45. My Prayer Is Pure
Hymns: RHC 146 Silent Night! Holy Night! 155 The First Noel 156 Good Christian Men, Rejoice
Job 16:17-22
17Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place. 19Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return. (Job 16:6-22 KJV)
My Prayer Is Pure
OUTLINE
(1) My Conscience Is My Witness (v17-18)
(2) My God Who Knows All Things Is My Witness (v19-22)
INTRODUCTION
The prophet Isaiah said to the children of Israel in Isaiah 1:9-15 9 Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. 10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. 11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Israel has not loved their God with a whole heart. Their worship was not with a pure heart. The Lord had no delight in their worship – When ye make many prayers, I will not hear for your hands are full of blood.
Psalm 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
Psalm 66:19-20 Butverily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed beGod, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.
The psalmist is one that feared God as he truthfully declares in Psalm 66:16 Comeandhear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
He was confident that God will hear his prayers.
Though Job’s condition was very deplorable; but had he nothing to support him, nothing to comfort him? Yes, and he here tells us what it was.
- My Conscience Is My Witness (v17-18)
17Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure. 18O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.
He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had walked uprightly, and had never allowed himself in any gross sin. None was ever more ready than he to acknowledge his sins of infirmity; but, upon search, he could not charge himself with any enormous crime, for which he should be made more miserable than other men (v17).
He had kept a conscience void of offence.
Towards men: “Not for any injustice in my hands,any wealth that I have unjustly got or kept.” Eliphaz had represented him as a tyrant and an oppressor.
“No,” says he, “I never did any wrong to any man, but always despised the gain of oppression.”
Towards God: Also, my prayer is pure;but prayer cannot be pure as long as there is injustice in our hands.
Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of a man’s faith, and professes that in that he was pure, though not from all infirmity, yet from reigning and allowed guile: it was not like the prayers of the Pharisees, who looked no further than to be seen of men, and to serve a turn. [Matthew Henry]
Indeed, as the Apostle Paul rightly observed in Romans 2:12-15 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13 (For not the hearers of the law arejust before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and theirthoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
Romans 2:16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
He was confident of God’s work of grace in his heart. The gospel that has set him free from his sins and render his conscience free and filled with God’s peace. He knew that his sins have been forgiven.
It is interesting, Apostle Paul observed, God made man with a conscience that is able to judge his own actions by the law which God placed in his heart. He knows good from evil, right from wrong, having a moral conscience within him. If he does wrong, his conscience gives him no peace. And if he is right, he knows there is no rebuke against him. It is a faculty of self-reflection and self-judgement that God places in man that enables him to evaluate himself honestly.
How is that possible? Because God made man in His very image – Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Before I became a Christian, I found myself lacking, deficient, but could not tell what was lacking! Observe how the Apostle Paul is preparing to present the gospel to the unsaved by revealing what God has marvellously done to create man with a God-given conscience. He presents to us the intimate and endearing place we have in the sight of our Creator God.
The psalmist by God’s special revelation in Genesis 1:26 declares the puzzling, unworthy and yet special place he felt he has in this vast universe, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: 7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; 8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:3-9).
It is with an awakened conscience made good by God through Jesus Christ that Apostle Paul stood before Ananias the high priest in Jerusalem to declare in good conscience that Jesus Christ is the living and true God. He was slapped in the mouth. He retorted in Acts 23:3 …God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? His conscience will not allow him to deny his Christ. He received Jesus’ personal commendation, Acts 23:11 And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.
What a wonderful testimony for our emulation to fear God rather not fear man. This is the power of an awakened conscience. This too was Job’s testimony.
The Apostle Paul gave the divine verdict concerning God’s judgement on mankind. It shall be according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. No man can be reconciled with God without receiving the merits of Christ for himself. The good news is that man and woman can be saved from the eternal judgement of God in hell fire by putting on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And there is no salvation outside Jesus Christ. Isn’t it unfair for the gentiles? Unlike the Jews, they did not have the opportunity to know the law of God and the way of salvation! The Apostle Paul tells us that God has placed in man a conscience, the ability to discern between good and evil, right and wrong. The depraved nature of man and his inability to keep the laws of God renders him guilty before God because his own conscience would rebuke him. Therefore, he cannot stand justified before God.
This is the scene at the final day of judgement at the Great White throne recorded for our admonition in Revelation 20:11-15 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Man will be judged according to their deeds in the day of God’s judgement. And his conscience would tell him honestly that he is guilty. He had done wrong. Indeed, only those whose names are written in the book of life shall escape being cast into the lake of fire. And the gentiles cannot plead ignorance of their sins before God. What a powerful presentation of the truth which the Apostle Paul is building up to help them realise the preciousness of the gospel that he would present to them. The gospel message that Jesus Christ died for our sins and three days later rose from the dead for our justification. Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
May God prepare us better to be His witness wherever he brings us today!
- My God Who Knows All Things Is My Witness (v19-22)
19Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high. 20My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God. 21O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! 22When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
He could appeal to God’s omniscience concerning his integrity (v19). Matthew Henry said well, “The witness in our own bosoms for us will stand us in little stead if we have not a witness in heaven for us too; for God is greater than our hearts,and we are not to he our own judges.”
This therefore is Job’s triumph, “My witness is in heaven”.
It is an unspeakable comfort to a good man, when he lies under the censure of his brethren, that there is a God in heaven who knows his integrity and will clear it up sooner or later.
John 5:31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.
John 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.
This one witness is instead of a thousand.
Matthew 3:16-17 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
He had a God to go to before whom he might unbosom himself (v20-21).
How the case stood between him and his friends. He knew not how to be free with them, nor could he expect either a fair hearing with them or fair dealing from them. “My friends (so they call themselves) scorn me; they set themselves not only to resist me, but to expose me; they are of counsel against me, and use all their art and eloquence” (so the word signifies) “to run me down.” The scorns of friends are more cutting than those of enemies; but we must expect them, and provide accordingly.
How it stood between him and God.
He doubted not but that, God did now take cognizance of his sorrows: My eye pours out tears to God.He had said (v16) that he wept much; here he tells us in what channel his tears ran, and which way they were directed. His sorrow was not that of the world, but he sorrowed after a godly sort, wept before the Lord, and offered to him the sacrifice of a broken heart.
Even tears, when sanctified to God, give ease to troubled spirits; and, if men slight our grief, this may comfort us, that God regards them. That he would in due time clear up his innocency (v21): O that one might plead for a man with God!If he could but now have the same freedom at God’s bar that men commonly have at the bar of the civil magistrate, he doubted not but to carry his cause, for the Judge himself was a witness to his integrity. [Matthew Henry]
The language of this wish is like that in Isaiah 50:7-8, I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that justifies me.
Isaiah 50:7-8 For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.
Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their distance and defects, have a friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on this we must bottom all our hopes of acceptance with God.
He had a prospect of death which would put a period to all his troubles. Such confidence had he towards God that he could take pleasure in thinking of the approach of death, when he should be determined to his everlasting state, as one that doubted not but it would be well with him then: When a few years have come(the years of numberwhich are determined and appointed to me) then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.
To die is to go the way whence we shall not return.It is to go a journey, a long journey, a journey for good and all, to remove from this to another country, from the world of sense to the world of spirits. It is a journey to our long home; there will be no coming back to our state in this world nor any change of our state in the other world. 2. We must all of us very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey; and it is comfortable to those who keep a good conscience to think of it, for it is the crown of their integrity. [Matthew Henry]