Job Didn’t Mistreat People
So Job is busy proclaiming to his friends that it isn’t sin that caused God to punish him. And he goes through this list of things to proclaim his innocence, starting with his sexual purity which we saw yesterday, and then in v13-15 on Job 31 he says: “If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me, what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account? Did not he who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same one form us both within our mothers?” (Job 31:13-15 NIV11)
Radical Equality Proclaimed
It's important for us to know how unusual this type of thinking was for a person in that time. We in the 21st century are mostly quite clear, I think, on the fact that all people are equal. We’ve made wonderful strides in tearing down the dividing walls of racism and sexism and the like. But in Job’s day, this was not the case. Slaves were owned by people, and terribly mistreated by them. But Job comes along and says that he has certainly not denied any of his servants justice – that he has treated them fairly. And then he even says that he and them are equal – that God created both him and them in their mothers’ wombs, and so he has no right to consider himself superior to them.
This was radical stuff in Job’s day. He didn’t mistreat people even when he probably had the right to in the land he was living in. I wonder if we can say the same today? If we are blameless in our treatment of people? Or if we have denied them justice or seen ourselves as superior to them.
Here in South Africa we still encounter much racism. We still find a sort of superiority complex among some white folks, who think that theirs is the superior race. Job’s words about God forming each person in their mother’s womb and the equality that that suggests would probably go right over these people’s heads.
I’ve also encountered people – Christians even – who are cruel and mistreat others. They break them down instead of encouraging. They shout and snarl at people. They tease and make fun of people. And again, Job’s words today made me think: Could I say, along with Job, that I have certainly not mistreated anybody?
Justice and Dignity
Remember friends, Jesus calls us to treat others with dignity and respect – even if they are not Christians, and even if they are a different race or social standing to us. Of course, this doesn’t mean we don’t confront evil when it comes our way. But it does mean we don’t see demons under every rock. We see each person as a precious creation of God – whom he also knitted together in their mother’s womb – and who needs redemption in Christ just like us.
Like Job today, let’s think carefully how we treat those who might be below us on the social scale. May God have no reason to accuse us for our conduct towards them going forward.
