Lay Down My Pride: Knowing Our Place (Job 31:35-40)

“Lay down my pride, my desires, my demise. I'm ready now to see it Your way.” – Jeremy Camp 🧐

Dear response requester,

We all want answers. I hope we ask for them through prayers. However, let’s not be demanding. Let’s accept that only God can be all-knowing.

Read how Job longed for an explanation of his calamity, how he desired a reply from the Almighty.

Job 31:35-40 (NASB)

³⁵ Oh that I had one to hear me!

Here is my signature;

Let the Almighty answer me!

And the indictment which my adversary has written,

³⁶ I would certainly carry it on my shoulder,

I would tie it to myself like a garland.

³⁷ I would declare to Him the number of my steps;

Like a prince, I would approach Him.

³⁸ “If my land cries out against me,

And its furrows weep together;

³⁹ If I have eaten its fruit without money,

Or have caused its owners to lose their lives,

⁴⁰ May the thorn-bush grow instead of wheat,

And stinkweed instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended.

This is the final chapter of Job’s speech with his friends. Our passage here starts with Job wishing that he is heard and that he’ll be answered by God. What answers does he want? Read his questions from my previous epistle in the link below:

https://therhymingepistles.blogspot.com/2021/06/hold-my-heart-letting-it-all-out-to-god.html

The King James Version’s verse 35 doesn’t mention anything about a signature. What it says instead is “behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me”, so I had to look up the Hebrew text. The image below is a snipped shot of the verse from the Hebrew Interlinear Bible of Scripture4All.org.

It says there, “behold! mark-of·me” like “Look at my signature!” or “Behold! I’m signing.” I know nothing of Hebrew. This is just how it seems to me as I read the English text in green.

According to the New Bible Commentary edited by Carson et al. (1994), this is how Job ends his “oath of innocence by saying, I sign now, as if it were a written document.” The chapter is his final defense of his character. He said if he wasn’t honest, then he’ll accept if another reaps what he sowed (vv. 5-8). If he lusted after another woman, let his wife have relations with other men (vv. 9-10). If he was inconsiderate of his servants, he can’t defend himself (vv. 13-14). If he didn’t provide for the needy (vv. 16-20, 31-32), if he mistreated the orphan (v.21), if he worshipped idols (vv. 24-27), if he cursed his enemy (vv. 29-30), or if he wronged his land (vv. 38-39), then he’ll willingly welcome any calamity as a consequence.

Verse 35 also states that he wishes to read his indictment. An indictment is “a formal written statement framed by a prosecuting authority and found by a jury (such as a grand jury) charging a person with an offense” (Merriam-Webster). In the next verse, Job declares he would wear it proudly. The commentary says he was confident that it would prove his innocence.

Until the end of his speeches, Job maintains his uprightness. However, he lost sight of one thing. His perspective got warped because he was so down. He didn’t see his place in front of God. He will be reproached for that by Elihu and by God Himself. Job focused on getting the answer to his question “Why?” when he should be asking “Who?” Pastor Sandy Adams (Job 13) said, “When you know who, suddenly you don’t need to know why.” Who is it that made these things happen? Who allowed it? Who is in control? Who do you run to for help? Who do you put your hope and trust in? It’s God. Who is Job that he should be answered by God, that God should defend His ways to him? His friends tried to defend God, but they did it wrongly. I guess that’s why Job wanted a direct conversation with God.

Where Job erred was when he wants God to explain to him as if God owes him that. It’s as if God has wronged him. I blame his friends because they tell him he’s being punished for sinning. To them, it’s “either God is unjust or Job has sinned”, and they didn’t accept the former, so they insisted on the latter (Adams, Job 8). Because Job knows he was blameless, he considered the former. He even said in Job 19:6 that God has wronged him. In Job’s sad mind, he was right and God was wrong, so he deserved an answer. Here, we see his pride. He was just being honest with his emotions, but he still thought of himself highly that he dare demanded to debate with God.

Job was willing to accept the penalty if he committed sin though. In verse 40, he calls for thorns and weeds to grow in his land if he had aggrieved its owners, but this chapter is about the things he didn’t do. If he did, he would have pointed it out as the reason for his misery and repented.

The moral I’d like to enter your heart is not to be so proud that you forget who your life’s about. It’s not you; it’s God. You live for Him. He doesn’t answer to you like you’re the master and He’s the genie. Let’s lay down whatever amount of pride we have and look at life with our sight set on God having His way in it. Spoiler alert: God did give Job His answer and it’s one that humbles Job. I did mention above that he'll be reproached. In the next chapters, Elihu does it to him, too. Elihu does it first, and then God.

If there’s one thing we could boast about, it’s Christ’s praise we should shout. No one can match His love, for only He’s the God made flesh from heaven above. Only He is sinless. Only He can sanctify our blemishes. Let’s be proud of Him that our vision won’t dim. Looking at our own strengths will just fail us. The possibilities are endless with Jesus.

With love,

Celina <3

References

Adams, S. (n.d.). Job 13. Job | Making Sense of Suffering. Westminster, California, United States of America: Through the Word.

Adams, S. (n.d.). Job 8. Job | Making Sense of Suffering. Westminster, California, United States of America: Through the Word.

Carson, D. A., France, R. T., Motyer, J. A., & Wenham, G. J. (1994). New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Inter-Varsity Press.

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Indictment. Retrieved from Merriam-Webster.com: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indictment

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