“If I have walked with falsehood
and my foot has hastened to deceit;
(Let me be weighed in a just balance,
and let God know my integrity!)
In chapter 31 Job uses over 15 conditional statements (beginning with the word if in our English Bibles) to defend his innocence. He is still in a debate with this three friends. However, they are no longer speaking. It is now Job finishing up his last comments. In the following chapters we will hear from Job’s fourth friend (Elihu) and then from God to close out the book. In the above if clause we read that Job is claiming purity in his business practices. He is saying he is willing to stand before God and allow God to weigh him on God’s scales. The word picture we have in this portion is reminiscent of the business scales in Job’s day. Those in the market place would need to have their scales validated. Someone would come into the market place and make sure the scales were accurate. False scales are for the wicked. Solomon gave us some insight into this world in these three proverbs:
Proverbs 20:23 (ESV)
Unequal weights are an abomination to the LORD,
and false scales are not good.
Proverbs 11:1 (ESV)
A false balance is an abomination to the LORD,
but a just weight is his delight.
Proverbs 16:11 (ESV)
A just balance and scales are the LORD’S;
all the weights in the bag are his work.
What Job is saying is that he is okay being weighed in the balance of God’s testing. He believes his innocence is validated and is not afraid to be measured. This might be what Paul is talking about in this passage he wrote to the churches at Corinth and in Galatia:
2 Corinthians 13:5 (ESV)
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Galatians 6:4 (ESV)
But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
We ought to desire to be examined by God and to examine ourselves. Job, in the midst of his suffering, takes stock and looks within to see if there was anything in his walk with God that would be the reason for this calamity. There is not, but it does not stop Job from taking a look in and inviting God to examine him.
Lamentations 3:37-39
Who has spoken and it came to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that good and bad come?
Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?
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