“If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,
or exulted when evil overtook him
(I have not let my mouth sin
by asking for his life with a curse),
Chapter 31 is the end of Job’s complaint toward his friends and his God. He is wrapping up his frustration with a series of if-this-than-that statements. He is not claiming he did any of these if-this things, however. He is making the point that he could see all this calamity being poured out upon him if these things were true. But they are not. In the above if-this statement he is speaking about rejoicing over the failures and calamity of the one who is your enemy. Rejoicing when your enemy falls is a typical human being thing. We rejoice when our arch enemy loses in sport. We rejoice when the other political party stumbles. We rejoice when the person who got the job we wanted, fails. Job is saying, “I didn’t do that.”
Solomon said the same thing, this way:
Proverbs 24:17-18 (ESV)
Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,
lest the LORD see it and be displeased,
and turn away his anger from him.
Proverbs 17:5 (ESV)
Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker;
he who is glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
Job is defending himself against his accusers. He is offering to God his complaint. He is stating his case that he did not do something to deserve all this pain and suffering. We know, from reading chapters one and two, that his complaint is legitimate. However, it is not the point at this point, as we will read when we see God’s response to his complaint. The point of the above passage is to make sure we are not doing something like this to cause God’s discipline to come upon us. We are to treat others as we wish to be treated.
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