Twenty Two “If’s” (A Slow Fade, Not) Job 31:1-23

From his thought life to his private life to his public life, the man of incomparable endurance remained unwavering in his insistence on his integrity. He never claimed to be sinless, but both in the attitude of his heart and in his outward actions, Job strenuously denied any wrong doing as being the source of his calamity and awful sufferings.

This chapter (of approximately 670 words) is simply the detailed “nuts and bolts” version of the 15 word testimony given in 1:1 “And that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil.” Job takes all of the charges laid against him throughout the first 30 chapters by the Comforters Three and makes a final appeal to his Heavenly Judge.

“If-I-have-done-something-wrong-may-lightning-strike-me” clauses abound in this chapter. Of the ten different versions of the Bible I looked at, on average 22 “if’s” show up. FI Anderson writes concerning a defendant’s claim of innocence in that society, “A crime could be disowned by calling down a curse on oneself if one had committed it….Job lists specific crimes, and denies them all. The form Job uses is, ‘If I have done X, then let Y happen to me!’” This ancient form of jurisprudence becomes crystal clear in verses 22-23, “IF I raised my hand against an orphan…THEN let my shoulder be wrenched out of place and let my arm be torn from its socket!”

31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin? 2 And what is the portion of God from above or the heritage of the Almighty from on high? 3 Is it not calamity to the unjust and disaster to those who work iniquity? 4 Does He not see my ways and number all my steps?”

A 1,000 word devotional could easily be written on each little section of this chapter. There is so much packed into this chapter that we are barely going to scratch the surface.

I think it is striking that Job begins his claim to wholeness by looking first at the inside (the thought life) and then that which is acted out in every day life. It seems that at the outset Job wants to emphasize that his life wasn’t hollow; “A hypocrite I am not!” is the implication.

The Message translates verse one this way, "I made a solemn pact with myself never to undress a girl with my eyes.” King David should have had such character. He probably envisioned a Bathsheba-bedroom scene in his mind long before he undressed her in the privacy of his own home. The lustful glance of the eye can happen with both sexes. At a meeting I attended in our office a few months back, we were viewing some reports on the screen in the conference room when someone remarked about the colorfulness of the reports. “It’s a lot of eye candy,” remarked the leader of the meeting. Said the young woman sitting next to me, “That’s not my idea of eye candy!” Trapp writes about the Persian lady who, at the wedding of Cyrus, was asked how she liked the bridegroom. She simply replied, “I saw no one but my husband.”

Job’s train of thought is this: “If I had not made the covenant in verse 1, then I should only expect what follows in verse 3: ruin, calamity, destruction, and doom.” (What is so remarkable is that what Job says should happen to the wicked has happened to him. From an outsider’s point of view everything cries, “Job you are guilty!”)

31:5 “If I have walked with falsehood, and my foot has hastened after deceit, 6 let Him weigh me with accurate scales, and let God know my integrity. 7 If my step has turned from the way, my heart followed my eyes, or if any spot has stuck to my hands, 8 Let me sow and another eat, And let my crops be uprooted.”

Note the phrase in verse 5, “…hasted after deceit.” It carries the sense of enjoyment and excitement. Trapp writes this about verse 6, “Job would not rest in his own heart’s applause; neither would he be borne down by his friends’ false charges; but puts himself into God’s hands to be weighed.”

The word “integrity” is the Hebrew word “tamim”. We have touched on this word before (it lies at the heart of this marvelous book). I am paraphrasing from the Theological Word Book of the OT (TWOT): It carries the fundamental idea of completeness…it is used in the Bible of an entire day or a healthy vine. The word then moves naturally toward that which is ethically sound and upright. Noah was said to be "tamîm" in Genesis 6:9. But Scripture’s preeminent example of the “tam man” (the perfect man) is Job.

Notice the phrase in verse 7: “…my heart followed my eyes.” Job understood the progression of sin as outlined in Genesis 3:
Eve saw
Eve desired
Eve took
Eve ate
Eve shared

31:9 "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, Or I have lurked at my neighbor’s doorway, 10 Then may my wife grind for another, And let others kneel down over her. 11 For that would be a lustful crime; Moreover, it would be an iniquity punishable by judges. 12 For it would be fire that consumes to Abaddon, And would uproot all my increase.”

