Do you have a covenant with your eyes? Job 31

Job 31:1 (NASBStr)

 “I have made a covenant with my eyes;

How then could I gaze at a virgin?

The word in the above verse, covenant, is used almost 300 times in the Old Testament.   It is first used by God when He established a covenant with Noah after the flood.   In that covenant God told Noah He would never again destroy the world with a flood.   The word conjures up an agreement between two or more parties that cannot be broken.   It is sometimes translated "league."   When the men of Gibeon heard about the power of Israel as they came out of Egypt they made themselves look like they had traveled miles and asked Joshua to forma a "league" with them.   After Joshua agreed and subsequently discovered their deception he still keep the "agreement."   That is because a "berit" is a "berit" (the Hebrew word for covenant),   In this section of Job the suffering man is trying to justify himself one last time.   He is telling his friends of all the ways he DID NOT sin (remember, even God tells us that he was an upright man who shunned evil ... Job 1:8).   One of the reasons such a claim could be made, Job begins to argue, is because he had previously made a "berit" with his eyes.   This league or covenant was like any other covenant.   Treating his eyes as though they were another party in his life, Job makes an agreement with his eyes that he would not look upon a maid to lust after her.  In so doing Job did what the Pharisees never could: He internalized the Law.   Jesus told us that whoever looks on a women to lust has already committed adultery.   David started his adultery with a look.   Job knew that a look was all that was needed.   Therefore, like making an agreement with a trusted friend he and his eyes struck up a berit.   Most men would never have a physical adulterous affair but would do so hundreds of times throughout the day with most of the women they see.   It is, however, first and foremost a sin of the heart.   But, the heart is often lead into sin by the members of the body (eyes, ears, tongue, etc).   Paul told us to no longer allow our "members" to be used by sin but to yield them to become instruments of righteousness.  Paul might have been reading this passage when he wrote those words in Romans 6.   Job is saying, in his covenant, that he no longer wants his members (in this case, his eyes) to yield to the impulses of the heart and he no longer wants his heart to convert the visions of the eye into lustful sin.   So, that was the covenant.   In a typical covenant both parities have an obligation.   In this case Job was saying his heart would not take the simply act of seeing and convert it to sin.   He would not allow the eyes, however, to take looks it should not take.   That was the covenant.   It was between the eyes, the heart, the will and the mind.