Moral honesty.
Job now almost loses sight of his vexatious friends as he breaks out into a long discourse. His first thought is to assert his integrity, without flinching before the charges that have been so recklessly flung at him. He will not confess sins of which he is not guilty. It required some courage for him to take this stand, for he was sorely pressed to yield to insincerity.
I. THE TEMPTATION TO INSINCERITY. This is many-sided, springing from various sources.
1. The desire to conciliate God. Job is persuaded that it is the Almighty who has vexed his soul. If he will abase himself and confess his utter unworthiness, it would seem that perhaps God would be propitiated.
2. The persuasive urgency of others. Each of the three friends had set before Job the same picture, and had suggested that the only security, the only hope, lay in abject penitence. It is difficult to hold to our course when it is resisted and reprobated by our friends.
3. The true humility of a good man. Job knew that he was a frail creature, and that he was as nothing before the might and holiness of God (Job 7:1-8). Good men are more or less conscious of their own littleness. It seems a mark of modesty to depreciate one's self. Job must have been deeply pained at the unfairness that drove him to take the opposite course and vindicate his own uprightness. We are all tempted to insincere confession of guilt which we do not feel in order to please God or men, or as a sign of humility.
II. THE WEAKNESS OF YIELDING TO THIS TEMPTATION. All the inducements that may be brought to urge a person to insincerity are just temptations to sin. They are attacks upon the conscience. To yield to them is a sign of weakness. The important point is that insincerity is always wrong, even when it is in the direction of self-humiliation. There may be a hypocritical penitence as well as a hypocritical pride. We cannot be too deeply humble; when the thought of our sin dawns upon us we cannot grieve over the guilt and shame of it too intensely. But if we do not feel this profound penitence it is nothing but falsehood and empty pretence to make a confession of it with our lips. For the language of penitence to exceed the feeling of it is not a mark of real humility. Any insincerity is injurious to the conscience and wrong in the sight of God, and the fact that it tends to self-depreciation rather than to self-exaltation does not alter its essential character.
III. THE MORAL HONESTY OF RESISTING THE TEMPTATION TO INSINCERITY. We cannot but admire the manliness of Job. It was difficult for him not to be cowed before the array of adverse influences brought to bear upon him. His sickness of body, his mental distress and perplexity, and the unanimous opinion of his friends, might well have deprived him of all courage. Yet he holds up his head and asserts the right. On what is such moral honesty based?
1. Reverence for truth. Truth is imperious and must be respected at any cost.
2. Belief in justice. In the end right must prevail. It cannot be well to renounce it in favour of temporary appearances.
3. Trust in God. Job still clings to his faith, although he believes that all his troubles come from God. Now, no insincerity can please God or deceive him. If we think of our standing in his sight, rather than our position in the eyes of men, we must be true and honest.—W.F.A.