The Skeleton Has No Skeletons (Job 31:24-40)

Emaciated and exhausted, bitter and battle-worn; the Skeleton is perhaps more dead than alive. In just a few verses Job’s defense will end. And yet Job doggedly perseveres in his search for the presence of God. Francis I Anderson writes, “This priceless testament is a fitting consummation of ‘The words of Job.’”

31:24 "If I have put my confidence in gold, and called fine gold my trust, 25 If I have gloated because my wealth was great, And because my hand had secured so much;”

When you read these two verses from various versions of the Bible, you come across such words as trust, hope, confidence, faith, and security. They are words that should define our relationship with God; but too often they instead are wrongly applied to our relationship with gold or wealth.

Covetousness endangers us because it transfers the heart from the Creator to the creature. Hartley writes, “Riches pull hard at the heart of their owner to trust in them, for with their possession go power, prestige, and freedom from want.” Wealthy people (and those that wish to wealthy) may hold themselves as better than others and safer than others.

Eliphaz had urged Job to “relax your grip on your money and abandon your gold-plated luxury.” (22:24) But a “confidence in gold” wasn’t Job’s problem. He wasn’t clenching a fistful of dollars – he was pursuing the uncreated God.

31:26 “If I have looked at the sun when it shone or the moon going in splendor, 27 and my heart became secretly enticed, and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth, 28 that too would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, For I would have denied God above.”

One writer says that we now move from covert idolatry (a love of gold) to overt idolatry (a love of the sun & moon). People throughout history have worshipped the sun – the Egyptians had their Heliopolis (The City of the Sun), and Sun-Worship continues to this day. The phrase, “the moon going in splendor” is literally “the moon walking in brightness.” The New Living Translation puts it “Have I looked at…the moon walking down its silver pathway,” That’s a very poetic phrase.

If I have thrown a kiss toward the moon (a widespread pagan practice), I would then have committed treason against the Almighty, and I would have denied the “God Who is Above.” I like that portion of verse 28; the God we serve is “The God Who is Above.”

31:29 "Have I rejoiced at the extinction of my enemy, or exulted when evil befell him? 30 No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for his life in a curse.”

As we have stated before, Job’s integrity was anything but superficial, it went to the core of his being. These verses speak to his inner honesty. And its perhaps more literal to translate it, “Have I shouted for joy during repeated times in the past when bad stuff had happened to the one(s) hating me?” Job is emphatic in his denial – “I have never!” He never longed for a premature death for his enemies. And he comes very close to the standard set centuries later by Jesus.

Do I rejoice at the misfortune that befalls someone I don’t like? Is there a secret joy or inward pleasure when my “enemy” gets wheat he had coming. To paraphrase Francis I Anderson, “Is there a momentary surge of pleasure at the ruin of an enemy (which may be a coworker or family member or neighbor)?

31:31 “Have the men of my tent not said, ’Who can find one who has not been satisfied with his meat’? 32 The alien has not lodged outside, for I have opened my doors to the traveler.”

Job was the original Motel 6; he always left the light on for strangers that happened to be traveling through his area. Job knew that to not show hospitality was a disgraceful act. Mr. and Mrs. Job perhaps even went so far as to, when evening rolled around send their servants into the town square to look for any wayfarers that were not able to find lodging.

In his commentary, Barnes quotes Burckhardt when he writes about these verses and the custom of Job’s land, “A traveler may alight at any house he pleases; a mat will be immediately spread for him, coffee made, and a breakfast or dinner set before him. In entering a village it has often happened to me, that several persons presented themselves, each begging that I would lodge at his house. It is a point of honor with the host never to receive the smallest return from a guest.” He goes on to point out that a traveler of that region may fare better as a guest than he would at his own home.

31:33 "Have I covered my transgressions like Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, 34 because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, and kept silent and did not go out of doors?”

The Skeleton didn’t have any skeletons in his closet. Job’s books could be opened for public view and he would not be ashamed of anything that was brought to light. Hartley writes, “He shied away from the slightest taint of hypocrisy.” Our nation cries out for men and women of integrity. In the marketplace, in the home and in the political arena we need more Jobs. Congressman Anthony Weiner should have followed Job’s example.

But then, so should I.

We are silly to think that we, who are all window, should be anything but transparent before God, Who is all Eye (paraphrasing Trapp). Job didn’t claim a sinlessness; when he failed he was open and honest to his family, friends and business associates. Job never worried about being exposed. Trapp writes, “No man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badness, (though) many are for their supposed goodness.”

31:35 “Oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature; Let the Almighty answer me! And the indictment which my adversary has written, 36 surely I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it to myself like a crown. 37 I would declare to Him the number of my steps; like a prince I would approach Him.”

We will make these three verses into a separate devotional.

31:38 “If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; 39 If I have eaten its fruit without money, Or have caused its owners to lose their lives, 40 Let briars grow instead of wheat, And stinkweed instead of barley."

Many commentators think these verses are out of place and should be put directly after verse 34 or in some other position in this chapter. I have one thing to say to that…NYET! It would seem that vs. 35-37 should be the closing; some translations of the Bible have even rearranged this chapter a little to put them in a “neater order.” But this isn't Robert Frost composing a poem or Chuck Swindoll preparing a sermon. This is a very sick man (who is probably more dead than alive) at the city dump struggling to find God. So I don’t think we should expect to find a neatly outlined three or five point poem-sermon. FIA writes, “It is a poem, recited by a miserable outcast on the city rubbish dump…it is Job's last passionate outburst; and the author has given it an earnestness and a torrential quality by composing it with a measure of incoherence.”

Job essentially never mistreated the land (perhaps an early environmentalist without the “I-worship-trees” aspect found in much of today’s green movement). And he never mistreated those that worked his land – the land rested, his cattle rested, and his laborers rested. Job didn’t run a sweatshop.

At least 14 specific sins are enumerated in this chapter. If we were to detach the claims made by Job in this chapter from the rest of the book, we would rightly conclude that Job has become more than a little self-righteous – the word “I” appears almost 30 times. But that is not the case and God’s testimony of Job bears that out.

31:40b The words of Job are ended.

We have traveled a long way from chapter 1, but we still have the privilege of mining 11 chapters (6 of them by long-winded Elihu). Job has thrown down the gauntlet; we would not be too far off to say that he has subpoenaed God! If God does not answer, then Job is will be resoundingly declared “Not Guilty!” by the community. We will explain all of that in the next devotional.

Job’s pain has not subsided in the least, and yet his thinking has crystallized and he has risen above his former despondency. Under extreme duress, Job has resolutely sustained a search for the hidden God. In a short while “the Golden Splendor” will appear out of the north. But for now, El-Shaddai is agonizingly silent. One of threads that we find woven throughout this story is simply this: the persistent and unyielding struggle of a man determined to find God against a backdrop of dark and formidable circumstances.

Perhaps God has seemed so silent and so distant to you.
Do not give up your pursuit of Him.