Job Didn’t Lust
I want to take us to the fascinating book of Job this week. It’s one of the most intriguing books in the Bible. Some believe that Job wasn’t a real person, but that the book is just a fable. I believe he was a real man, and that his story is one in which we primarily learn that we cannot blame all of life’s difficulties on sin.
One of the things we see in this book is that Job’s friends keep saying to him you must have sinned in some way to cause your troubles. You must have done something to offend God, and this is why you have been dealt this horrible blow in your life. You see, Job had lost everything – his family, his business, his wealth, his health. And for his friends, they thought this was clearly divine punishment.
Covenant of Purity
But throughout the book Job proclaims his own blamelessness. I think this is fascinating. We are always telling each other to be humble, as we should. But in Job I see someone who humbly proclaims his innocence before God. He was so sure that he had kept himself from wilfull sin, and I wonder how many of us can say the same thing? Or have we been taught to always just proclaim ourselves to be sinners, sinners, sinners?
So let’s go to Job 31 so I can show you what I mean. In the first verse Job says “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman”. And a bit later, in verses 9-11, he says “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her. For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged.”(Job 31:9-11 NIV11)
So here he is, proclaiming his innocence in the area of lust. Today’s world is a lustful world. We used to be a culture that valued marriage between one man and one woman. But now we live in a culture that encourages people to get into sexual relationships and experiment. We live in a world where pornography is so easily obtained and thought of as normal, and where sexual preferences are seen to be the primary identity a person can take.
In today’s world a person saying “I have made a covenant, a promise, to not look at another person with lust” would be laughed at, ridiculed. But Job here shows us not only that this is the way God wants us to live – but also that it is possible to live this way. To discipline yourself to stay pure, to stay holy, to honour God with your sexuality.
Promise of Purity
Now let me remind you that being attracted to somebody is not lust. It’s not sin to recognize that somebody is attractive. It’s when you start to imagine or desire something sexual that you’ve crossed over into lust.
Do you struggle with this? With sexual desires that are clearly not God-honouring? Is it time for you to do what Job did, and make a promise not to look lustfully? And remember, Jesus even said that if you look at someone with lust you have already committed adultery with them in your heart. That’s a high standard, but it is the Christian standard.
I believe that a life filled with the Holy Spirit and guided by His power can be a life that is free from sexual sin, and truly pure to the glory of God. I pray that you will make a covenant today not to lust, and that you will then live a life so closely aligned to God’s Spirit, that like Job, you can honestly proclaim your innocence in this area, by God’s grace.
