Job 27--Job Continues: I Will Maintain My Integrity

Job Continues: I Will Maintain My Integrity
27 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

2 “As God lives, who has taken away my right,
    and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter,
3 as long as my breath is in me,
    and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,
4 my lips will not speak falsehood,
    and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me to say that you are right;
    till I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
6 I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go;
    my heart does not reproach me for any of my days.

7 “Let my enemy be as the wicked,
    and let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off,
    when God takes away his life?
9 Will God hear his cry
    when distress comes upon him?
10 Will he take delight in the Almighty?
    Will he call upon God at all times?
11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God;
    what is with the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves;
    why then have you become altogether vain?

​13 “This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
    and the heritage that oppressors receive from the Almighty:
14 If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword,
    and his descendants have not enough bread.
15 Those who survive him the pestilence buries,
    and his widows do not weep.
16 Though he heap up silver like dust,
    and pile up clothing like clay,
17 he may pile it up, but the righteous will wear it,
    and the innocent will divide the silver.
18 He builds his house like a moth's,
    like a booth that a watchman makes.
19 He goes to bed rich, but will do so no more;
    he opens his eyes, and his wealth is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood;
    in the night a whirlwind carries him off.
21 The east wind lifts him up and he is gone;
    it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It hurls at him without pity;
    he flees from its power in headlong flight.
23 It claps its hands at him
    and hisses at him from its place.

---

Job is going to finish his response to Bildad by countering his "Man Cannot Be Righteous" argument with "I Will Maintain My Integrity."  Job argues that his integrity is something he is sure of and that no one can take away from him, and that it gives him the right to speak to God as he has.  He also says that as long as God gives him life that he swears he will never lie or utter deceit (which is partially what his friends have accused him of--at least lying to himself if he isn't intentionally lying to others as well).

Job clings to righteousness and integrity because he says that they are his assurance that God will hear him, even in death, but that the wicked, evil, unrighteous man should expect to be "cut off" (killed) by God and for God not to hear such a man in death.  Job asks if such a man will even call out to God in death if he has rebelled against God his entire life?  If he does, it will not be in a way that God will hear him (See Luke 16:19-31).  Also see Isaiah 59:2 and 1 John 3:21 as cross-references for what Job is arguing here--first that God does not hear the cries of those who are in sin and next that those who have integrity have the assurance and certainty that God will hear them.

​Job then says that he understands that the wicked pass on a generational curse--not so much because of their own sin, but because their children will become just like their parents and will do the same wicked things or worse and follow in their footsteps.  We see this from the very beginning with Cain and Lamech (see Genesis 4:23-24).  We also see how quickly things went downhill for the descendants of Ham and Canaan after the Flood--from this family we see most all of the enemies of Israel come forth--the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, and the Egyptians (who were on-again, off-again enemies and allies of Israel).  Such a man does not leave an inheritance for his children, or if he does, they squander it or the LORD uses circumstances to take their wealth away--therefore Job sees the sons and daughters of evil men as those who need to beg for their daily bread.  This is God's grace trying to make them depend on Him once again, but this usually ends in the evil sons and daughters cursing God all the more.

God will also use natural disasters (pestilence) to judge the wicked and their descendants.  This is not to say that every natural disaster is a plague and judgment, but it's also not to say that we should look at natural disasters, shrug, and have a "stuff happens" attitude and forget that God could be doing something intentionally to accomplish His will and purposes--in fact, the older I get, the more convinced I am that natural disasters are not as haphazard as we imagine them to be, because I believe more deeply in the sovereignty of God the deeper that my relationship grows with Him.  Even though God has made Satan the prince and power of the air and the prince of darkness and the god of this word and god of this age, He has never made Satan king of creation and He allows everything to happen--even the whirlwind that destroyed the house of Job's children and took their lives.  We see in the last chapter that Job says that the very breath of God can stop the storms and the evil forces that are sometimes at work that manifest in in the natural world.  Nowhere is this more clear than in Revelation 1:16, 2:16, 19:15 and 19:21 where we see that the sword that that will destroy the enemies of God comes from the mouth of Christ--it is the "breath" and Word of God.  At His word the storm is immediately calmed and He is called "The Word of God." (See John 1).  He is the one who spoke all things into existence (see Colossians 1) and at His word heaven and earth will pass away in a fiery so hot that the elements will melt with fervent heat (2 Peter 3:12).  You can't tell me that somehow God has lost control because of sin--God is still sovereign and in control of all things.  Does that challenge our sensibilities and theology when it comes to death and destruction?  Sure it does!  However, we can not try to reinvent a God that we are willing to believe in who would never do the things that we find offensive--such as letting children die or letting cancer exist, or letting hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and tsunamis destroy entire towns, or a God that uses evil kings and emperors and their wars to accomplish His will.  God is the one who has written the sheet music and is conducting the orchestra of all creation and it is the both the consonance and dissonance that are beautiful and bring glory and honor to Him.  We cannot only want to accept the "good" things from God and not accept the "bad" things as well--that's one of the main things that Job tries to teach his friends in this book.

Let me get back to today's text though.  The wicked man puts his trust in his stuff and his wealth that God causes to decay and be broken before him so that the man will realize that he has put his faith and trust in something that is unable to save him and that he needs to turn to the only One who can change him from the inside out and make him fit for eternal life in heaven.  Many things haunt the evil man in his sleep--both the evil that he's done to others that he knows will come back to him and the fear that God will punish him in the here and now and in the life to come.  His soul is never at peace and he is always anxious--I believe the rampant wickedness of men and women today is one of the reasons we see so many people with anxiety disorders--not the only reason, but we certain see a connection between the rise in wickedness and the rise in anxiety disorders.  The God whom men should fear will speak to those men and say "fear not" if they are in a right relationship with Him.

The summary of this chapter?  God definitely judges the wicked, but those with integrity should not expect to fall under such condemnation and judgement and Job holds fast to his honesty and integrity and his right to ask God "Why?" and to hold court with God.  Job seems to think that a man should be able to confront his accuser, even if that accuser is God and have the facts of the case laid out plainly so that innocence or guilt can be clearly determined because God is a God of justice.