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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Job 31:29
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A vengeful spirit is the opposite of the spirit which the believer ought to have and is a sure sign of pride. Why is this? Why is it so wrong for a man to be pleased when those who have done him wrong fall? Because that sense of pleasure aligns him too closely with the Judge and not enough with the one judged, whereas the natural condition of all men places them together in the company of the condemned. To gloat over another’s downfall is to gloat over what might so easily have befallen us, for one sinner is not really so different from another. Since we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ and since we all deserve his condemnation, then the believer feels himself to be as deserving of punishment as the next man. It is only by grace that he is any different. If therefore someone has done him wrong, he does not adopt a position of superiority over them as if he possessed an inherent righteous. Job therefore did not dare to pray for a curse on his enemies, but remembered how much he had been forgiven by the Lord and prayed for his enemies, hoping that God would extend mercy to them also.
Application
The believer knows how much he needs the mercy of God. Christ teaches us to pray for our enemies while we share a common fallen nature with them in this world, and even to sorrow over their downfall if it eventually comes to that. This is the spirit of our heavenly Father who is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and of Christ who wept over Jerusalem. We must be characterised by the same spirit and follow the example of our God who sets us a standard in this matter. It is for him alone to decide when the period of his patience has run out, and mercy is finally withdrawn from them.
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