SERIES: The Book of Job
Round 3 of the Garbage Dumb Debate: The Pursuit of Personal Holiness
SPEAKER: Michael P. Andrus
Introduction: Some 4,000 years ago a debate was held on an ash heap outside a town named Uz, somewhere in the Fertile Crescent. The detailed substance of that debate has been preserved over the centuries in the Book of Job. On one side was a good man who, for all intents and purposes, was dying an agonizing death, while on the other side were three acquaintances who had traveled from afar to comfort him, but who ended up arguing philosophy and theology with him instead. The first round of speeches was reasonably gentle, as Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar each tried to prove that righteous people do not suffer, only those who claim they are righteous. Job refused to buy that notion but spent most of his rebuttal time bemoaning his condition and God’s treatment of him.
The second round found the three friends trying to prove that the wicked don’t prosper; they only appear to prosper or only prosper for a short time. Again, Job argued that the wicked prosper thoroughly and over a long period of time, and he couldn’t see any justice in it. Of course, in both these rounds Job’s friends are bent on convicting Job of his sin and getting him to repent so he could be restored once again to health and wealth. But so far nothing has worked on Job, so his friends, especially Eliphaz, decide to switch tactics. Instead of insinuating evil and making sweeping generalizations about Job’s moral life, he decides the time has come to categorically and specifically charge Job with evil.
And so in the third round the issue really seems to be whether sin in Job’s life can be substantiated. Allegations of wrongdoing are made, but Job denies all of them and maintains that he has consistently pursued holiness in all that he has done. While many other topics are touched upon in this third round (ch. 22-31) it is the subject of personal holiness that I want us to focus on today. It is a subject of infinite practicality to every one of us, for to every one of us God has said, “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16) How would we stack up against Job? How do we stack up against NT standards? Let’s begin our study in ch. 22, where we see that …
Job’s personal holiness is categorically denied by his friends. (22:1-30)
In this his third speech Eliphaz alleges a general sinfulness on Job’s part.
General sinfulness is alleged. (4-5) Let’s begin our reading in verse 4: “Is it for your piety that God rebukes you and brings charges against you? Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless?” Eliphaz argues from effect to cause. The effect is Job’s suffering; therefore, the cause must be Job’s sin. Case closed. But then in verse 6-11 Eliphaz ventures for the first time to allege specific sins on the part of Job, and he begins with social sins, that is, sins against people.
Social sins are alleged. (6-11) Let’s read verses 6-9: “You demanded security from your brothers for no reason; you stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry, though you were a powerful man, owning land—an honored man, living on it. And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless.”
Three specific charges are leveled here, namely that Job has demanded unreasonable pledges when loaning money, has refused to aid the thirsty and hungry, and has abused widows and orphans. This is followed up in verses 10 & 11 with the claim that the suffering Job is enduring is the direct result of these sins.
Now I can’t help but wonder how Eliphaz came up with these allegations, especially since Job later denies each one categorically. After all, Eliphaz apparently lived some distance away from Job and most likely had little opportunity to observe Job in action. I suspect that he is desperate, having been totally unable to get Job to admit any personal responsibility for his suffering, and realizes he must come up with some firm and specific allegations. So, he simply chooses a number of sins of which a rich man might well be expected to be guilty.
Frankly, I sometimes feel sorry for the godly rich. If they don’t give to every cause that comes along, they are accused of being miserly; yet if they are generous with their resources, God’s Word doesn’t allow them to broadcast it. So, they sometimes do more than the rest of us know about ,yet end up taking a lot of undeserved heat. Job surely does here.
Thirdly, Eliphaz accuses Job not only of social sins, but also of spiritual sins.
Spiritual sins are alleged. (12-20) First, he charges that Job has accused God of being ignorant. In verse 13 he puts these words into Job’s mouth: “What does God know? Does he judge through such darkness? Thick clouds veil him, so he does not see us as he goes about in the vaulted heavens.” However, we look in vain for any place Job says anything like this. I suspect once again that Eliphaz has been tampering with the evidence.
Then in verse 17 he suggests that Job believes God to be impotent, for he puts Job in the camp of those who say to God, “Leave us alone! What can the Almighty do to us?” Naturally, if Job actually said such things, it would be a serious matter indeed, for God is clearly neither ignorant nor impotent but omniscient and omnipotent. But did Job actually say such things? Eliphaz may just be drawing his own logical conclusions from what Job has said.
