Commentary on the Book of Job part eighty eight

                                        Job 31:1-40

In Job 31:4, Job asks a question of God of which the answer is obvious. God had made Job a righteous man and had guided his steps throughout his life. Job does not deny that he has sinned against God because of his weakness, but he does deny that he has ever deliberately rebelled against God's guidance for his life.

From Job 3:5 to verse 40, Job confessed that if he had ever deliberately practiced evil, then he would have deserved God's severest punishment. In Job 3:6, Job desired that God would test his integrity because he knew that he had always avoided evil and obeyed God. God revealed to Job in verse twelve that if Job had ever practiced evil, then God would someday dissolve his being by the use of His consuming fire and separate his "increase," from him, which meant God's valuable image that God had created and put into Job from the evil within Job. God's revelation to Job constitutes a prophecy that in the end of the world, God will use His consuming fire to separate His good image in every human within the regions of the dead from their evil deaths that He will cast into the lake of fire. I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; John 5:28-29; Matthew 3:11-12.

In verse 33, Job declared that he had always been honest with God and had never tried to hide his sin and evil as Adam had done. Job's attitude reveals God's desire for all humanity. God simply wants all humans to confess that they have committed sin and evil, repent, and call on God's Son to save them from eternal spiritual death from which they cannot save themselves. God has made provision through His Son to save His good image in every human from eternal spiritual death, some by His grace and all others by the use of His consuming fire. By these two methods, God will return the entire human race to repentance and faith in Christ their Savior. John 5:24; Revelation 5:11-14.

In Job 31:35, Job expressed his desire that God would reveal His entire truth to him, and by extension to the whole human race. Job referred to God as his "adversary," and he hoped that God would write a book. By his use of the word "adversary," Job meant that he hoped that God would write a book in which He would contend and strive with man to get him to repent of his sin and evil and turn in faith to Christ for his salvation. God gave Job a prophecy that He would write such a book that would be the infallible and inerrant Word of God. (KJB)