admittedly that’s sad.
You decided to be especially nice to your wife and she bit your head off. Why bother? Give up. You helped others but no one helped you – so stop helping others, right? Or you’re honest but got lied to. You were moral but got cheated on. Well, that didn’t pay off!
You have to look at the long haul. So yes, doing the right thing doesn’t always pay off immediately. It ALWAYS pays off in the long run. Here’s Job and he’s suffering even though he did the right thing. I’ve read the end of the book and I read that God lifts Job out of the pit and puts him back into a beautiful place. Good is coming but it’s not right there at that moment. And in that short term torturous gauntlet, life seemed especially meaningless.
Yes, Job is suffering but the point is to test the depth of his faith and to see whether or not he’s really blameless. If he cracks now and goes into some sinful spiral, the devil wins. This is what evil wants, it wants you to quit and cave! Job continued doing the right thing and that’s what he was supposed to do. And it would pay off.
Let’s look at the ethic of Job. This is far before Moses or the 10 Commandments, yet he’s got a clue as to what morality actually is. This is like Christianity before there were any Christians which is quite a concept. The ethic has not changed!
- COMMITMENT TO PURITY OF THOUGHT
Vv1-4 – “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman. 2 For what is our lot from God above, our heritage from the Almighty on high? 3 Is it not ruin for the wicked, disaster for those who do wrong? 4 Does he not see my ways and count my every step?
- Changes Take a Personal Commitment
A covenant is a serious pledge. Typically, two parties made a solemn agreement to fulfill certain obligations and that came with blessing and cursing. You keep the pledge and you’re blessed, but if you don’t, then you’re inviting horrific consequences on yourself.
You will see this throughout – if he had done certain things then he invited deep problems into his life. One of the common covenants we make is that of marriage. How seriously do we take our vows? For better for worse; For richer for poorer; In sickness and in health, we pledge ourselves to be faithful to each other until death do us part. Can you imagine if we said those words and added in “And if we don’t, may our health fail and may we always be poor and may we eat Spam for the rest of our lives”! That might amp up the seriousness of it all.
Job made a solemn agreement with his eyes, he was absolutely committed to it! Anything you do, you have to be resolved. When Daniel was taken into exile, he resolved not to eat the king’s fancy food or drink. I’m not going to do it! He didn’t say, “I’ll do it responsibly”. He said, “I’ll not do it at all”! He was resolved and that’s what it takes.
What are your commitments in life? At the Last Supper, Jesus said, this is the new covenant is in the blood of Christ which was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. There was no dying half way! Jesus was ALL IN!
My younger brother got married last weekend. As I told him, there’s no kind of being married. It’s ALL in. It’s the only way to look at it.
He made a covenant with HIS eyes not to lust over the young ladies. He personally, of his own accord, decided to guard his gaze. What change can last if we’re not self-determined make the change? Many times, people don’t change simply because they don’t really want to. The lack of commitment leads to a lack of change.
Job was committed to a moral course of action. Specifically ….
- He Refused to Lust Over Other Women
Let’s just jump right into ethics and start with not lusting. What are your ethics? We might have started with “I didn’t rob a bank or kill anyone”. That’s the ethic I normally hear. I don’t need Jesus because I never killed no one! And I’m no bank robber. SUCH a high bar!
Job starts with an extraordinarily specific standard. I refuse to lust! Many moral battles are won and lost by what you look at. Your eye gate is an important control point. He’s just going to head off potential sexual temptation by guarding what he’s looking at and thus what he’s thinking about. I’m not looking! This is key! He’s not looking at some great looking girl and pondering his options or imagining what ifs! He’s winning where the battle starts and that’s in your mind and you win by controlling what you look at. Not looking … just can’t!
Paul said that we should treat the young women as sisters. 1 Timothy 5:1-2 – Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
You’ve got to be some kind of perve if you’re looking at your sister lustfully! Don’t look at the women around you that way. Ahead of Paul saying it, Jesus said it in Matthew 5. Jesus in his “let’s-be-honest” talk discusses where adultery starts. It starts with what you’re looking at.
Matthew 5:27-28 – “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
If you’re looking lustfully, that’s adultery in your heart. He said better to knock out an eye than be pitched into hell. Obviously, there are consequences for lustful behavior and it’s not leading anywhere good so make the dealio with your eyeballs, and don’t look at a bunch of stuff you shouldn’t be.
We have a group for sexual addiction issues and pornography and it meets the first and 3rd Thursdays of the month right at the church at 7pm.
You’re better off stopping before it starts. Lust is leading in the wrong direction – it’s bad thinking and has potential to get you into huge trouble.
Ahead of Paul and Jesus, Moses said it in Exodus 20:17 – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
Don’t covet anything your neighbor has including his wife. Coveting is wishing that you had what other people have. There is no sense pining away for things that you don’t have and especially when they belong to someone else. God has given you what you have, can you be happy with that?
Ahead of Paul, Jesus, and Moses, Job said it here. Just look away. We make this decision daily and especially in social media. Just move on. And it’s good to check your search engine and see what’s coming up. It could be a direct reflection of what you’re already looking at. Keep moving – you know the places and picture where you need not be lingering!
