By the time we meet Job in chapter 7, he is a man wallowing in the depths of despair – for good reason. He has lost his most precious possessions – all the way from his wife, to his goats and everything in between. And now his four so-called “friends” are accusing him of hidden rebellion against God. They’re saying that he must be an hypocrite, “because bad things don’t befall good people.” But the Bible calls Job a “perfect” man. He is not perfect sinlessly, because there isn’t anyone like that, but comparatively so. Put Job beside one hundred other good men, and he wold be head and shoulders above them all. Job 1:1 says that this man “feared God and eschewed evil.” This means that he loved and honoured Jehovah, doing everything that he could to please Him. Job apparently had a hatred for sin which was unsurpassed by any other character in the Bible but Christ. Some Christians might have come close to his man’s godly character, but none surpassed him. Eliphas, Bildad, and Zophar accused Job of hidden sin, but he demanded that they prove it. That demand was not so much for his testimony, as it was for his own information. “Show to me where I should be ashamed.” But there were no witnesses that they could call against this poor, suffering man. And yet, before God Job was a sinner like the rest of us – just as Hell-deserving as the rest of us. The book of Job shows us that the highest men fall infinitely short of the glory of the Lord.
In this verse we have Job’s confession of sin. We note that it is basically a Christian’s confession of sin. It is a “perfect man’s” confession of sin. And if these words could come from such lips as Job’s, there must be lessons here for us.
Notice first of all to whom the confession was spoken.
It was not to a local parish priest, or to Moses, or to his friends. This confession wasn’t made to a psychiatrist or even to the man’s wife. It was confession unto to the God of Heaven; the preserver of man, the sustainer of all.
But this title for the Lord is strange under the circumstances. Job was wanting to die and to end all his suffering, yet he called God “The Preserver of men.” Ordinarily, while under judgment and in our day of trials, we call God by one of His more austere titles. In those days we might refer to Him as “Almighty” or the “Judge of Heaven and Earth,” or “Elohim.” When His chastening rod is laid across our backs, we don’t usually call Him “Our Heavenly Father.”
Here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Job uttered “words hard to understand.” That this is the work and nature of God are things that we cannot deny. Just as this world was created by the Lord, it is maintained by the Lord’s power as well. The only reason that our world exists today is because God continues its existence. He is the Preserver of all things as well as all men. This means that when we sin we are treading on extremely dangerous ground.
Oh, how long-suffering our God is. “Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone; thou has made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the sea, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and a host of heaven worship at thee” – Nehemiah 9:6. “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.” If the Lord would turn His back upon us in our sinfulness it would mean our immediate destruction.
Perhaps you wouldn’t guess it right away, but the word “Preserver” is rather interesting The Hebrew word is translated “keeper” 38 times, and “preserver” 13 times. But hidden inside the root of that word, is the obvious fact that the Lord is watching as well. And so we aren’t surprised to find this word also translated “observer.” The Lord is our Preserver and Keeper because He is constantly observing us. And as He watches us, He has more reason to destroy us than to preserve us. What Job is saying is that the God Who meets our need is infinitely aware of our case – all of it. When the doors are shut and no one sees us, the Lord stands at our side. Before we can sin with our lips, the Lord is aware of our unspoken blasphemy. Before we can sin with our hands, we must slap the face of the Lord. That is how intimately acquainted the Lord is with our hearts.
This is the God to Whom we must confess our sinfulness. Confession must be made to the Being we have first offended – Jehovah. And it is this nature of God that prompted Job’s words from the ash pile. We must remember the Job is our God in exactly the same way.
Then we have the confession itself, which is quite a revealing.
It’s very brief, but at the same time very full. It is succinct, but pregnant. In fact, it contains more than if Job listed a great number of sins. Because we cannot name all the sins that we have ever committed. It might be possible for us to list all the willful sins of the last 24 hours. But to confess with accuracy all the neglectful sins of the last day it is very unlikely. And the sins of our ignorance it would be impossible to list, because we are ignorant of them. Faithlessness of sin; unthinkingness is sin; certain kinds of ignorance are sin; unthankfulness is sin. When the Bible tells us to confess our sins it is impossible unless it is done daily under the direction of the Holy Spirit. If our salvation was tied to our confession of sin, no one would ever be saved. Sometimes the very best that we can do is cry out with a broken heart, “Lord I have sinned.”
But if the heart is not there, then the words are nothing more than hypocrisy – they are Judas-like. Anyone can utter the words, “I have sinned.” Pharoah did that, and so did King Saul and Balaam and Ahab. But God, of course, sees through the words into the inner reaches of the heart.
Nothing has ever been uttered more truly than the words of Job on that dark day. But remember who it was that was speaking – one of the world’s best residents. No matter who the person is – under the light of God we are sinners. Job said, “Mine eye hath seen thee, O God, now I repent in dust and ashes.” The light of God shown roundabout Isaiah and he said, “Woe is me, I am undone.” Daniel and John were as dead men before the Lord. But how do we respond? Usually, by pointing to someone else and saying, “But I’m not as bad as he is.” “I’m a Christian, so that’s different. These words don’t really apply to me” Only if you don’t sin you really are different.
Job’s was a very brief confession and a personal confession. Have you ever met a Christian with the paralysis of the first finger — the pointy finger? There is a requirement for finger pointers and that the complete freedom from sin – John 8. Job’s was a personal confession of his own sinfulness. “I confess that he did it” is not confession. Job confessed his own sin, he didn’t accuse and he didn’t compare. While his friends were accusing him, he defended himself, but didn’t accuse them.
This confession was to the Lord as I already pointed out. To his so-called “comforters” he said, “I am okay!” But it’s altogether different matter when under the conviction of God. Real confession comes from the heart, comes from conviction and then goes to the Lord.
One more thing we see in this confession is that it was sincere. This was no idle talk, it was the cry of the man’s heart. When as a child my family attended church, it was with a Prayer Book in our hands. That book that told us everything, when to stand, when to kneel, and even what to pray. But all we have to do is read the context here to see that Job needed no Prayer Book. This is what sin ought to do, to crush us and turn us to God
But confession is not enough. The person may confess his sins, beat his body, and cry until he is blue in the face and black and blue on his back. There have been many groups of men that have made a science out of exactly this sort of thing. But there’s more.
Job’s confession was not complete until an inquiry was made.
He was willing to do whatever God wanted him to do, and he told Him so. It was an unconditional surrender, trusting the clemency of God. Oh, how some people have mis-taught the subject of salvation from sins. So many people have the idea that we can demand forgiveness of sin from the Lord. That’s not how things stand. The peace of God follows something like “What must I do to be saved?” “I see my need; I’m hopeless and if God will tell me what to do, I’ll do it.” How many truly sincere people are there in Catholicism, in Russellism and Mormonism? How sad it is that they can’t see that Jesus has done it all for them.
Some people cry “I have sinned,” but then never ask the next question – “What must I do to be saved?” These people are opening the wound but not putting in the medicine. Others cry I have sinned and then take their own mud and rub it into the wound.
Job made an unconditional surrender to the Lord. That is the only way to really approach an holy God. And this is true no matter how perfect you may think that you are. This is the way to come to God as lost men and as Christians.
This is the way we should be. This is the kind of thankful love that we should have.