My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside.
Job speaks these words while God feels absent to him — he has searched in every direction and cannot find Him. So he falls back on what he does know: his own steady walk. Commentators read the claim as true, and at the same time as the thing standing in his way.
What the words describe
Grant sets the claim beside the reason Job cannot find God.
Leslie M. GrantJob could not find God, and his own righteousness was the hindrance. His foot had held fast to God's guiding steps: he had kept God's way — contrary to what his friends had said about him. He had not turned away from God's commandments. More than that, he had treasured God's words more than his necessary food.
Ridout grants that the words are true, then points to what is missing from them.
Samuel RidoutIt is all true, and yet the evident self-righteousness in it spoils the nobility of the words... What he holds on to is his own uprightness, not the sense of grace; he thinks it comes from his own heart. He has kept God's commands. He has held fast to the words of His mouth more than to his "necessary food." Job has valued God's will more than his own.
A clear conscience that still leaves him empty
Kelly does not doubt that Job's conscience was clear. He asks whether a clear conscience is enough.
William KellyJob was fully aware that his conscience was clear. Yet he had nothing at all, and that was what he had to learn. God had to show him, because the problem was not some outward flaw that anyone could notice.
Integrity turned into a covering
The danger is not the walk itself but what Job wraps around himself with it.
J. N. DarbyIn Job we also see a heart that depends on God, even while it rebels against Him. It turns towards God, though it does not find Him. Because it knows God, it claims for Him qualities that his friends' cold reasoning does not know how to attribute to Him. Yet he is pleased with his own integrity. He makes it into a covering of self-righteousness. That covering hides God from him, and it hides Job from himself.
Notice also who Job is talking to. Gaebelein hears trust and self-defence side by side in the same breath.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe voices trust in the beautiful saying, "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me I shall come forth as gold." Yet what comes next is self-defence. He speaks it not in God's presence, but to clear himself before his friends: "My foot has held fast to His steps." Doubt follows, for he still considers God to be his enemy rather than his friend.
The same words in a believer's mouth today
Kelly turns the verse on his hearers, and contrasts two ways of summing up a life.
William KellyI have been at the dying beds of real Christians. I am sorry to say that the main thing I heard from them was this: "I look back on my long life of following the Lord Jesus." If Job had said, "I look back on the tender mercy and patience of God, and His constant support when I never deserved it" — that would have been right.
How the trial actually ends
Job expects the testing to end in his approval. Hole says the outcome he predicted arrived by a route he did not predict.
F. B. HoleAs yet, filled with confidence in his own righteousness, he expected God to approve him. He did come forth as gold. But it came as the fruit of his humbling in self-judgment before God. Then God lifted him up and blessed him richly.
And while Job searches in vain, Ridout points to a movement in the opposite direction.
Samuel RidoutIt is all most tragic; and if it were only Job seeking God, he might well sink in despair. But, unknown to himself, God is seeking Job, and will find him before long.
Summary
- True. Job's claim is accurate. He had held to God's steps and treasured God's words above his food. His friends' accusations were false.
- Yet empty. A clear conscience still left him with nothing, and that was what he had to learn.
- Covered. His integrity became a covering that hid God from him and hid Job from himself.
- Misdirected. He argued his case to his friends rather than in God's presence, still treating God as an enemy.
- Gold. He did come forth as gold, as he said — but through self-judgment, because all along God was seeking him.