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.”

=============================================================

Job 31 KJV

¹ I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? ² For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? ³ Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? ⁴ Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? ⁵ If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; ⁶ Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.  ⁷ If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; ⁸ Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out. ⁹ If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door; ¹⁰ Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. ¹¹ For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. ¹² For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. ¹³ If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; ¹⁴ What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? ¹⁵ Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? ¹⁶ If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; ¹⁷ Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; ¹⁸ (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)  ¹⁹ If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; ²⁰ If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; ²¹ If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: ²² Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.  ²³ For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure. ²⁴ If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; ²⁵ If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;  ²⁶ If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking inbrightness;   ²⁷ And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:  ²⁸ This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above. ²⁹ If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: ³⁰ Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.  ³¹ If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. ³² The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller. ³³ If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: ³⁴ Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door? ³⁵ Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.  ³⁶ Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. ³⁷ I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him. ³⁸ If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;  ³⁹ If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:   ⁴⁰ Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.