Job 29:15 Commentary and Bible Study

The same problem applies to what follows here. There is no doubt that Job was giving an accurate report of his former life and was in no way exaggerating. He had great satisfaction from his accomplishments. He was a senior magistrate and philanthropist, and never grew impatient at the constant stream of needy people that came to him. The language is very beautiful: he was eyes to the blind for, in love to his fellow human beings, he saw the need of others and pitied them and became to them the very thing they lacked. Incomplete faculties are incomplete faculties and cannot be redefined away; we need all the faculties that God has created to be complete, and in heaven where all are perfect nothing will be missing. Meanwhile, in this fallen earth, we are not all the same; we must recognise that it is the sovereign God who determines what each one has or does not have, and that our having is an opportunity to express love to the not-having. Job’s lack of self-centredness made him able to see the misery that existed in the lives of others and to want to relieve it. He did for others what he would have wanted them to do for him, had their situations been reversed. He loaned his eyes and his feet to them and by acts of kindness he built ties of friendship and gratitude between himself and others. No doubt also, he associated with the most lowly of men, not making social status a bar to any receiving his help. Some chalk up such acts of charity and expect something in return, but Job, in the spirit of a believer, gave freely without expecting anything in return. The reason that he now refers to these acts which he had previously been content to allow to be forgotten, is that he feels driven to defend his just character against the false accusations of his so-called friends. It was Paul’s reluctance to do something similar that made him say, ‘I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me’ (2 Corinthians 12:11). This is a very difficult path to walk, but Paul walked it with the utmost skill and avoided falling; he defended his conduct as the Lord’s servant engaged in the Lord’s work. Job however was defending himself which is an even more difficult thing to do safely. We should leave our vindication to the Lord and not try to manage it ourselves, for he can do what we cannot do and can lift us up without our exaltation going to our heads.Job was a father to the poor and searched out the needs of the most vulnerable so that he could do something to help. He loved to provide for others not with the aim of parading his good works, but out of a desire to please God and to be like his heavenly Father. Equally, he defended those who were oppressed by the unscrupulous and who were taken advantage of. He knew the tricks and the cunning of those who prey on the disadvantaged in this world and, because he hated all such wickedness, he allowed the wicked to feel the other side of his character: his powerful sense of justice and his strength in punishing them. Job distinguished between one and another and his God-given wisdom taught which were which. We could ignore our suspicion that Job’s good deeds have gone to his head and use this whole passage to describe charity in operation. We could study the behaviour of the righteous and identify all the features of mercy and kindness which would so transform this world if they were more plentiful, and which have prevailed at times in history when Christianity has been in the ascendency. Our sense of grievance at injustice, and our desire to protect the weak and the oppressed would be strong. We would agree with Job in all that he says here and we would make this behaviour our model.