Job’s Last Word: Job: The Wisdom of the Cross {Job 31}

{Pray}

What would you say as your last words about yourself? You might say well I’d speak about others or about God. But what would you say about yourself? Of course it’s likely that you and I’ll will not have time, clarity of mind, or even the strength to speak our last words of choice. But supposing you could what would you like to say about yourself? What would be the most important thing said about you before you meet your maker?

Or let me put it another way…what would be your first word about yourself to your maker when you stand before His judgment throne? What words sum up what is most deeply on your mind and heart?

This is a searching question. When the Apostle Paul speaks of his certainty that there will be a resurrection and a judgment, he says, “So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man” (Acts 24:16). The final thing he wants to be able to say about himself before he dies, and the first thing he wants to be able to say to God at the judgment, is, “My conscience is clear. I have no unforgiven sin on my mind or in my heart. And therefore I can face my Maker with confidence.”

In Job 31 we read the third and final part of Job’s final speech. At the end of it we read the dramatic statement, “The words of Job are ended” (v. 40b). And ended they are, apart from a couple of very brief exclamations after God’s speeches. Chapter 31 is the final thing Job wishes to say about himself as he prepares to meet his God. We need to consider these words very carefully to see what exactly Job is claiming about himself and what the implications are for us as Christian people.

It is easy to skim Job 31 and get the impression that Job is a self-righteous Pharisee, thanking God that he is not sinful like other people. On the face of it Job essentially says in chapter 31, at some length, “If I had done anything wrong, then I would have deserved to be punished by God. But I have not done anything wrong. So God ought to vindicate me.” Again and again the structure seems to be along the lines of “If I had done this particular sin, it would have been wrong, and I would have deserved punishment, but I haven’t.” So we almost instinctively want to dismiss this speech as a rant and hypocrisy.

If it were as simple as that, it would be very hard to make sense of God’s affirmation of Job at the end of the book (42:7). It would also be very hard to make sense of God’s rejection of Job’s three friends (also in 42:7), who have said that Job is a overly critical, self-righteous sinner who refuses to admit his guilt. No, says God, he is not. So what exactly is Job saying?

In chapters 29, 30 Job has spoken about his experience and has reflected on what these experiences seem to mean for his standing before God. Now he speaks about himself, his character, his actions, his desires, and his heart.

In your bulletins is the Structure of Job 31 and then the outline of that structure. I know it seems like a lot, and it is, but the biggest part is the catalog or the outworking of the covenant in the middle, but we’ll move through them fairly quickly. This is chiasm or parallelism, many of the psalms follow this same structure.

A. covenant made (vv. 1–3)

B. challenge given (vv. 4–6)

C. catalog of covenant faithfulness (vv. 7–34)

B′. The challenge repeated (vv. 35–37)

A′. The covenant attested (vv. 38–40)

The key to the beginning and end (A and A’) is covenant. This is mentioned explicitly in verse 1 (“I have made a covenant with my eyes”) and alluded to implicitly at the end, since to any Israelite reader the references to the “land” being blessed or cursed will remind them of the covenant blessings and curses (e.g. Deuteronomy 27, 28). Job is not an Israelite; he lived before Israel was a people group...so we need to ask what sort of covenant is involved here. But it does seem that the motif of covenant ties the beginning and end of the speech together and helps explain the function of verses 38–40.

We shall follow this chiastic structure in our exposition. I will not read all of the verses, just a few to get the jest.

A. The Nature of the Covenant: The Commitment to a Clear Conscience (vv. 1–3)

I have made a covenant with my eyes;

how then could I gaze at a virgin?

What would be my portion from God above

and my heritage from the Almighty on high?

Is not calamity for the unrighteous,

and disaster for the workers of iniquity? (vv. 1–3)

Job headlines this final climactic section of his defense, the last word of his last words, by saying he has made a covenant with his eyes. He has entered into a solemn and binding commitment with himself, specifically in the aspect of his desires, his affections, the longings of the heart. The eyes express the desires of the heart. This is not a covenant given to him from outside, as the covenant with Abraham will later be; it is a covenant with himself. We might say he has solemnly bound himself to keep a clear conscience.

