Integrity has Great Value

 Job 31

 

Job understood that when a man lost his integrity it was almost impossible to regain it.  I’m always gun-shy of the businessman who has to declare that he is honest and full of integrity, for many of them have proved to be outright crooks.  I’ve been privileged to have friends that are men of integrity, but not one of them has ever put it on a business card or told me they are, I watch how they live and how they deal with others.  Job’s friends I believe were just managing themselves, if they had been Job they might have done what they were accusing him of.

 

Job 31:1 – 8, “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?
 What would be my portion from God above and my heritage from the Almighty on high?   Is not calamity for the unrighteous, and disaster for the workers of iniquity?
 Does not he see my ways and number all my steps?  “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!   if my step has turned aside from the way and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has stuck to my hands, then let me sow, and another eat,
 and let what grows for me be rooted out.”

 

This is the predicament Job is in, he is the only one, other than God, who knows he is a man of the highest integrity, and yet to this point God is silent.   For the rest of the chapter, he recalls all the areas he has not sinned in, such as a lust for his neighbor's wife, and more so anything of his neighbors.  He goes on to tell us how he has acted on any of the complaints of his servants and he goes on to explain something each of us needs to remember, that all of us were formed in the womb by God.

 

Job goes on to tell how he has ministered to the widow, the fatherless and the poor, and you and I would be wise to do so for they are dear to God the Father.  He goes on to talk about not putting his trust in gold nor wealth, but only in God.  Job goes on to state he has never put trust in anything but God, and if he had he should get worse treatment than he has received.  Job goes on to state that he did not rejoice when his enemy was brought low, and that is all that came to his table had all they needed to eat.  In fact, he goes on to say no stranger has had to sleep on the street, for they have been given a bed in his home for the night.

 

Now he asks, will anyone hear my case?  He asks, will the Almighty answer me?  Job is bold but ignorant of God and His ways, and said, I will tell Him all my steps as if God has not seen them, each and every one.

 

From the Back Porch,

 

Bob Rice