For this is an infamy; yea, it is an iniquity [to be judged by] the judges
In his last speech Job swears that he is innocent of adultery. Here he names that sin for what it is — shameful in itself, and a crime for judges — though he lived long before God gave the law.
He is not claiming to be sinless before God. He is refusing his friends' charge that hidden wickedness explains his suffering.
Here, at the close of his last speech, Job makes his most solemn and complete declaration of innocence. He is not denying what he had already admitted about man's condition, his own included. But he flatly rejects the thought of grievous wickedness hidden under a fair exterior, which God might now be waging war against, as his friends had supposed.
On the charges his friends brought, his conscience was clear.
His friends had accused him of definite sins and wrongdoing. As to these things his conscience was clear, though, as we have seen, he admitted he was not pure in the sight of God. So he strongly affirmed that he had not committed the kinds of evil that were alleged or hinted at.
The "heinous crime" here is adultery with a neighbour's wife. Job adds a penalty to his denial. If he is lying, let his own home suffer the same wrong.
He returns to the subject he began with. He dwells on the sin of adultery against a neighbour (verses 9-12). In all this he was pure — willing to have his own home violated if it were not so. We get here a glimpse of his family life, equal in holiness to that of Isaac, Joseph, and the purest of the patriarchs.
Job lived before God gave the law. Yet he can call this act a crime for judges to punish.
This chapter shows that before God gave the law, God-fearing men still held a high standard of morality. That standard looked not only at the outward act but at the inward motive behind it. See the examples: he speaks of what he thought, or did not think, in verse 1; of his heart walking after his eyes, in verse 7; and of his heart enticed in secret, in verse 27.
The same writer lists what Job already knew to be wrong without any written commandment.
Again, he knew that deceit and false witness was wrong; see verse 5: that adultery was wrong; see verse 9: that idolatry was wrong; see verses 26-28; since the worship of sun and moon was the most primitive form that idolatry took.
Job does not stop at the human court. Judges could sentence him, and God watches every step he takes.
He judges unclean lusts as well as actions. He does this in the fear of Him who had power to cast soul and body into hell — Him who meanwhile took notice of all his steps. Trusting in gold, the covetousness the New Testament calls idolatry, was as hateful to his spirit as giving the highest lights in creation the glory due to God alone. In those early days that sin seems to have been just as clearly punishable before the judge as the sins of those who schemed to destroy another man's home. (Compare verses 9-11 with verses 26-28.)
after_note: DISCUSS
The guard against this sin starts earlier, at the eye and the ear.
Set a strong guard around your outward senses. These are Satan's landing places, above all the eye and the ear. Take care what you take in through them; empty talk seldom passes without leaving some stain on the heart. And as for your eye, do not let it wander; impure objects cause impure thoughts. Job knew his eye and his thoughts were likely to go together, and so to secure the one he makes a covenant with the other.
Job's record was true. The fault lay in the telling of it.
But we must take note of the self-righteousness that moved Job to speak of himself like this. He was putting himself on display instead of giving glory to God. No doubt at bottom he was a man of genuine piety, but it is no glory to set out one's own glory.
Another writer weighs the speech as a whole.
He reviews his life to prove that he is clean in the sight of God and of man. But what are his declarations after all? Nothing but the filthy rags of his own righteousness — the empty boasting of a good, moral man, such as we hear on all sides.
- Covenant — Job's purity started at the eye. He made his agreement in advance, before temptation came.
- Crime — the act he refuses is adultery against a neighbour, and he stakes his own home on the truth of his denial.
- Conscience — Job knew this sin deserved punishment long before God gave the law. He judged the motive as well as the deed.
- Court — two courts sit over the same act: human judges who could sentence him, and God who counts every step he takes.
- Caution — the record was true, but Job put himself on display instead of giving God the glory.
For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.
Job is at the end of his long defence. Point by point he swears to his own purity. Here he swears he never let his heart follow another man's wife. Verse 12 gives his reason: such sin is not an incident but a fire, and fire does not stop where it is lit.
This line closes the first block of Job's final speech. One writer maps the chapter out by subject:
The main subjects of the chapter group themselves under seven heads: (1) Declaration of chastity and uprightness (verses 1-12). (2) Kindness at home and abroad (verses 13-23). (3) Refusal of all forms of idolatry (verses 24-28)…
So the "fire" is Job's closing argument on purity, not an aside. Another commentator sets the whole chapter in its setting: after describing his former brightness and then the blight that had fallen on him, Job speaks under something close to oath.
In Job 31 he protests his innocence in the most solemn way, his personal purity, his equity and consideration of his servants, his remembrance of the poor, his horror of idolatry, his freedom from vindictiveness, his cultivation of hospitality, his refusal to conceal any wrongdoing, and this without fear before the Almighty.
The ESV keeps the word here as a name: Abaddon. Older translations render it "destruction." Either way, it is not a general word for loss.
Revelation 9:11 shows this name to be the same as Apollyon, "the destroyer," who is called "the angel of the bottomless pit." It is perhaps not so much a name of Satan as his character personified. It occurs six times in the Old Testament. Three of those link it with hell (sheol): Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11; Proverbs 27:20. One links it with death: "Destruction and Death say," Job 28:22. One links it with the grave: Psalm 88:11. In all these passages, and in Job 31:12, it is translated "destruction."
So Job's fire burns all the way down, to the place tied to death and the grave. It does not stop at the man who lights it. It tears out everything his life has produced.
Job is not describing a passing regret. His verdict on it was settled long before, and it cuts against a common attitude today.
He was settled in his judgment about the wickedness of such things, though his thinking was contrary to that of large numbers of careless people today.
The fire has a starting point. Job had shut it off earlier in the chapter, and others were tested at the same place.
His eyes, the avenue to the heart, had been closed by full purpose — a "covenant," against even a look at what might stir up passion. In the Sermon on the Mount our Lord showed that real purity must lie in the heart, and not only in outward self-control (Matthew 5:27-28)… "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" said Joseph when the woman tried to tempt him (Genesis 39:9). In an hour of spiritual sloth, David had allowed his eyes to wander, and had fallen (2 Samuel 11:2).
Job's self-examination went further than his accusers could have borne. He made it before One who sees everything.
We can be sure of this: not one of the friends who all but accused him could have afforded to test himself as Job does 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 note of all his steps.
What Job says about this sin is right. The problem is who he is defending while he says it. His conscience was clear on these charges. The wrong note is in how he presses them.
But we must notice the self-righteousness that moved Job to speak of himself like this. He was putting himself on display rather than giving glory to God. Deep down he was no doubt a man of real godliness, but there is no glory in putting your own glory on show.
Another writer shows why a clear conscience is still not righteousness before God:
This "righteousness," as Job 29 will show us, had to do with his outward conduct. The searching light of God had not yet entered his soul. He had been charged with being a deceiver and a hypocrite. He knew he was not this… We too know that he was not, but outward correctness does not in itself count for righteousness in the presence of God.
- Spark. The fire starts at the eye. Job had made a covenant there, because purity is a matter of the heart and not only of outward conduct.
- Fire. Job treats this sin as a fire. It is not one act with a boundary. Fire keeps consuming once lit.
- Ashes. Abaddon, the name behind "destruction," is linked elsewhere with death, the grave and the pit. The fire burns all the way down.
- Roots. It does not only burn what stands; it tears up a man's whole increase, everything his life had produced.
- Warning. Job's verdict on the sin is sound; his mistake is using it to display himself. A clear conscience before men is still not righteousness before God.