Doug Van Pelt

Job Had It Bad

Chapter 23 finds Job in the midst of his long ordeal. He describes his complaint as "bitter." It seems as if he feels that God is distant or not answering his prayers. He wishes, "If only I knew where to find Him...I would state my case before Him..." Job is confident that if and when he is tested before the Lord, that he will come out clean.

I believe this is a confidence that we can have. Yes, I know that some believers have crafted a theology that allows them to wallow in their sin. I think that to be heresy. Yes, it is true that sin goes deeper than behavior. I think Jesus made that obvious with His great Sermon on the Mount. But, for instance, we can keep ourselves "clean." When I was in Lust Control, I thought it very important to keep myself "clean" by not having sex outside of marriage, not looking at pornography, and stuff like that so that when I went onstage and talked/preached about purity, there wouldn't be an accusation in the back of my head (or from an angered audience member!) to the contrary. In essence, I wanted to be "clean" so that no one could accuse me of wrongdoing in this area. I happen to believe that, in the spiritual realm, that a believer has certain authority that has been bestowed upon him/her by Jesus. ("In My Name you will...") If facing a spiritual entity, such as a demon spirit, this authority is real and it could erode my confidence if that entity could accurately accuse me of such and such. I might wilt if faced with that accusation. But if I stay clean, then I could stand up to opposition, like Job did. Nobody likes a preacher to get up and preach about righteousness if he's sleeping with the church secretary. Hypocrisy is not good. This is one reason why I took it serious to "stay clean" back then (and still endeavor to do so today, of course).

Yes, it is true that an impure thought, or lusting after a woman is like "commiting adultery in my heart," and there is no justification or excuse for doing that. The consequences and "damage," of course, is quite different. Marriages usually aren't ruined or families destroyed over a man's brief lustful thought. But if that man commits adultery, the consequences and actual damage is worse. Sin is sin. Consequences vary. I must confess that I'm sure I had impure thoughts during the time of my Lust Control band/ministry/history, and I'm also confident that I humbly repented and sought restoration for such. It's an effort to cover this much ground in a simple explanation of "being clean," but I like to answer honest questions and I think that this subject brings up some.