One of the reasons that he was disciplined with his eyes is because he knew God was watching.
- Look at Long Term Ramifications
He admits that God decides our fate. Good people will get a heritage. The evil ones are heading for the proverbial cliff. It can ultimately be no other way. While on the short term, the right path may be get questioned, in the long term it’s not.
One of the disadvantages we have is that we cannot see the long-term impact of a momentary decision. Or we won’t look at it. But the truth is that over time, good is going to win. Over time, evil is going to lose. Long term, doing the right thing will pay off. And that’s something we need to hang on to.
- COMMITMENT TO HONESTY
Vv5-6 – “If I have walked with falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit— 6 let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—
He would understand the punishment if he had walked in falsehood or rushed out to deceive people. What is he saying about the ethics that guided his life? He is an honest man. To “deceive” is a strong term because you’re intentionally leading someone astray for your own benefit.
I tell these stories tongue in cheek but there are deviously deceptive words out there. Hey, come on. No one will know. God will forgive us. Everyone is doing it. We handle this drug responsibly. I’ve heard that “adultery will improve our marriage”. That’s a doozy! It’s more likely to end your marriage.
The devil was right in the Garden of Eden lying through His teeth to Eve. Nothing bad will happen if you eat that forbidden fruit. He questioned it and denied the consequences. There are all kinds of lies out there.
What was Job’s play? Tell the truth. He was extremely successful in life and phenomenally wealthy and he didn’t have to lie to get there. He could just trust God. You can do the right thing and do it the right way and still be blessed. Job was proof of that.
What is your pattern of life? Do you have a pattern of truth telling or deceit? Have you become so used to lying that it’s part of your DNA? Sometimes we lie to our significant others to cover something up! And why would we do that? There is something rotten in Denmark when we’re hiding stuff. It could be gambling, an affair, a relationship, pornography, spending, or drugs. If you’ve got to lie to cover it up, there’s a good chance you shouldn’t be doing it.
Is there any evil you’re whitewashing with lies? Every lie is a strand in a web and the one who usually winds up hanging in it is you.
Remember Ananias and Sapphira who died because they lied to God about a piece of property they sold. And the amazing thing about that was that there was absolutely no need for it. They could have just told the truth. They said they gave it all, when they didn’t. But it was theirs and no one told them they had to give it all. There was no benefit in lying and they paid the ultimate price for that.
Jesus Christ put it as simply as possible. Let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. Anything else comes from evil! If you’re lying, evil is in the mix. You’re opening the door for more problems.
When we were kids we played marbles on the school grounds at recess. If I hit your marble with my marble, I kept it. If you hit mine, you kept it. We were really clear about what a “hit” was. We had a long list of synonyms – taps, nicks, bumps, or comes into contact with the marble in anyway, it’s mine. Maybe we need to do the same with lies – that means, fibbing, stretching the truth, white lies, or half truths! Anything designed to deceive by misrepresenting the truth is a lie. If it’s not the truth, it’s a lie!
Your word is your bond.
- COMMITMENT TO SELF-CONTROL
Vv7-8 – if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled, 8 then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.
- Self-Control is Found in Obedience
If I have turned from the path. Who defined the path? God does. There’s a map for how to get somewhere spiritually and we’d be wise to abide by it. That map is the Bible.
When you know that path it implies that you actually know right from wrong. To turn from the path would indicate that you knew what you were doing and intentionally walked off the path. And that path is the right way to do things.
And it takes steps to turn off the path. Just like walking, each step gets you closer to something. And oftentimes, you’re walking toward the wrong destination long before you get there. You’re thinking about it. You’re justifying it. You’re getting good with it. Step by step.
- Self-Control in What You Look At
Your heart, your decision making, cannot be led by your eyes. You can’t see something, want something, and make a decision based on that. We may want a lot of things but we can’t be led by our eyes.
This was the mistake that Eve made. She saw that the forbidden fruit was good for food and for making one wise and then decided to chow down on it. It was a willful decision and it was a huge mistake.
David allowed his eyes to guide his decision making when he slept with Bathsheba. He saw her and he wanted her. Now, there was nothing wrong with that natural desire. What was wrong was lusting and following your eyes. Look away and don’t go by your eyes!
I saw my family eating chocolate ice cream the other night but I did not eat any of it. I’m not being led by my eyes. What I see cannot be the ultimate determiner of right and wrong for me.
- Self-Control in What You Do
If my hands have been defiled. Is this by the shedding of blood or thievery? How would one’s hands be defiled? If you used them to do something that was wrong. If you steal.
It’s safe to say that there is a right and a wrong way to do things.
If I’ve done that then let others eat what I have planted and may be crops be uprooted. Destroy what I’ve planted if I’ve done something wrong? Why? That would be what I deserve.
Wait? You mean people deserve consequences if evil is their path? You deserve it!! Yes, if we do the wrong thing, we deserve to reap the results. We want to eat junk and the calories not count but that’s not real life. We want to take in junk spiritually and that does not count either. But it does count.
What we do counts. Make a commitment to live lust free, be honest, and show self control!