Job 31:1: “I [Job] have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?”

December 26th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In Job 31, Job defended his righteousness, telling how he had lived his life and the choices he’d made to remain pure before God. When Job said that he made “a covenant with [his] eyes,” he meant he had determined to be pure toward members of the opposite sex. Job understood more than 2000 years ago what many people today still don’t understand. The only way to defeat sexual temptation is to refuse to take even a second look.

Although men are the worst offenders, many women struggle too. In our sexually-charged culture, everyone is being bombarded by sexual images. It is almost impossible to shelter our eyes from them. They jump out at us on the TV screen, in the supermarket checkout line, on billboards, in the mail, and right in front of us as we walk down the street. The question for Job, and for us, is what do we do once we see a sexually appealing image? Jesus said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness” (Luke 11:34). Job understood that even in his day it was impossible to go through life without seeing things, but he did have a choice about taking a second look and dwelling on it. Job wisely said, “I’ve got a contract with my eyes. I immediately look away, and I don’t look back again.” He was keeping his eye good.

Years ago I saw an old movie about some shipwrecked men who were drifting aimlessly on the ocean without water.  Under the scorching sun, they grew deliriously thirsty. One night, while the others were asleep, one of the men gulped down salty ocean water, which contains almost 7 times more salt than our kidneys can safely handle. The man quickly died. The more salt water someone drinks the thirstier they get, so they continue to drink, their thirst never abating, until they die. Lust is just like that. We thirst for something and try to satisfy it with what looks attractive. What we don’t realize is that it will only create a more desperate thirst in us, drying up our lives and relationships until there’s nothing left.

“LORD, keep us in the fresh living water of You and away from the deadly water of lust.”