The particular desire he speaks of is to “gaze at a virgin” or “young woman” (v. 1b). The word “virgin” means in this context an attractive and desirable young woman who is not his wife. To “gaze” means to look at them in a sexual manner. This goes beyond the recognition that she is attractive, for there is no sin in that, and this recognition can be turned to thankfulness to God for making such beauty. Rather, this is to indulge in the imaginative fantasy, to allow desires to grow in his heart that, in the absence of outward restraint, will lead to adultery or sexual immorality. This he has solemnly bound himself not to do.

To many of us this verse is familiar as the motto verse of one of the well-known and excellent Internet filtering and accountability websites (www.covenanteyes.com). But its demands are deeper than that and point to self-control in the area of desire as well as in the actual practice of what we see with our eyes.

There is a puzzle here. Why does Job headline this particular desire? Is he sex-obsessed? Besides, he is going to include adultery in his list of sins a little later anyway (vv. 9–12). I think it is likely that he begins with this not because it is worse than the sins he will list later or because it is the supreme temptation in his life, but because it can symbolize and sum up a life of inner purity. As many can attest, the calling to inward sexual faithfulness is a searching demand in our sexualized culture.

In the bible there is a strong connection between sexual faithfulness and religious faithfulness. It would be a mistake to take this as the first in Job’s list of possible sins. Rather, it headlines his commitment to purity of the heart. He agrees entirely with his friends that impurity and wickedness in his heart would bring upon him “calamity” and “disaster” as his “portion” and “heritage” (vv. 2, 3).

The covenant Job has made is to keep a clear conscience before God on high. We do not know just how much he knows about God and God’s standards, he lived prior to the covenant with Abraham and before the giving of the law, but he knows something, and he has pledged himself to keep his conscience clear.

B. The Keeping of the Covenant: By Faithfulness in the Heart (vv. 4–6)

Does not he see my ways

and number all my steps?

If I have walked with falsehood

and my foot has hastened to deceit;

(Let me be weighed in a just balance,

and let God know my integrity!) (vv. 4–6)

Job knows that his covenant with his conscience is not merely a commitment to do what seems right to him. He is not postmodern, and he has no illusions about conscience having an autonomous authority in his life. He is committed to purity in the sight of God who sees the heart. Verses 4, 5 use the language of walking—“steps,” feet, and “ways.”

He knows that God sees his “ways”—his life, actions, words, and thoughts—and “numbers” or keeps an accounting, a record, of all his “steps” (v. 4). He knows how easy it would be to “walk with deceit” (v. 5), to become an empty idolater, following the desires and imaginations of his own heart. But he knows—that when he is weighed by the God of justice, he will be seen to be a man of “integrity” or blamelessness (Job 31:6), as indeed we know he is (1:1, 8; 2:3).

{optional} {{{In 2010–2011 the British Museum in London presented an exhibition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the long-lasting tradition of books, writings, and drawings that accompanied corpses on their supposed journey to the afterlife. One of the most striking images is the judgment scene, showing the heart of the dead person being weighed against a feather. The feather symbolized the Egyptian concept truth or justice. A heart that is too heavy could not pass through to the blessings of the afterlife, unless the gods can be fooled by magic spells. So this idea of being weighed in the judgment is a very old one. Job shares the idea, but }}}

the clarity of his conscience enables him to face the judgment with confidence. “Surely,” he says in essence, “when I am face-to-face with my Maker, he will see that I really am on the inside what I have seemed to be on the outside.” How can this be??? That brings us to the middle of the structure...

C. The Outworking of Covenant Faithfulness in Heart and Life (vv. 7–34)

A general claim to a clear conscience is all very well, but if it is to carry conviction it will need to be fleshed out in heart and life. What does Job mean by saying he has integrity or blamelessness, that he has been faithful to his covenant with his eyes?

As with the various lists of sins, virtues, or spiritual gifts in the New Testament, it would be a mistake to view this list of Job’s as comprehensive or exhaustive. Rather it is illustrative of the kinds of guilt he has avoided.

The examples he cites generally include the following four elements:

(a) Sin: “If …” followed by a description of the sin.

