Job 31

Quest. But what is it to have other gods besides the true God? I fear upon search we have more idolaters among us than we are aware of. Resp. To trust in any thing more than God, is to make it a God. 1. If we trust in our riches, then we make riches our God: we may take comfort,…

A thief may be let into the house at a window: So vain thoughts are let in at the eye. So that as we are bid to keep our feet when we enter into the house of God (Ecclesiastes 5:1), so we had need make a covenant with our eyes when we are in the house of God (Job 31:1), that we…

This Commandment is set as a hedge to keep out uncleanness, and they that break this hedge, a serpent shall bite them. Job calls adultery a heinous crime (Job 31:11). Every failing is not a crime, and every crime is not a heinous crime, but adultery is Flagitium, a heinous crime.

I will stand upon my watch. (1.) We must watch our eyes (Job 31:1). I made a covenant with my eyes.

When we accuse ourselves, God absolves us. We are apt to hide our sins (Job 31:33), which is as great a folly as for one to hide his disease from the physician: but when we open our sins to God by confessing, he opens his mercy to us by forgiving. 4. Means, for pardon, sound rep…

But principally it regards his mission by Christ after his ascension into Heaven (Acts 2:33): Being exalted and having received the promise of the Father, he sent the Spirit. The promise of him was, that he should be sent from Heaven, or from above, as God is said to be above, w…

Now when men trust any creature rather than God, their estates rather than God, they rob him of his peculiar honor. That there is such a sin, appears by that (Job 31:34), If I had made gold my hope, or said to the fine gold you are my confidence: if I rejoiced because my wealth…

4. It includes the imposing of strong engagements and bonds upon ourselves to walk more carefully with God, and avoid the occasions by which the heart may be induced to sin. Well-composed, advised, and deliberate vows are in some cases of excellent use to guard the heart against…

1 Timothy 5:10: If she have brought up her children well: if she have been given to hospitality. Job 31:31: If the men of my tent have not said: O that some would give us of this flesh, we are not satisfied, because the stranger did not lodge abroad; I opened my doors to the way…

(5) From the positive marks that Christ puts on his children as marks of true blessedness (Matthew 5:3-11; Psalm 119:1-2; Psalm 32:1-2). (6) From the judgment that the saints make of themselves, and their own begun communion with God (Psalm 73:25; Psalm 18:20-22; Psalm 26:3-4, 8…

2. Mortification is a deadness in will and affections, and the abating, half death, the languor and dying of the power of our lusts to sin; as a believer is dead to vainglory, when contentedly he can be despised, have his name trampled on, be called a Deceiver, a Samaritan, and…

Rich men (says Paul) must not be high-minded (1 Timothy 6:17). Job would not despise the cause of his handmaid (Job 31:13). Naaman a great man, respected the counsel of his servants (2 Kings 5:13).

What fruit (says the Apostle) had ye in those things, whereof you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death, Romans 6:21 Doth not the Providence of God verifie upon them those threatnings that are written, in the experience of all ages? Proverbs 23:29 Proverbs 23:21…

The like description you have of God's presence (Psalms 18:11, 12): he made darkness his secret place, and brightness was before him. As the light, the sun, the fountain and cause of it: called light (Job 31:26). Now this glorious appearance holds out the kingly power and majest…

Further, evil is put here indefinitely, he was one that eschewed evil, not this or that evil, but evil, that is all evil, this indefinite is universal. And then further we are to take evil here, as himself afterward expounds it in his practice, not only for the acts of evil, but…

(Judges 2:12, 17, etc.) Kissing the hand to them in token of reverence. (Job 31:26, 27) If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart has been secretly enticed; or my mouth has kissed my hand: This also were an iniquity to be punished by the…

And Job calls it a heinous crime; indeed, an iniquity to be punished by the judges. A fire that consumes to destruction (Job 31:11-12). But although they may escape the judgment of men, either through the secrecy of their wickedness, or the too gentle censures of the law; yet th…

Doth not he see my ways and count all my steps? Job 31:4. Propè Deus est, tecum est, intus est.

The world is no friend to grace: it chokes our love to heavenly things: the earth puts out the fire. Naturally we love the world (Job 31:24). If I have made gold my hope; the Septuagint renders it, If I have been married to my gold.

How would it put us upon pondering our way, and living by rule, and make us afraid of rash and precipitant rushing into any action? I am sure that Job tells us that he was awed by such a thought as this, and upon it to look well to himself, lest at any time he should expose hims…

Temptations, signs and wonders do nothing at all to bring down the heart (Deuteronomy 29:3). Keep your heart in some softness and tenderness, and then shall it receive smitings from God; for the very renting of the lap of the garment of an enemy, the not despising of the cause o…

And not only say, I dare not do it, but you should say, I dare not so much as think it: for he beholds the thoughts. You shall see an excellent place for this, if you compare Job 31:1 and 31:4 together, it is one continued speech. I have made a covenant with my eyes: why then sh…

When Job had any quarrel with his servants, he was willing to admit a rational debate of the matter, and to hear what they had to say for themselves: For (says he) what shall I do when God rises up? And withal, did not he that made me in the womb, make him? (Job 31:13-15). When…

They are careless in their observance, and perhaps willful in their offense, and am not I so to God? Indeed, am not I a thousand times worse? Job qualified himself with this, when his servants were provoking, and he was tempted to be harsh with them, what then shall I do, when G…

In most other sins the body is but the Instrument, here it is the Object against which the sin is committed; that body of your, which should be the Temple of the holy Ghost, is turned into a stye of filthiness; indeed, it not only defiles, but destroys it. Job calls it a fire th…

You think they are past, and never more to be remembered; but they will find you out in this world, or the next: our business lies not with man so much as with God. Therefore this should be the question of your souls (Job 31:14): What then shall I do, when God rises up? and when…

Matthew 5:16: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. As the loins of the poor (says Job) blessed him (Job 31:20), namely, as they were fed and clothed by his bounty: So our lives may glorify God. David s…

He who is under the eye of his earthly Prince, will be careful of doing any thing that should offend him. Job 31:4. Does not he see my ways, and count all my Steps?

