Job 31:16

Job tests himself formally and in fine detail, with a very full list of charges. He does this toward God as well as man — for failing to do good, as well as for self-indulgence and other sins. We can be sure of this. Not one of the friends who as good as put him on trial could have afforded to test himself as Job does here.

In verses 16-21 he speaks of sins of omission also. Suppose he had not helped the poor, or had ignored the plight of the widow. Suppose he had kept all he had for himself, so that the fatherless went hungry. Suppose he had seen someone die for lack of clothing, or a poor man with nothing to cover him. Suppose the heart of the poor had never blessed Job, never warmed by the fleece of his sheep — then he says, "let my arm fall from my shoulder."

Reaching out beyond his household to the needy poor, he let the fatherless and the widow share his food, and he warmed them with his clothing. In brief he was as a father to the orphan, and as a son to the widow. Surely we have here an illustration of religion that is "pure and undefiled" (James 1:27).

His compassion always went out to people who were suffering — the widow and the fatherless, the needy and the naked. This was no passing gesture. He cared for them steadily and tirelessly, as a father would, and he watched himself carefully, so that he never took the least advantage of them through his influence with others.

The law had its value, for God does nothing in vain. Yet look how high the moral standard already was — in the soul, and in the daily walk of godly men outside Israel, before the law came from Sinai. And it was not only in matters of right and wrong, which conscience could judge more or less exactly, depending on how much light a man had. We can also see what God's revelation did inside the soul, in its affections and its judgments.

Now, just read chapters 29-31, and you will say, if any man could have justified himself by good works, Job was the man. There is not a man in all your town that can say as much as Job said, and say it truly. As to his kindness to the poor, he was the very opposite of the lying charges brought against him. So he lets memory recount every good act of his life, but it all fails to give rest to his troubled spirit. I, I, I — I did this, I did not do that. But it is all of no use.

The friends were completely wrong. They had no excuse and no kindness. What Job says was true, but he does not yet know the whole truth about himself — as no one could, until He came who is the Truth, and proved it in grace to the very end at His cross. But Job was taken up with himself and pleased with himself. God would set him free from that, and bless him more than ever. No human being will boast in God's presence. Job had to learn this — to boast only in Him.