(b) Judgment: “Then …” followed by an acknowledgment of appropriate punishment.

(c) Reason: “For …” followed by a reason why this sin is a sin and why this judgment is appropriate.

(d) Innocence: “But …” followed by an affirmation that Job is not guilty of this sin.

Because the list follows verses 4 and 6, all of them carry the implicit claim of innocence.

1. Turning Aside in the Heart (vv. 7, 8)

The list begins with what is really a continuation of verse 5.

Sin: if my step has turned aside from the way

and my heart has gone after my eyes,

and if any spot has stuck to my hands … (v. 7)

Judgment: … then let me sow, and another eat,

and let what grows for me be rooted out. (v. 8)

The sin described in verses 5, 7 is quite general, but it is described in three ways.

First, it is a turning aside from the right “way”;

second, it consists in the “heart” going after the “eyes”—that is to say, what the eye sees leads to and stirs up evil desires in the heart;

third, it involves a “spot” or stain of impurity sticking to the “hands,” as a way of describing actions that are impure.

While the first and third of these are about action (the foot and the hand), the middle one is about the heart, and it is this that causes the actions. Job has made a covenant with his eyes, and the sin for which he claims innocence is that of his heart being led astray by his eyes. Centuries later the Apostle John would write of “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life” (1 John 2:16).

Job describes the appropriate punishment (v. 8) in terms of the frustrated farmer, in language that Israel will later recognize as describing covenant curses (e.g., Deuteronomy 28). He will sow in tears but never reap, for others will have invaded his land and will enjoy his produce. All this is just what has happened to Job (Job 1, 2), even though he does not deserve it.

2. Adultery (vv. 9–12)

Sin: If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,

and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door. (v. 9)

Judgment: then let my wife grind for another,

and let others bow down on her. (v. 10)

Reason: For that would be a heinous crime;

that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges;

for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon,

and it would burn to the root all my increase. (vv. 11, 12)

If Job’s first example is general, his second is very specific: adultery. It is described in verse 9. The first half of the parallelism (v. 9a) speaks of a “heart … enticed” toward a woman who is not his wife. Although Job is speaking of the action of adultery, he knows that the action of adultery begins with an adulterous heart, as Jesus spelled out in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:28).

The punishment Job describes fits the sin; it is for another man to do to Job what he has done to his neighbor in stealing his wife.

Job describes both the sin and the punishment from the man’s point of view. This does not necessarily imply a sexist lack of concern for women and their point of view. It simply says that if Job steals his neighbor’s wife, causing him pain and loss, it will be an appropriate punishment for Job also to suffer the theft of his own wife, with the pain and loss that would cause him. Of course there are also all sorts of pains and griefs for the women who are caught up in the misery of these sins of their husbands.

This is a terrible punishment for a terrible sin.

3. Injustice to Servants (vv. 13–15)

Sin: If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant,

when they brought a complaint against me. (v. 13)

Judgment: what then shall I do when God rises up?

When he makes inquiry, what shall I answer him? (v. 14)

Reason: Did not he who made me in the womb make him?

And did not one fashion us in the womb? (v. 15)

The third example Job gives concerns the way he treated those over whom he had power, his servants. The expression “rejected the cause” means to deny justice (v. 13). The question of justice between a master and his servants will always be a confusing one in human affairs, because where there is a mismatch of power, justice will always depend upon the fairness of the more powerful party. This is the problem Job has been having with God, who is much more powerful than Job, his loyal servant (9:1–20). Had Job treated his servants the way God has treated him, it would have been wrong.

He does not specify the punishment but simply says that he would have no answer in court when God “rises up”—that is, stands up in court—and “makes inquiry” into what has happened (v. 14).

The reason it would be wrong for Job to have denied justice to his servants is given in verse 15: God the Judge is the Maker of both Job and his servants. Job shares with his servants a common humanity and a common answerability to God. This reason is precisely the reason given in another wisdom book, the book of Proverbs: “Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker” (Proverbs 17:5a); “The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2).

