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a character was indeed righteous. Throughout the book Job maintained his integrity.
Job 2: 3 was attested by God Himself, and Job himself said:
"Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and
will not let it go" (Job 27: 5, 6).
Reviewing his life, Job said "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me" (Job 29: 14),
and in chapter 31: he gives such a record of integrity that few since his day could hope
to equal, and calls down judgment upon his own head if he had transgressed in his walk
in life saying:
"Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job
are ended" (Job 31: 40).
Upon this, his three friends ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own
eyes (Job 32: 1), and if one analyses the argument put forward by these three, we can
understand Job's vehement repudiation of underhanded licentiousness or dishonesty. He
repudiated the suggestion of hypocrisy (Job 13: 16), and said "I know that I shall be
justified" (Job 13: 18). There is one man who could have stood with Job in this claim of
righteousness, and that is Paul, who wrote of himself:
"Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless" (Phil. 3: 6).
Yet when Paul was `shown' what his `righteousness' looked like in the presence of the
living God, he gladly discarded all such claim, and stood in the righteousness provided by
grace, through faith in Christ, and Job eventually comes to the same place:
"I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee:
Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42: 5, 6).
Returning for a moment to Job 33: 23, 24, we now see the consequence of the
message which revealed a Ransom, and consisted of the need of a righteousness greater
than any obedience of fallen man could ever achieve. Here is the consequence:
"Then He is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I
have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall return to the
days of his youth" (Job. 33: 24, 25).
Where we inserted the "H" in verse 23, reading "His uprightness" we can blessedly do
so in verse 26:
"And he shall see His face with joy: for He will render unto man His righteousness."
We have spent some time on these passages in Job, and have seen that Resurrection is
the answer that covers all man's need and all God's requirements, for it assumes the
provision of a Ransom, and the acceptance of the believer, and focuses attention on the
Kinsman-Redeemer, Who, said Job, "After I shall awake, though worms destroy this
body, yet in my flesh shall I see God".