A Clear Conscience
OPENING PRAYER:
Blessed Lord Jesus, I look to you today. You are the Beginning and the End; the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Speak Lord, I am listening.
Job’s Final Word to His Friends
27 And Job continued his discourse:
2 “As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice,
the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
3 as long as I have life within me,
the breath of God in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not say anything wicked,
and my tongue will not utter lies.
5 I will never admit you are in the right;
till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6 I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it;
my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
7 “May my enemy be like the wicked,
my adversary like the unjust!
8 For what hope have the godless when they are cut off,
when God takes away their life?
9 Does God listen to their cry
when distress comes upon them?
10 Will they find delight in the Almighty?
Will they call on God at all times?
11 “I will teach you about the power of God;
the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 You have all seen this yourselves.
Why then this meaningless talk?
13 “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked,
the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
14 However many his children, their fate is the sword;
his offspring will never have enough to eat.
15 The plague will bury those who survive him,
and their widows will not weep for them.
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust
and clothes like piles of clay,
17 what he lays up the righteous will wear,
and the innocent will divide his silver.
18 The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon,
like a hut made by a watchman.
19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a tempest snatches him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him off, and he is gone;
it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It hurls itself against him without mercy
as he flees headlong from its power.
23 It claps its hands in derision
and hisses him out of his place.”
Job 27
REFLECT:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind … Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Luke 10:27). How have you obeyed these commandments recently?
How amazing that Job felt able to state, in today’s key verse (v 6), that he was assured of his righteousness before God. As we saw in yesterday’s reading, this was an almost impossible task, but Job – even after all his friends challenging him to examine his heart and life – was confident that his conscience was clear.
I don’t think this was arrogance or self-deception; the whole premise of this book is that God himself declared that Job was ‘blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil’ (1:8).
As we saw yesterday, under the new covenant – the salvation bought for us by Jesus’ blood – we are declared righteous once and for all. All our past, present, and future sins have been washed away. And yet, we are still called to live holy lives (see 1 Peter 1:13-16), to be blameless and upright, to fear God and to shun evil. This is not to earn our salvation, but to reflect it – to be a witness to those around us, and to show the transforming power of God’s Holy Spirit.
APPLY:
Could you say confidently that you are blameless and upright? Ask God to help you see the areas where your life does not reflect the purity you have been given, and continue to transform you from within.
I WILL STATEMENT:
I will confess to someone what I'm leaning on besides Jesus.
CLOSING PRAYER:
I thank you Lord, that I can stand confidently before you; not clothed in my righteousness, but the righteousness of the Lord Jesus.
Syndicated via Scripture Union. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.