Job 31:26 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Job 31:26

Comments

Neither had Job given way in another direction: the worship of created things in the place of God. This has been the form which false worship has taken place since the earliest times as Paul tells us in Romans: ‘Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen’ (Romans 1:25). Jeremiah condemns Judah for this sin, ‘And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods’ (Jeremiah 19:13). But Scripture commands these objects to worship God, ‘Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light’ (Psalm 148:3). Job knew with total certainty that if he had been carried away with a gesture that amounted to idolatry in worshipping the sun, moon or stars – false worship which he was well aware of in his day – he would have committed a gross evil. That gesture would have denied God the exclusive worship that is his due, and given it to a created object. This would have been great wickedness and a denial of the God who transcends all creation. To prefer any other to him and to make obeisance to any created thing is not only to make a terrible miscalculation, but it is to use the minds that have been given us to make a perverse judgment and one without warrant. This is not simply a mistake based on inadequate information, but it is a self-delusion and a wilful favouring of a dead and powerless object over the living and true God. We cannot do this without deeply insulting God, provoking his anger, and harming ourselves, since we must forfeit the grace that could have been ours. Job maintained a proper horror of this sin.

Application

Why do men do this? Why do they worship as gods those objects which are created as they are, and part of the world in which they live? Clearly, man has an instinct for worship and wants to express his devotion to something greater than himself. Sensing that he is weak and dependant, he is drawn to that which is strong and powerful. Since he knows that he is mortal and life is going to be taken away from him, he wants to attach himself to that which is more permanent and continues longer than he does. It brings relief to his troubled soul to believe that there are mighty forces around him which might influence his life, guide him and care for him. If there is a price to be paid in the form of tiresome devotion to that god, then he is willing to pay it, for the sense of security that he gets in exchange is of greater value to him. The heavenly objects have been an obvious source of this false security for sinful man in his idolatry. All can see them clearly, and they are situated in a position above him and yet are out of his reach, suggesting their rule over him and their transcendence, concepts to which he is instinctively drawn. They abide apparently unchanged from one generation to the next and he contrasts this with his own short-lived existence. Even before man understood about the ability of plants to capture light energy from the sun, he felt himself to be dependent on the sun for light and warmth. Its light came new each morning to take away the fears of darkness and fill the landscape with cheer and beauty.

Noone man is without blame in worshipping created things. God has put enough evidence before them and enough understanding in their minds for them to know that the Creator is not to be found anywhere inside his creation. They know from their own experience that God is a personal being and not some inanimate object clothed only by man’s imagination with personal qualities. Yet this has always been a major aspect of man’s sin from earliest times. ‘Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, ²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things’ (Romans 1:22-23).

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Job 31:26 Commentary and Bible Study