The Conversation of Job on Lust

Note: One morning, I had a severe struggle with lust. To win this war, I turned to the words of Job in chapter 31:1-12. Job was one of the oldest patriarchs and is renowned for being a man who feared God and shunned evil. What he spoke here few thousands of years back are very much challenging to the people of modern age.

As I reflected upon these few words of Job, I was led to write the following words, elaborating the discourse of Job and allowing them to plainly converse with our hearts. I found the words of Job quite challenging in my own life in regard to living a life of sexual purity.

Here is Job.

Listen to my words. Let me tell you something to think about. I made a covenant with my eyes, with my sight, with how I look at a woman. Do you want to know the covenant I made with my eyes? I determined not to look lustfully at a woman. I resolved not to entertain sexual fantasies about a girl. I took a stubborn decision, not only to flee from committing physical adultery, but also from its very thought in my mind, i.e. not to undress a girl with my imagination.

Yes, I fled from watching the nakedness of a woman, whether with my physical eyes or in my imagination. I firmly made up my mind not to be led by whatever my eyes sees and whatever my heart feels. I have learned to master my sight, my thoughts and my feelings. I decided to treat the opposite sex with absolute purity. I know it is hard. It is a tough battle. But I made this solemn choice, not a one-time choice, but a constant choice not to dwell on lust.

Do you know why I did this? Because I fear God. Does He not punish those who do wrong? Is not disaster waiting for those who live by wicked thoughts and actions? Does He not see my ways? Are not my thoughts laid bare before Him? Is He not counting every step of my life? Isn’t God looking, observing how I live and what I think?

Am I not accountable to God for what I choose, what I watch, what I think and what I do? Does not God weigh me according to His holy standards?

O, my Maker, my God, knows all my thoughts and all my ways. When I watch a naked woman, God is watching my evil actions. When I secretly imagine of having sex with a woman in my mind, God is observing my evil thoughts. I cannot hide from His pure sight! There is no sin that I can commit without His knowledge.

All my thoughts, all my imaginations, all my secret communications, all my ways, which no man may ever know—glare before His blazing holy eyes. Since I cannot escape from the holy sight of God, from His judgment, I chose not to sin against Him by immersing myself in lust. And God knows that I am blameless.

There is another thing I thought about which I would like to tell you. It sounds scary but I thought it anyway. If my heart has been enticed by a woman, if my heart lustfully goes after her, and if I secretly lust to sleep with another man’s wife, let me be honest in telling you this—let other men sleep and have sex with my wife, for that is the worst punishment I should receive for what I did.

When I lust after other women, why can’t my wife lust after other men? When I sleep with another man’s wife, why shouldn’t other men sleep with my wife? My wife has every right to against me when I choose to go against her. The other men have every right to go against me when I choose to go against them [for lusting their women]. Oh, I have no right to hold my wife faithful to me when I remain unfaithful to her, whether in thought or in deed.

Here is what I want to say at the end. Lust and adultery is a deadly fire. It burns my house and others' house too. It ruins my family and others’ family too. It puts everyone closely connected to me in trouble. It brings curse upon everything. It gives momentary pleasure but reaps lasting pain. O, a choice made out of lust reaps inescapable destruction.

Therefore, I decided, not to lust any woman and chose to fear God and to stay faithful to my wife—in my thought, in my imagination and in my action.

What is your covenant?

Sincerely,

Job

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Job 31 (New International Version)

¹ "I made a covenant with my eyes
not to look lustfully at a young woman.
² For what is our lot from God above,
our heritage from the Almighty on high?
³ Is it not ruin for the wicked,
disaster for those who do wrong?
⁴ Does he not see my ways
and count my every step?

⁵ "If I have walked with falsehood
or my foot has hurried after deceit—
⁶ let God weigh me in honest scales
and he will know that I am blameless—
⁷ if my steps have turned from the path,
if my heart has been led by my eyes,
or if my hands have been defiled,
⁸ then may others eat what I have sown,
and may my crops be uprooted.

⁹ "If my heart has been enticed by a woman,
or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,
¹⁰ then may my wife grind another man’s grain,
and may other men sleep with her.
¹¹ For that would have been wicked,
a sin to be judged.
¹² It is a fire that burns to Destruction;
it would have uprooted my harvest."

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