4. Lack of Generosity to the Needy (vv. 16–20)

Sin: If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,

or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,

or have eaten my morsel alone,

and the fatherless has not eaten of it. (vv. 16, 17)

Innocence: (for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father,

and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow). (v. 18)

Sin: if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,{v.19)

or the needy without covering,

if his body has not blessed me,

and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep … (vv. 19, 20)

In verses 16–20 Job describes two closely related sins, both of which concern lack of generosity to the needy. They are described as “the poor” (v. 16a), “the widow” (v. 16b), “the fatherless” (v. 17b), and “the needy” (v. 19b), all of which describe weak and defenseless people in need.

The sin is described first in general terms, as withholding “anything that the poor desired” or causing “the eyes of the widow to fail” (v. 16). In context this must refer to things that defenseless people need for life and that the wealthy Job is able to supply.

Then in verse 17 we focus in on food necessary for survival, what Job calls “my morsel.” Job’s table has been generously shared with the fatherless. And in verse 18 he explicitly claims that he has been consistently generous to the poor, from his—presumably rich—youth onward. His wealthy home has been an open home and a place of plenty for the needy. Verses 19, 20 shift from food to the other essential of survival, clothing. This is not a matter of luxury designer clothes but of clothing without which people “perish” (v. 19a). Job’s flocks of sheep have provided warm clothing not only for him and his family but for many needy people.

5. Violence against the Defenseless (vv. 21–23)

Sin: if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,

because I saw my help in the gate. (v. 21)

Judgment: then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,

and let my arm be broken from its socket. (v. 22)

Reason: For I was in terror of calamity from God,

and I could not have faced his majesty. (v. 23)

Next, Job moves from not being generous to being actively hostile and violent against the defenseless. The idiom to “raise the hand” (v. 21) means publicly to condemn and act in judgment. It is used of God’s judgment in Isaiah 19:16 and Zechariah 2:9. For Job, with his position as a regional judge, it would mean abusing his legal power falsely to condemn the defenseless. Job has not abused his position and power.

Had he done so then it would be appropriate for his own shoulder blade (which supported his upraised “hand” [v. 21]) to be dislocated, so that his “arm” (power in action) would be “broken” (v. 22). The one who raises a hand to harm the innocent and defenseless will find his arm broken and his shoulder dislocated by the God of judgment. In verse 23 Job expands on this: the reason he has not done this is that he fears God and knows that God will bring “calamity” (as in v. 3) to those who do this. Job fears the “majesty” of God the Judge.

6. Trust in Wealth (vv. 24, 25)

Sin: If I have made gold my trust

or called fine gold my confidence,

if I have rejoiced because my wealth was abundant

or because my hand had found much … (vv. 24, 25)

Job moves now from his social behavior, toward his servants and toward the defenseless, to his heart and his faith. He had been a very rich man, but he denies putting his trust in his riches, which is always a danger for the rich. He knows that “whoever trusts in his riches will fall” (Proverbs 11:28), and he has resisted this temptation. Throughout his time of prosperity he has continued to put his trust in God alone. There is no judgment explicitly stated for this because Job moves directly on to another sin. But the clear implication is that this sin also is serious and would render Job liable to judgment.

7. Idolatry of Heavenly Bodies (vv. 26–28)

Sin: … if I have looked at the sun when it shone,

or the moon moving in splendor,

and my heart has been secretly enticed,

and my mouth has kissed my hand. (v. 26, 27)

Judgment: this also would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges,

for I would have been false to God above. (v. 28)

The theme of trust continues in the next sin, which speaks not of trust in human riches but of faith in the gods of the heavenly bodies, the sun and the moon. In this context to “look at” the sun or the moon means to worship it (v. 26). Which was not uncommon in those days…and it’s even not unfamiliar today as some worship mother earth.

Job agrees that to worship the sun or moon would deserve punishment because it would be “false to God above” (v. 28). There is one God above, and only one, and Job has worshipped him and has not been an idolater.

8. Vindictiveness toward Enemies (vv. 29, 30)

Sin: If I have rejoiced at the ruin of him who hated me,

or exulted when evil overtook him. (v. 29)

Innocence: (I have not let my mouth sin

by asking for his life with a curse) … (v. 30)

Job moves back to his social behavior and speaks now of his attitude toward his enemies. He has not cheered with selfish, vengeful delight when his enemies got what they had coming (v. 29). He has not even cursed them (v. 30). “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,” says Proverbs, “and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him” (Proverbs 24:17, 18). The joy of the righteous is in seeing wrongs righted, but never in seeing enemies punished, however good and right this may be.

