Just Forgive Me Already! (Or Maybe Not)

If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you?Why not just forgive my sin and take away my guilt? [Job 7.20-21a]

This is a straightforward request by Job.

First, not only indirectly here, but earlier, Job claimed complete innocence to Eliphaz:

Stop assuming my guilt, for I have done no wrong. [Job 6.29]

So now, Job is suggesting to God to forgive him?  I read it like this: "Just forgive me already!" I think Job's arrogance is beginning to show right here. It seems he may not be genuinely repentant in his request.

You know why I recognize this possible attitude in Job? Because I have experienced it myself. Of course I have absolutely no reason to claim I have done no wrong, but I recognize arrogant pride just the same.

Next, it it worth pointing out that some of our first introduction to Job may reveal a shortcoming:

When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice. [Job 1.5]

I find it interesting that Job assumed possible guilt by his children, but evidently not by himself. He made burnt offerings for his children, but I don't see that he did the same for himself! It sounds holy enough, but why not throw in a burnt offering for himself just in case? Maybe Job did make burnt offerings for himself (the story does not say he did, but that does not necessarily meant he didn't), however, the tone of his claims to innocence make me believe he did not.

In light then of the preceding paragraph, we could have an answer to Job's question, "Why not just forgive my sin and take away my guilt?" We should all know that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. If Job was self-righteously making sacrifices for his children while ignoring the possibility of sin in his own life, there could be a problem right there! While Job may have been perfectly perfect in his outward visible deeds, his lack of humility about the possibility of his own sin could tell us what we need to know about Job!

I would not be so persistent about Job's pride if I did not know the rest of Job's story. He eventually gets severely rebuked by God - that just doesn't come to a genuinely righteous person! And why does Job get rebuked by God? Because of his self-assumptions. God had to remind Job Who was God and that he (Job) was not. 

The lesson for me here is one of repentance. If we are going to assume anything about ourselves, it better be that we are not God and therefore need to remain repentant and humble before Him at all times.

Father, You are God and there is no other. Forgive me for all the self-assumptions I have made that claim innocence. I plead the blood of Jesus today just like the first day I ever prayed to You. I understand that by Jesus' blood I am a joint-heir of all Your Kingdom, but I also understand that without Jesus' blood, I deserve nothing but death and destruction. Forgive me for putting my Christian life on auto-pilot.