Job 29:4

Verse 4 says, word for word, "in the days of autumn." It does not point to the start of the civil year. It points to the rich time of harvest, of ripe maturity, when everything around him was prosperous. His children, as described in the first chapter, were around him, and he enjoyed his resources in full abundance.

He lived here with his children in tents, and died in faith, longing for a heavenly country... But God was clearly with him. His lamp, as Job puts it, shone on his head, and it is wonderful and blessed indeed that the secret of God was on his tent. This was all the glory he had now, but it was holy glory. The Lord told him of His ways, and promised him everything.

After these wise words, Eliphaz plunged into a series of accusations against Job. God Himself had spoken well of Job at the start of the story, so the charges must have been completely false... Eliphaz did not deal in vague hints. He stated Job's wrongdoing toward the needy, the naked, the weary, the hungry, the widow and the fatherless. In Job 29, Job answers these things, and he is just as plain in declaring how well he had acted toward these very people.

It is nearly always a sign of present weakness when we have to look back to the past for marks of God's favour. It usually goes with pride in that past, and with discouragement in the present... The manna of yesterday will not do for today. The bright light of yesterday's candle is the burnt wick of today. A present Christ in all His fulness, and a present Spirit ministering the Word to our need — these are the believer's proper theme and occupation. So Job, right at the start, is looking in the wrong direction.

Sometimes under pressure I see more of the wisdom of God and His way. The more I see, the more depressed I become, if I cannot connect myself acceptably with God. So I turn back to my own history, and become taken up with myself. That is why Job in Job 29 dwells on the past. This is always evidence that the soul is not right with God. If it were going on with Him, it would have greater things than the past to tell.

This is truly a most remarkable statement. We look in vain here for any sign of a broken and contrite spirit. There is no self-loathing, not even self-distrust, and not one word of conscious weakness and nothingness. In the course of this single chapter, Job refers to himself more than forty times, while the references to God are only five.

Job 29 has become one of the great "I" chapters of the Bible. Ecclesiastes 2 is Solomon's "I" chapter... the chapter of the self-gratified "I." Job 29 is the chapter of the self-satisfied "I." Romans 7 is of course the chapter of the self-condemned "I." And to be self-condemned is far better than to be self-gratified or self-satisfied. Best of all is to be self-eclipsed, as we find Paul to be in Philippians 3.

Some Christians seem satisfied as they speak of a power they knew in years long past, and which, they gravely tell us, has now passed away. All this is sad, since it helps neither themselves nor anyone who hears them... "the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day." And surely this is as it should be. As we come nearer to the object of desire, the way becomes brighter and brighter. However bright the past was through His presence, I am nearer to Him now. So why should I miss those days of shadow and darkness, or long for them to come back — days He once led me through?