For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Job 31:1-15

1 ‘I made a covenant with my eyes
    not to look lustfully at a young woman.
2 For what is our lot from God above,
    our heritage from the Almighty on high?
3 Is it not ruin for the wicked,
    disaster for those who do wrong?
4 Does he not see my ways
    and count my every step?

5 ‘If I have walked with falsehood
    or my foot has hurried after deceit –
6 let God weigh me in honest scales
    and he will know that I am blameless –
7 if my steps have turned from the path,
    if my heart has been led by my eyes,
    or if my hands have been defiled,
8 then may others eat what I have sown,
    and may my crops be uprooted.

9 ‘If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
    or if I have lurked at my neighbour’s door,
10 then may my wife grind another man’s grain,
    and may other men sleep with her.
11 For that would have been wicked,
    a sin to be judged.
12 It is a fire that burns to Destruction;
    it would have uprooted my harvest.

13 ‘If I have denied justice to any of my servants,
    whether male or female,
    when they had a grievance against me,
14 what will I do when God confronts me?
    What will I answer when called to account?
15 Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
    Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?

A. Find Out

1. What had Job determined not to do and why? v.1-4
2. What also had he not done? v.5-8
3. What further had he not done? v.9-12
4. What finally, here, had he not done? v.13-15

B. Think:

1. What is the first reason Job gives why he had not done these things?
2. How does he invoke curses against himself to confirm this?

C. Comment:

Job ceases to bemoan his state and moves on to deny he has sinned. In the verses above he covers four areas of sin. First there is sexual lust (v.1), then there is lying, deceit and dishonesty (v.5,6), then adultery (v.9), and finally dealing badly with his servants (v.13). There are more as he goes through this chapter.

Look, says Job, I couldn’t do any of these things because God would see me (v.4), God will weigh me (v.6), God would judge me a sinner (v.11 implied), and God would confront me (v.14).

But it goes beyond this. Job knows there would be consequences if he fell to any of these things. Some of those consequences he expresses as curses upon himself, for indeed we see elsewhere in Scripture that judgements upon sin are in fact curses from heaven.  Job knows that these things would bring him ruin (v.3), it would mean others taking all his crops as retribution (v.8); it would mean the break-up of his family (v.10) and ultimately destruction (v.12).

Job has not done any of these things because he purposed not to (v.1 covenant). Why? He has not done these things because first and foremost he knows the distinction between right and wrong and he is able to say that each of these things that he speaks about is wrong. Moreover, they are wrong because they are wrong in God’s eyes, they are things that go against the way God has designed us to live, and because of this, if we live like that, then there will be painful consequences. This he knows and this has kept him from sinning.

D. Application:

1. Do we understand that sin is that which goes against God’s design?
2. Do we understand that sin brings painful consequences?

Passage: Job 31:16-40

16 ‘If I have denied the desires of the poor
    or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
17 if I have kept my bread to myself,
    not sharing it with the fatherless –
18 but from my youth I reared them as a father would,
    and from my birth I guided the widow –
19 if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing,
    or the needy without garments,
20 and their hearts did not bless me
    for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,
21 if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
    knowing that I had influence in court,
22 then let my arm fall from the shoulder,
    let it be broken off at the joint.
23 For I dreaded destruction from God,
    and for fear of his splendour I could not do such things.

24 ‘If I have put my trust in gold
    or said to pure gold, “You are my security,”
25 if I have rejoiced over my great wealth,
    the fortune my hands had gained,
26 if I have regarded the sun in its radiance
    or the moon moving in splendour,
27 so that my heart was secretly enticed
    and my hand offered them a kiss of homage,
28 then these also would be sins to be judged,
    for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.

29 ‘If I have rejoiced at my enemy’s misfortune
    or gloated over the trouble that came to him –
30 I have not allowed my mouth to sin
    by invoking a curse against their life –
31 if those of my household have never said,
    “Who has not been filled with Job’s meat?”–
32 but no stranger had to spend the night in the street,
    for my door was always open to the traveller –
33 if I have concealed my sin as people do,
    by hiding my guilt in my heart
34 because I so feared the crowd
    and so dreaded the contempt of the clans
    that I kept silent and would not go outside –

35 (‘Oh, that I had someone to hear me!
    I sign now my defence – let the Almighty answer me;
    let my accuser put his indictment in writing.
36 Surely I would wear it on my shoulder,
    I would put it on like a crown.
37 I would give him an account of my every step;
    I would present it to him as to a ruler.) –

38 ‘if my land cries out against me
    and all its furrows are wet with tears,
39 if I have devoured its yield without payment
    or broken the spirit of its tenants,
40 then let briers come up instead of wheat
    and stinkweed instead of barley.’

A. Find Out

1. What other potential sin does Job now deny? v.16-18
2. How does he expand on that one? v.19-23
3. What is the next thing he denies? v.24-28
4. Who, next, does he deny he has wronged? v.29-34
5. What is his final plea? v.35-37
6. What final group does he deny wronging? v.38-40

B. Think:

1. List the people in this chapter Job denies wronging.
2. What point is he trying to make overall, do you think?

C. Comment:

Job continues in the rest of this chapter in covering other things that he denies he has done in his appeal for his righteousness. He hasn’t ignored the poor or widows (v.16) or orphans (v.17,21) or the needy without clothing (v.19,20). Moreover he hadn’t put his trust in his gold or his wealth generally (v.24,25) and he hadn’t fallen to the superstitious worship of the sun or moon (v.26,27). He hadn’t looked down on his enemies (v.29) and he hadn’t ignored any stranger who had come to his door in need (v.31,32) and he hadn’t mistreated his tenants (v.38,39). In all these things Job gives us a good list to act as a primer for considering social justice, but he does it to deny he has sinned. He cannot think of any area where he had not sought to act righteously.

In this latter part of the chapter, he does not think about consequences in the way we said in the earlier part of the chapter. Yes, in the first few he invokes a curse against himself of his arm falling off (v.22) if what he says is not true. If he had worshipped idols then he would be judged (v.28) and if he failed his tenants then he wishes failure on himself (v.40), but the main focus was on the sins themselves and not on what consequence would have been.

Near the end he pleads again for someone to listen to him, someone to take note of his defence, and even to clarify the claims against him (v.35). He would answer such claims, but they don’t come.

D. Application:

1. Can we speak so clearly as Job about our own failure to sin????
2. Can we be so sure that we have a clear conscience?