Guilt is shy of God's presence, and sin works a strangeness. Adam hid himself when God came into the garden; and when he could shift no longer, he will not declare it, but transfers the fault upon Eve, and obliquely upon God himself; and ever since there are many tergiversations…

(Numbers 15:39) That you seek not after your own heart, and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring. (Job 31:7) If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes. These are the spies of the heart, brokers to bring it and the temptation together;…

So the Pharisees hated Christ, because of his free reproofs (John 9:40): "Are we blind also?" They cannot endure to hear of their faults, especially from one in an inferior condition, and think every reproof to be a reproach, though never so wisely and compassionately managed, a…

Another instance of him there is in relation to his brothers; how ill they had deserved at his hands, what opportunity he had to be revenged, is well known, yet he generously forgave them, and provided for them; and this was the reason, I, says he, fear God (Genesis 42:18). Job…

1. That sinful thoughts do defile a man, though they never come to words or deeds, be never uttered, never practiced: (Matthew 15:19-20) out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, etc., and these defile the man; not only murder and adultery, but the thoughts of…

No sooner does a sinful eye behold any thing which is vain, but the corrupt heart is stirred up to lust after it. Holy Job made a covenant with his eyes, and he would not suffer his heart to walk after his eyes (Job 31:1, 7). But the heart of an unregenerate unholy man does walk…

They readily read wrath and indignation in them: hence the Psalmist complains how heavily his wrath lay upon him, in these dispensations (Psalms 88:7, 16) your wrath lies heavy upon me, your fierce wrath goes over me. Hence proportionably to their apprehension of this wrath, mus…

3. This omniscience of God must needs comprise in it a distinct knowledge of all creatures in particular, and all their action. Universal understanding cannot be confined merely to universals or to generals, but it must reach to individuals; and that not merely as to their being…

Doctrine: it must be a Christian's great care with all keeping to keep his heart. We are to keep our eyes — Job set a watch there (Job 31:1): I made a covenant with my eyes. We are to keep our lips — David bridled his tongue (Psalm 39:1): I will keep my mouth as with a bridle.

Now of Abraham and Jacob's commanding their children, servants, and all that were with them to keep the way of the Lord, I have spoken of in the tenth Thesis. And that in Job's time, and that out of the land of Canaan in the land of Uz (no typical land) idolatry and false worshi…

Fourthly, before these laws in Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 17 for punishing Idolaters were given by Moses, yes before Moses' time, or any Commonwealth among the Jews was erected, in other countries remote from the Land of Canaan, idolatry in worshipping creatures deserved pun…

Is not destruction to the wicked, and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Job 31:3. Sodom sinned after a new mode, and God destroys them after a new way, sends hell from above upon them.

And for your eye, let it not wander, wanton objects cause wanton thoughts. Job knew his eye and his thoughts were like to go together, and therefore to secure one, he covenants with the other, Job 31, 1. Thirdly, often reflect upon your self in a day, and observe what company is…

Paul (Acts 20:33) says not I have sought neither silver nor gold, as the godly judge, Whose ox have I taken (1 Samuel 12:3), but I have coveted no man's silver or gold, or apparel: The life of lust to riches is in the trusting in it. Job 31:24: If I have made gold my hope, or ha…

Those who have judged themselves in the lower Court of Conscience, shall be acquitted in the High Court of Heaven: but if we repent not, our sins must be accounted all for at the last day; and we must answer for them in our own persons, and have no counsel allowed to plead for u…

Hence it was that Job freed himself, not only from the grosser idolatry, but even from the least show of it, in outward fashions; not only from worshipping the sun and moon, but even from his hands kissing of his mouth, a gesture only of adoring. And because herein our hearts no…

It says with Paul, I pass not for man's judgment (1 Corinthians 4:3). Though my adversary should write a book against me, would I not take it upon my shoulder and bind it as a crown to me? says Job (Job 31:35-39). Indeed further says that holy man, I will tell him the number of…

1. For confession, it cannot be denied, but that it is a worthy service of a repenting sinner, or else God would never have promised so great a reward to it: if we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive (1 John 1:9). Job in the large catalogue of his good works, with which h…

Faithful: No, not to defile myself; for I remembered an old writing that I had seen, which said, “Her steps take hold on Hell” (Proverbs 5:5). So I shut my eyes, because I would not be bewitched with her looks (Job 31:1). Then she railed on me, and I went my way.

First, our own things (Luke 11:41; 12:33; 2 Corinthians 8:11). We must not enable ourselves to do good by doing evil first — God hates robbery for a burnt offering; we must warm the poor with the fleece of our own sheep (Job 31:20). Ill-gotten goods are matter of restitution, ra…

God has set a grate at every man's breast, does not he see all my ways? Job 31:4. If I harbor proud, malicious thoughts, if I look at my own interest more than Christ's, if I juggle in my repentance, the God of heaven takes notice.

Know that he will bring every secret thing into judgment. Thus did Job, and it preserved him (Job 31:1, 4). Thus did David, and it preserved him (Psalm 18:21-23).