Finally, having made these specific sin charges against Job, Eliphaz makes the point that …
Repentance is Job’s only hope. (21-30) I believe Eliphaz is basically a good man and probably has Job’s best good in mind. There is no mistaking the earnestness of these his closing words, in which he presents a very noble view of how a sinning believer must repent of sin and renew fellowship with God. Look at verse 21: “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored.” These are good words, and anyone living in sin today should take them to heart. I don’t believe the prosperity and restoration they promise will always be material in nature, but it will be real. The only problem is that all this is irrelevant to Job’s particular case because Job’s suffering is not due to any lack of repentance on his part but rather to his very godliness (as we know from the opening two chapters).
Now the words of Eliphaz are ended. He is the main speaker besides Job in this third round. Bildad speaks only very briefly in ch. 25, and Zophar is completely silent. For the first time in the debate Job is now faced with more than innuendo. Specific allegations have been made which he must either admit, deny, or ignore. And so, we come to our second major division, as we see that he chooses to deny the charges categorically.
Job’s personal holiness is categorically defended by Job. (23:26-31)
In his initial response to Eliphaz’ third speech we find that …
He proclaims his innocence generally. (23:7-12) By that I mean he gives a general statement of his own purity of heart. Once more he wishes aloud that he could confront God in court. We pick up his words in verse 7 of ch. 23:
“There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge. But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.”
Let me stop here and observe that there are times in the lives of all of us when we cannot seem to make contact with God. Whether we move forward, backward, right or left—it doesn’t matter—we seem lost. Martin Luther called this “the dark night of the soul.” But here’s a promise worth its weight in gold: “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” That was Job’s confidence; it is yours? It can be if you have placed your faith in Christ and are pursuing a life of personal holiness, as Job was.
He protests his innocence vehemently. (27:1-6). We turn over to ch. 27 to find Job once again speaking of his personal commitment to godly living. Here his attitude is no longer one of quiet proclamation but rather a strident, almost belligerent, confrontation with his three counselors. He is sick and tired of all the insinuations and allegations, and he gets downright testy with his friends. I want us to read these first 6 verses:
” And Job continued his discourse:
2 “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
3 as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not say anything wicked,
and my tongue will not utter lies.
5 I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6 I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
Does it cross your mind to ask, “Why doesn’t Job just say, ‘O.k., I’m guilty. Call off the dogs.’”? I think the reason can only be an absolute conviction on his part that he had given his whole heart to God and to righteous living.
As we turn over to chapters 29 & 31 (Job’s rebuttal to Bildad takes up six complete chapters), we find that …
He professes his innocence historically. (29, 31). By that I mean he goes back over his own personal history to show that the accusations against him are groundless. After all, before the calamities struck, no one accused him of sin—not the nobles, nor his servants, nor orphans, nor widows—no one. His argument, which was read earlier in our service, is filled with pathos as he speaks of the honor once accorded him, of the basis for that honor, and of the traumatic change which interrupted it. I would like for us to read a part that was not read earlier, beginning in verse 21:
“Men listened to me expectantly, waiting in silence for my counsel. After I had spoken, they spoke no more; my words fell gently on their ears. They waited for me as for showers and drank in my words as the spring rain. When I smiled at them, they scarcely believed it; the light of my face was precious to them. I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I dwelt as a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners. But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.”
Now the fourth and final time Job speaks of his innocence is in the 31st chapter. This is an amazing portion of Scripture, for it indicates that for Job personal holiness was a total way of life. He is not satisfied with any general statements to the effect that “I’ve done my best,” or “I’m trying to walk the straight and narrow” or “I’m probably a 6 or 7 on the moral scale.” No, Job sets out to prove his innocence with specifics:
He proves his innocence specifically. (31:1-40) As we go through the sins of which Job claims he is “not guilty,” I think the best thing any of us could do is to compare our own actions and attitudes with Job’s. I can’t believe the only purpose the Holy Spirit had in mind when this chapter was included in the Bible was for Job to refute his detractors. No, here is a standard of holiness which is high by almost anyone’s judgment, yet one that we can and should strive to attain, because every one of these standards is repeated in the NT as a requirement for believers today.
1. No lust. (1-4) Verse 1: “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.” How unique is such an attitude in a day and time when the culture has gone completely bonkers on sensuality and promiscuity, and when even among Christians the prevailing attitude seems to be, “It’s all right to look so long as you don’t touch.” In contrast, the Apostle Peter condemns religious people whose eyes are “full of adultery.” I think he’s talking about men who walk down the street with their eyes at breast level. Every woman knows what I’m talking about.