9. Lack of Hospitality to Strangers (vv. 31, 32)

Sin: if the men of my tent have not said,

“Who is there that has not been filled with his meat?” (v. 31)

Innocence: (the sojourner has not lodged in the street;

I have opened my doors to the traveler) … (v. 32)

What is in view here is showing proper hospitality, an important moral obligation in the world of the ancient east. no traveler in Job’s region had to rough it. Job’s doors were always open.

10. Hypocrisy (vv. 33, 34)

Sin: … if I have concealed my transgressions as others do

by hiding my iniquity in my heart,

because I stood in great fear of the multitude,

and the contempt of families terrified me,

so that I kept silence, and did not go out of doors—(vv. 33, 34)

Job’s first example was a general one concerning the faithfulness of his heart and life; his final example also searches the heart. Job denies being a hypocrite, pretending to be one thing while in reality being another. His claim before God is to be blameless or to have “integrity” (v. 6); it is therefore fitting that he ends his list with hypocrisy. Job has not been a sin-concealer.

He does not deny committing “transgressions” and having “iniquity”; he does deny concealing them (v. 33), as David had done before writing Psalm 32.

This is a particular danger for prominent godly people, who would naturally fear the damage to their reputation when they admit their sin. “The multitude” and the “families” might think less well of him, and for fear of this he might hide his iniquity in his heart, keep silence, and do his best to conceal his sin (v. 34).

But like David in later years after his adultery with Bathsheba, Job lives a life of open confession before God and, when appropriate, before people. He never claims to be sinless; he does claim to be consistently penitent.

This is a remarkable list of examples. In each one Job describes a sin. In most of them he explicitly acknowledges that the sin would deserve punishment; in several of them the punishment tallies frighteningly closely with what Job himself has actually experienced. In some of them he backs this up with a reason for the judgment. In some he explicitly claims innocence, and in all of them he implicitly denies guilt. In the first and last he goes to the heart of the matter, claiming to have a heart, and therefore a conscience, that is right before God.

B′. The Challenge Repeated (vv. 35–37)

Oh, that I had one to hear me!

(Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me!)

Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!

Surely I would carry it on my shoulder;

I would bind it on me as a crown;

I would give him an account of all my steps;

like a prince I would approach him. (vv. 35–37)

Right near the start Job has asked, “Does not [the Almighty] see my ways and number [or count or account for] all my steps?” (v. 4). He has asked to be “weighed in a just balance” so that his “integrity” may be known and acknowledged by God (v. 6). Now he comes back to this challenge. With that deep sighing and longing with which he began his final speech (29:2), he says, “Oh, that …” He longed at the start for the dignity of a son of God; he yearns now for the vindication, the justification before God. “Oh, that I had one to hear me!”—that is, a just judge to hear his case in the court of the universe (31:25).

This is a moment of electrifying tension. Job implies, “God has treated me as guilty, and if in fact I am not guilty, then God stands guilty of injustice! Or so it appears.”

A′. The Covenant Attested by Creation (vv. 38–40)

“If my land has cried out against me

and its furrows have wept together,

if I have eaten its yield without payment

and made its owners breathe their last,

let thorns grow instead of wheat,

and foul weeds instead of barley.”

The words of Job are ended. (vv. 38–40)

And so we come to Job’s final paragraph, where he calls creation to witness to his having kept his covenant (v. 1). Creation appears here represented by Job’s “land.” His farmland has seen how he has treated his tenant farmers. Had he defrauded them, eating the harvest without paying them fairly, and thus causing them harm (v. 39), then the land itself would have “cried out against” him, and the plowman’s furrows would have “wept together” (v. 38).

