Job 31:1

Here, at the close of his last speech, Job makes the most solemn and complete declaration of his 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.

Job opens this sevenfold declaration of purity and integrity. He dwells on a side of his character and conduct that even his friends had not openly challenged.

He says he had made a covenant with his eyes. That is, he had decided that what his eyes saw would not seduce him. He would clearly look away from anything that might be tempting. For he recognised that God above knew every thought of his heart.

Set a strong guard over your outward senses. These are Satan's landing-places, above all the eye and the ear. Watch what you let in through them. Empty talk seldom passes without leaving some stain on the heart. And as for your eye, do not let it wander; unclean sights cause unclean thoughts. Job knew his eye and his thoughts were likely to go together, and so to secure the one he made a covenant with the other.

He approaches it with the boldness of conscious innocence. His eyes are the doorway to the heart, and he had closed them by settled purpose — a "covenant" against even a look at what might stir up passion. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord had shown that real purity must lie in the heart. It is not just a matter of avoiding outward acts (Matt. 5:27-28). As he declares his purity, Job points out that the fear of God moved him, for God would repay sin upon the wicked.

The flesh is the same today as it ever was; it does not change. We are told "to make no provision for the flesh" (Rom. 13:14). Paraphrased this means: do not feed the flesh by indulging it; flee fleshly, youthful lusts. And now the climax is reached. "I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?" — so said Job. David knew no such covenant. He looks where he should not have looked, and sin soon follows.

No Christian can stop unclean thoughts from rising in his mind. They only become sin when he refuses to turn away and gives himself to them on purpose.

There are also over-sensitive and over-anxious Christians whose consciences are heavily burdened by involuntary looks and thoughts. I would like to remind such people of the well-known words of Martin Luther, which he wrote on this verse: "I cannot prevent a bird flying over my head, but what I can prevent is it building a nest in my hair or biting off my nose."

He had a perfectly good conscience, but that is not enough. There is the great principle of self-judgment. There is also the great principle of complete submission to God and of vindicating Him — that He is right and wise in everything, not only in what He does, but in what He allows.

There is no reason to doubt what Job says of himself. Yet he did not realise that the very act of declaring his own goodness was sinful pride.