Job Didn’t Trust in False Gods
Well Job goes on and proclaims his innocence in yet another area of his life, let’s read Job 31:24-28: “If I have put my trust in gold or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’ if I have rejoiced over my great wealth, the fortune my hands had gained, if I have regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor, so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand offered them a kiss of homage, then these also would be sins to be judged, for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.”
Job was saying that he had placed all his trust in God, not in his money, and not in other false gods like the sun or moon or anything life that. His homage, his loyalty, was to God on high – nobody else.
True Spiritual Allegiance
In Western culture, it’s less common for people to worship the sun and moon and false gods of those kinds. But perhaps it’s not as uncommon as we think. There are a lot of weird religious and spiritual practices out there. People will search for just about any sort of spiritual experience that doesn’t require repentance and faith! And so sadly we are seeing more and more people leave Christianity and still call themselves “spiritual”, because they embrace some other sort of spiritual practice.
Job didn’t do this. He called this a sin “to be judged”. Friends, be careful of what other spiritualities you look into. Don’t be fooled by clever, enticing sounding practices that leave Jesus out, or treat Him as anything less than the King of kings and the Son of God. Paul often warned the people of his day about such things, and the warning goes right back to Job, as we see today.
And in addition to this, Job was clear that he hadn’t trusted in his gold or rejoiced in his great wealth. Now, in the Western world, this is a little more prevalent. It’s common for people to make wealth their one priority in life.
Prioritize True Devotion
Now, I want to point out that Job was a very wealthy man. His trust wasn’t in his wealth, but he was wealthy. It’s ok to have a lot of money. It’s ok to build a life where you wisely invest money, and make more money to help your family and set up future generations in your family and do great things in the world. The problems comes in when you rejoice over your great wealth as Job said in v25, or consider wealth your greatest security as he said in v24. This is idolatry, in the same way as worshipping the sun and moon is idolatry.
What takes highest priority in your life? What is of greatest importance? Amassing wealth? Having a spiritual experience where Christ isn’t at the centre? Friends, I implore you. Turn from these things. Come back to Jesus and consider Him to be your greatest delight and treasure.
Like Job, we can be blameless before our God, if we put our trust in the one true God, rather than in empty spirituality or money.