Job would have none of that. He had made a covenant, an oath, with his eyes not to leer at women. He saw the truth of Jesus’ words centuries before they were spoken: “If you look on a woman to lust after her you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.” But is lust something that can be turned off or turned on, just like that? Yes, in a sense it is, for the battle is lost only when an initial lustful thought is cultivated and enriched through active fantasy. Clearly this habit, as all bad habits, is hard to break. Satan has built strongholds in many peoples’ minds that need to be dismantled. We don’t have time this morning to discuss how that can be done, but I will refer you to two messages found elsewhere on the website:
“Garbage In, Garbage Out: Reprogramming Our Minds,” Philippians 4:8-9
“Strongholds in the Mind,” 2 Cor. 10:3-5
2. No falsehood, deceit, or covetousness. (5-8) Look at verse 5: “If I have walked in falsehood or my foot has hurried after deceit—let God weigh me in honest scales and he will know that I am blameless—if my steps have turned from the path, if my heart has been led by my eyes, or if my hands have been defiled, then may others eat what I have sown, and may my crops be uprooted.” I like the phrase in verse 7, “If my heart has been led by my eyes … (then may I be judged).“ What a marvelous definition of covetousness! How often are our hearts led by our eyes instead of vice versa? The answer is clearly, “too often.” One needn’t look beyond the parking lot for plenty of evidence of that, for many do not choose a car on any rational basis but rather for the status it offers.
3. No adultery (9-12) is a third claim, as He clearly denies any unfaithfulness to his wife in verses 9-12. One might think innocence in regard to lust, already established, would automatically include innocence of adultery, but in Job’s day they were separate issues. It was not considered adultery for a married man to have liaisons with unmarried women. That was the issue Job spoke of earlier when he denied even lust toward young women. Here he further denies any action that could be considered adulterous. By the way, did you notice Job’s description of adultery in verse 12: “It is a fire that burns to Destruction.” If you don’t believe that, I would like the opportunity to tell you about some of the ruined lives I have had to counsel over the past two decades.
4. No injustice (13-15). In verses 13-15 Job claims he didn’t even treat his slaves unjustly, despite the fact that in his day slaves were generally considered sub-human property. And will you notice the reason Job refused to practice injustice toward his slaves (verse 15)? “Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” Friends, let me suggest that if all of us would grasp and apply the truth of Job 31:15, there would be an end to prejudice, racism, bigotry, and injustice.
5. No lack of compassion or any oppression. (16-20) In direct denial of Eliphaz’ allegations, Job claims he never failed to show compassion to the poor, the widow, the orphan or the naked. Furthermore, he never took advantage of the helpless in court: “If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court, then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint. For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.”
In verses 24 & 25 he flatly denies a materialistic attitude, and in 26-28 he claims innocence from idolatry.
6. No materialism or idolatry (24-28). This is self-explanatory.
7. No vindictiveness, miserliness, or hypocrisy (29-34) In verse 29 he makes the remarkable claim that he has not even rejoiced when an enemy has been destroyed. That is amazing, for it is virtually impossible for even the spiritual person among us to avoid a momentary surge of pleasure at the ruin of an enemy. To make such a claim proves that Job has either a very clean conscience or a very calloused one. Clearly the former is meant. He further maintains that “no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler.” He had always practiced hospitality to the alien and the traveler. And don’t think that was necessarily easy to do just because he was rich. A lot of people excuse themselves for not showing hospitality because they can’t afford it, or their house is not big enough, or their furniture isn’t nice enough. But when they get a bigger house and nicer furniture, nothing changes. Job used his wealth in generosity toward others.
An absence of hypocrisy is seen in that Job didn’t hide his sins as some do, according to verse 33. Perhaps it seems a bit strange that after having spent so much time trying to establish his innocence, Job should now claim that he has never hidden his sins. If he’s so holy, why should there be any sins to hide? I believe this makes explicit the fact that Job is not claiming (and never has claimed) complete sinlessness, but only that his sins were not of such a character to justify the level of pain he is going through. His sins were not deliberate or premeditated.
