Job Didn’t Conceal His Sin
Let’s look at the end of Job’s declaration of innocence here. And it’s a touchy one! Because he says this: “If I have concealed my sin as people do, by hiding my guilt in my heart because I so feared the crowd and so dreaded the contempt of the clans that I kept silent and would not go outside… let my accuser put his indictment in writing. Surely I would wear it on my shoulder, I would put it on like a crown. I would give him an account of my every step; I would present it to him as to a ruler” (Job 31:33-37 NIV11)
So Job is saying that he doesn’t play the hypocrite. He doesn’t hide his sins, concealing them while pretending to be clean in front of the crowds. He says his accusers can write down his sins and he will gladly wear them like a crown – that’s how confident he was that he had nothing to hide.
Confess and Be Freed
First question: are you playing the hypocrite? Pretending to be holy, but actually you have secret sin? Job teaches us that we don’t need to live that way. We can live lives of commitment and blamelessness before God, by His grace and with our faith in His sanctifying power. Maybe you need to examine yourself and take hold of God’s power today, and stop living the hypocrite’s life.
Second question: are you hiding your sins? This is a very human thing to do. Remember when Adam and Eve sinned, and when God came looking for them in the garden they hid away? Remember in the book of Joshua, when God told the Israelites not to take any plunder from the battle they were going into, but a man name Achan did so and then tried to hide it from God and his community? These stories are often very much parallelled in our own lives – we have the tendency to conceal our sins and hide our guilt in our heart, as Job said.
Even David did this. Listen to his famous words in Psalm 32: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:3-5 NIV11)
David said that when he kept his sins hidden, and didn’t acknowledge them, he felt weak and groaned all day long. But when he confessed to God, his found forgiveness.
Freedom Through Confession
So I ask you today my friends: is there unconfessed sin in your life? Is there sin that you are keeping hidden in your heart and not bringing into God’s light?
It is in God’s light, not hidden away in the darkness of the heart, that sin loses its power. For it is in God’s light that sin may be forgiven and our souls be set free from shame and guilt.
I wonder what freedom we might be missing out on, because we are keeping it all in instead of opening up even the darkest parts of ourselves to the loving God. He is willing to forgive, my friends. But if you are playing the hypocrite, pretending all is right when it isn’t, you are fooling yourself.
Don’t conceal your sin. Bring it into the open, for God to forgive you, and free you from your guilt and shame.