Job is here doing something much deeper than just adding a postscript to his list of sins; he is claiming that the covenant he has kept with his conscience is a covenant in the sight of the God who is the Maker of Heaven and earth. It is a covenant to live in tune with creation order. Later, when there is a covenant with Israel, the promised land bears witness to this covenant (e.g., Deuteronomy 30:19; Isaiah 1:2; Micah 6:2) and laments when Israel is unfaithful (e.g., Jeremiah 12:4). Alienation from the ground goes right back to the beginnings of the curse (Genesis 3:18). Job echoes this when he calls upon himself the curse of “thorns” and “foul weeds” if he has broken this covenant (v. 40a).

What Are We to Make of This Final Speech?

And so “the words of Job are ended.” But what are we to make of him and of this final speech? Sure, it is very fine and bold, but is it true? And if it is true, how can it be true for a sinner to say these things? This is the critical question, and it can only be answered by reading this speech in the light of the doctrines of justification and of union with Christ from the rest of Scripture.

First, we note that, as so often in the book, Job is a foreshadowing Jesus Christ who will fulfill these things perfectly.

Jesus’ perfect obedience will extend both to his single-hearted worship and love for his Father and to his perfectly sinless and utterly good treatment of all his fellow human beings, Jesus fulfills the innocence of Job in the perfection of his obedient life.

But this still leaves the question of how the historical man Job can say these things and expect God to take him seriously. And clearly he does expect God to take him seriously, and we shall see that God does indeed take him seriously and will—in chapter 42—affirm Job as his faithful covenant servant.

But how can a sinner—and Job is a sinner—claim such innocence without opening himself to the accusation of self-righteous?

Essentially this question is the same as the puzzle of how the adulterer and murderer David can so often claim innocence in the Psalms. Psalm 17 is a paramount example, where David claims not just innocence: “You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night, you have tested me, and you will find nothing” (Psalm 17:3).

For David the answer is given explicitly in Romans 4. David has appropriated “the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works” (Romans 4:6). A righteousness from God, an alien righteousness (as Luther called it), the righteousness of Christ is counted, imputed, or reckoned to him by faith, so that when his steps are “counted” they are counted righteous. David in his faith foreshadows all who are righteous by faith in Christ today. And so does Job.

Job is a man—a remarkable man, for he has so little revelation—who in his heart of trust in the Almighty is credited with a righteousness not his own.

But it is more than that; like all men and women who are truly justified today by faith in Jesus Christ, Job’s justification has life-changing consequences. It’s one thing to say “I’m a Christian” it’s quite another if in your life it’s evident you truly are a Christian, that there is fruit.

This is why Job’s actual life begins to conform to the righteousness credited to him by grace. This is why he walks with a clear conscience. This is why, when he sins, he offers sacrifice, as we saw him do for his children in chapter 1.

The innocence Job claims in chapter 31 is an innocence given to him perfectly by grace, through the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is an innocence beginning to be worked in his actual life, also by grace, which is in anticipation of the working of the Holy Spirit in his heart. We can look at Job 31 and say Job sounds arrogant or we can see it like this... Job 31 is true by grace, both in Job’s status and in Job’s life. He is, as the Apostle John would later put it, a man who is “walk[ing] in the light” (1 John 1:7)

Even in our day when we know as believers we’ve been purchased by the blood of Jesus and our sins are forgiven by grace through faith…we still have this tendency to try and hide our sin…we can’t hide it from God but we can sure hide it from each other. Whether it’s out of fear of what others will think or out of shame, or because we’ve been hurt before by opening up to someone and them blasting it all over.

Just think what might happen if we’d open up more about the sin we wrestle with or our struggles we have in the church. Someone sitting next to you might be thinking, “my life is a mess…I wish I had it all together like so and so.” But the reality is brother so and so may be wrestling with the same thing you are.

Here’s my encouragement to you this morning, you’re not alone in your struggling with sin. All Christians struggle with sin in their lives, whether they admit it or not. But there’s grace…a grace greater than our sin. What is it you’re currently struggling with? Is it turning away in the heart from what is right? Is it lust? Lack of generosity? Anger? Doubt? Fear? The list goes on and on.

Bring those sins and struggles to the Lord this morning. Are you going to continue to hide your sin or give it over to the Lord…do so today. If you need to talk to me or another trusted brother or sister in Christ…do so. Don’t hold on to it, confess it to the Lord, give it over to the Lord and be free.