8. No exploitation. (38-40). In this section Job denies exploiting either the land or its tenants.
So far we have seen the specific allegations of sin from Job’s friends and the specific denial of those very sins from Job. Thirdly and finally we note that …
Job claims that his personal holiness lacks only the opportunity for vindication. (31:35-40)
Let’s begin reading in verse 35: “Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. I would give him an account of my every step; like a prince I would approach him.” This is the final challenge before the words of Job are ended. He demands a hearing, he signs an affidavit, and he unashamedly states that he would wear his adversary’s indictment like a badge of honor, a poetic way of claiming he is “Not guilty.” So, Job is belligerent to the last, eager to have his case settled, and confident of the outcome.
From the ten chapters we have briefly referred to today, and particularly from the passages we have examined, I find some important …
Points to ponder about personal holiness:
1. Personal holiness is the only path to a clean conscience. I recall to your mind the words of Job in 27:5-6: “Till I die, I will not deny my integrity, I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.” It is remarkable that Job maintains his innocence despite all the adversity and despite the onslaught delivered by his friends. He can do so only because he does indeed have a clear conscience before God.
Oh, I’m aware that through continual violation, one’s conscience can become seared so that it no longer bothers a person like it once did. I’m aware, too, that many psychotherapists today are trying to help people deal with guilty consciences by denying the reality of sin, i.e., by calling their sin an “illness,” or, in some cases even “normal behavior.” But the only legitimate route to a clear conscience, the only way to a thoroughly clean conscience, is through a life of personal holiness. Of course, I’m not trying to minimize the need for and value of forgiveness. Once we sin, confession and forgiveness is God’s prescribed way to clear our conscience once again, but personal holiness is necessary to maintain it.
2. Personal holiness makes demands of our conduct toward men, as well as our conduct toward God. So many people think of holiness only in terms of their duty toward God. If they are attending services, tithing, reading the Bible, and praying before meals, they feel pretty good about themselves. But do you see here how many of Job’s claims to holiness relate to his actions toward people? Virtually every one of the sins he denies in chapter 31 are sins in the social realm. That’s very important, because we cannot legitimately separate our lives into the sacred and the secular. James 1:27 says that “pure religion and undefiled is this: to visit the widows and orphans and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” Personal holiness is a whole lifestyle.
3. Personal holiness is more internal than external. In his defense of his innocence Job consistently dealt with his heart attitudes rather than just his outward actions. He not only refused to commit adultery; he wouldn’t even look on women with lust. Even when the sin being discussed was an external sin, like injustice toward slaves, Job demonstrated that it was an internal conviction about basic equality before the Creator which kept him from committing the outward sin. There are people who avoid the more heinous sins, not because of a clean heart so much as a fear of getting caught. How much better to avoid it because of a heart commitment to God, as Job exercised.
4. Personal holiness does not exempt one entirely from false accusation, but it sure helps. There are some very notable examples in Scripture of people whose lives were characterized by personal holiness but who were nevertheless accused of gross evil. I think of Joseph and Paul, and, of course, Jesus. But I think those exceptions should not close our minds to the general principle that a life of personal holiness will stop the mouths of our accusers.
Perhaps you are a teenager struggling with your moral reputation. The only way to preserve or restore it is to begin now to live a life of personal holiness—in attitude, in speech, and in action. Karen Nollkemper recently spoke to our young people of the high value of virginity, but she also urged those who have failed morally to practice secondary virginity, i.e., begin today to live a life of moral purity. Perhaps you are an older person who has been slandered, or your motives misjudged, or your honesty challenged. Usually it doesn’t help to fight back; but it does help to deprive the enemy of any further ammunition through careful attention to holy living.
Conclusion: I think it is very important that I emphasize that holy living in God’s sight is possible only for those who are His children and have the Holy Spirit living within. Any attempt to pursue personal holiness on our own is doomed to failure. One of my favorite hymns was written by Horatio Spafford who in 1873 lost all his children when a steamer sank in the northern Atlantic. The second verse of that hymn is the key one:
“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control.
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed his own blood for my soul.”
Sometimes one’s helpless estate is due to tragedy. At other times it is due to personal sin. Either way, the shed blood of Jesus has been offered for your soul. Holy living is now your opportunity. As we bow our heads in prayer, I wonder if some of us don’t need to do business with God with regard to our personal holiness. Perhaps some affidavits need to be signed with Him, some covenants made, some sins confessed.
Prayer: Father, the Psalmist says of You, “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.” Thank you, Father, for Your grace and mercy. Thank you for providing a Savior, who died for us and offers us the free gift of salvation.
DATE: July 18, 1993
Tags:
Sin
Holiness