Meditation No. 55

Meditation Title:   I am Righteous!

Job 27:5,6  I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity. I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.

We now come to a long discourse by Job that runs from chapter 26 through to 31. Starting at the beginning of chapter 26, Job chides the friends with cynicism: “How you have helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble!” (26:2) which of course means exactly the opposite – you haven't helped one bit! And when he goes on, “Who has helped you utter these words? And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?” (26:4) it's like we might say, “Wherever did you get all this drivel from? When he continues, “The dead are in deep anguish, those beneath the waters and all that live in them.” (26:5) it's like he is saying, “Well you have really comforted the dead, writing off all of their previous existence by the way you put down their lives!

Look, he says, moving into a longer section that exalts God's greatness, “Death is naked before God.” (26:6) i.e. God sees everything, the dead included. In verses 7 to 13 that follow he extols the Lord who has created all things and is Lord over all. He concludes, “Who then can understand the thunder of his power?” (26:14c) In other words, God is so great you'll never be able to understand it all, so (implied) your attempts to rationalize His activity will fail.

In chapter 27 he maintains his integrity and his righteousness. When he says, “As surely as the Lord lives,” it is like an oath, and he moves in to the strong words we have as our verses today. In this he is quite remarkable. This is the heart of his cries – I am righteous; this is not because of my sin – THAT IS the truth!

Verses 7 to 10 are a call for justice, for God's wrath to come down on those who are against him: “May my enemies be like the wicked, my adversaries like the unjust!” (27:7) Is this a reference to his ‘friends' who have become his adversaries? He wants those who are against him to know the hopelessness that is usually associated with the godless: “For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?” (27:8). He wants them to experience the same awfulness that he has known of crying to God and not being heard: “Does God listen to his cry when distress comes upon him?” (27:9). He wants them to know the experience of almost coming to the point when he virtually gives up even calling out to God: “Will he find delight in the Almighty? Will he call upon God at all times?” (27:10) Within these words there is, indirectly, the reminder of the anguish that he himself has been going through.

Look, he says, you clever people, “I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.” (27:11) You want to know about the reality of all this? I will tell you! “You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?” (27:12) I'm the one who has been going through all this, I'm the one who knows the reality of it, so why have you been uttering meaningless words that don't come from experience (implied)?

The rest of the chapter is given over to his agreement that God does indeed judge the wicked (but that doesn't include him!) He speaks about the wicked and ruthless (v.13) and how their sin will bring judgment down on their families to the next generations (v.14,15). It doesn't matter what the wicked save up, it will be taken away (v.16,17). He may think he is building security in his great house but it will all be taken (v.18,19) All this, his very life, will be snatched away in the twinkling of an eye (v.20-23). Oh yes, Job has orthodox beliefs about what will happen to the wicked, but the only thing is that he is absolutely certain that that doesn't include him. Yes, he subtly agrees that this is all that has happened to him and so (implied) he understands where they are coming from. It is an understandable mistake, because that is how it usually works – the Lord does judge the wicked and take away what they have. Yes, that is a truth, but he has just maintained his crucial belief – I am righteous! This has not happened to me because I have sinned.

Now we may think Job is going over the top in this but he is doing no more than speaking the truth. We know from the Lord's earlier description of him - blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil (1:8 & 2:3) – that he had NOT sinned. This test was not about his sin. It was all about whether he would remain faithful to God in the face of all that Satan could throw at him this side of death. There is a strong lesson here about not letting the enemy dump guilt upon you when you are not guilty! Don't let him do it!