Job had exercised control over his eyes; he had made a private covenant not to allow them to stray and look at things that he knew they must not look at, and which would lead him into further temptation. He was a businessman, and knew what a contract was. You are bound; you cannot break a contract. Christ says, ‘Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart’ (Matthew 5:28). The law, Paul teaches, is spiritual and includes the human spirit as well as the body. When the eye looks it is because the body wants, and so adultery can be committed with a glance. What is there within us that that is not ready to go ahead and commit full-blown adultery when the eye has been given permission? We cannot take credit for being held back by the unwelcome voice of conscience. The eye is the point at which many fall, for though it seems a small matter to allow a glance, the eye is the seeking out of the desire, and to give way to it is to give licence to the desire. When the desire gets its own way even to a small degree, it feeds on sin and grows stronger so that it is now even less willing to give up. Job therefore confronted sin desire at the first point that he encountered it; in doing so he had his greatest hope of success for temptation is at this stage at its weakest. Sin is like an unscrupulous negotiator. It begs to be given special concessions and lies about what it will give us in exchange. ‘Allow me to come just a little way into your life and I will be docile and never trouble you again’, it says. But the moment it has a foot in the door, it grows stronger and breaks its word. Then it starts to negotiate with us again from a position of greater strength. We have given way to sin when it was at its weakest, but now we have to deal with it when it has grown in strength. This covenant was really made with the Lord. Job set boundaries before the Lord which he would not cross, in recognition of the great danger that lay beyond them. He knew the power of sin and therefore he knew that he needed something as definite and as strong as a covenant to keep him from straying, not only in his best moments but in his worst.
‘There are three degrees of fault in a sin, even though it does not come to the outward deed. The first is a fleeting imagination or thought that a man conceives by looking at something, for by this some or other suggestion will come into his head. Or else, although he sees nothing, nevertheless his mind is so tickled to evil as to be carried here and there, and makes imaginations to run in his head. Without doubt this is a fault and yet it is not that which is imputed to us for sin. The second degree is that, on conceiving such a fancy, we are somewhat tickled, and feel that our wills sway that way, and although there is no consent or agreement to it, yet there is some inward pricking to provoke us to it. That is a wicked sin and, as it were, already conceived. Afterwards follows consent when we settle our will on it so that there is nothing in us to prevent the performance of the evil except lack of opportunity. The third degree is when sin is fully formed in us and gets the upper hand, although there is no outward deed at all. Although it may seem a hard matter, there is neither man nor woman who does not recognise the thing that I speak of, and experience it from day-to-day … It is said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy strength. God has not limited the love we owe him that it should be only in our hearts and minds, but he says that our wit, reason and understanding, and all our strength (that is, all the abilities and powers that are in our nature) must also be thoroughly given to this. Now if a man conceives any evil, even though he does not consent to it or yield his affection to it, I ask you, does he love God with all his mind? No. If a man has ever so little part of himself inclined to corruption, although with all the rest he endeavours to keep the law, does he love God as he ought to? … God will not suffer unchaste looks to be unpunished’ (Calvin – in modern English).