Job moves from the thought life in verse one to the acting out of the though life in this verse. Barnes writes concerning verse 10, “Let her be subjected to the deepest humiliation and degradation. Probably Job could not have found language which would have more emphatically expressed his sense of the enormity of this crime, or his perfect consciousness of innocence. The last thing which a man would imprecate on himself, would be that which is specified in this verse. The meaning here is, ‘Let my wife be the mill-wench to another; be his abject slave, and be treated by him with the deepest indignity.’”

The Message paraphrases verse 12 this way, “Adultery is a fire that burns the house down; I wouldn’t expect anything I count dear to survive it.” And yet today adultery is glorified on such TV shows as ABC's “Desperate Housewives.” (It could be that the root cause of our nation’s economic woes is not an economics issue at all, but rather a moral one.)

31:13 "If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves When they filed a complaint against me, 14 What then could I do when God arises? And when He calls me to account, what will I answer Him? 15 Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?”

This is a remarkable statement. Adam Clarke writes, “In ancient times slaves had no action at law against their owners; they might dispose of them as they did of their cattle, or any other property. The slave might complain; and the owner might hear him if he pleased, but he was not compelled to do so. Job states that he had admitted them to all civil rights; and, far from preventing their ease from being heard, he was ready to permit them to complain even against himself, if they had a cause of complaint, and to give them all the benefit of the law.”

This was the “Declaration of Independence” of Job’s day, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…”Job’s view of the employer/employee relationship was far ahead of his time, and sounds somewhat similar to Paul’s statement in Colossians 4:1, “Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.”

31:16 "If I have kept the poor from their desire, Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, 17 Or have eaten my morsel alone, And the orphan has not shared it 18 [But from my youth he grew up with me as with a father, And from infancy I guided her], 19 If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, Or that the needy had no covering, 20 If his loins have not thanked me, And if he has not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep, 21 If I have lifted up my hand against the orphan, Because I saw I had support in the gate, 22 Let my shoulder fall from the socket, And my arm be broken off at the elbow."

One writer says, “Job now turns to another class of virtues, regarded also as of great importance in the patriarchal ages, kindness to the poor and the afflicted; to the fatherless and the widow.

Note in this passage the number of “if” clauses (5 of them) and the various classes of society Job touches on: the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the needy.

Verse 16: “the poor…” This word describes a state of deprivation which in its extremity issues in a cry to God (TWOT). Job didn’t crush the hopes of the widow through long disappointed waiting.

Verse 17: Job didn’t, when dining at a fancy restaurant and seeing the hungry peering though the windows, pull down the shade so it wouldn’t bother him.

Verse 18: Job was a father to the fatherless; he and his wife graciously demonstrated the gift of hospitality to the down and out of their community.

Verse 19: Trapp writes concerning Pope Alexander V, “He was so liberal to the poor, that he left nothing to himself; so that he would merrily say, that he was a rich bishop, a poor cardinal, and a beggarly pope. This Pope Alexander then was a rare bird at Rome.”

Verse 20: Paraphrasing Trapp, “But a little handful of Job’s wool is much better than a mouthful of such airy courtesies as found in James 2:15-16, ‘If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?’”

Verse 21: Job never used his strength and influence to take advantage of the unfortunate.

Verses 16-21 listed the “IF’s”.

Verse 22 gives us the “THEN”: “Then let my shoulder be wrenched out of place! Let my arm be torn from its socket!”

231:3 “For calamity from God is a terror to me, And because of His majesty I can do nothing.”

Of this verse Barnes writes, “He could have escaped the judgment of people. He had power and influence enough not to dread the penalty of human law. He could have done it in such a way as not to have been arraigned before any earthly tribunal, but he remembered that the eye of God was upon him, and that he was the avenger of the fatherless and the widow.”

Conclusion: Job probably slow danced with his wife, but he never did the “slow fade.” He never made the little decisions that led from “white” to the lightest shade of gray which then led to darker shades of gray and eventually to decisions that were blatantly wrong. The group “Casting Crowns” sings about this in their song “Slow Fade.” The lyrics are below and a link to their music video is on the left.


"Slow Fade" (written by Mark Hall)

Be careful little eyes what you see
It's the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it's the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It's a slow fade, it's a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you're thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see