“…let briers come up instead…” Job 31:40a

Job’s final words in his own defense concerned the last proof of his integrity, which I shared in yesterday’s vignette. He conjectured that if the land cried out in testimony against him for irresponsible management of its use, and if he had broken the spirit of his tenant farmers, then he declared he would allow briers to take over the wheat fields, as well as letting weeds crowd out his barley fields. Within these words, we find a man so convinced of his own innocence that he is willing to incur a heavy penalty if his words were proved false.

It was also a clever legal maneuver by Job: if he let weeds grow up in his fields, all the fields within a few miles of his would soon be overrun with the seeds of weeds carried by birds and any winds. You see, weeds and briers corrupt otherwise good land created by our loving Lord. The entire earth was corrupted by the fall of man. When man sinned in the Garden of Eden, it wasn’t just the fall of man, it was the fall of all creation… and I believe weeds and briers are part of the consequences of that fall. Those who had ventured by to gawk at the pitiful site of a once powerful landowner may have included jealous neighbors. Job was essentially stating that he had kept his fields like he had kept his life – free from corruption… a statement put in this way could never be misinterpreted by those who had the means to provide assistance to Job.

When we keep our lives free from the entanglements of sin, our lives – like healthy fields – produce good fruit which blesses others. The harvests of our lives will be increased many fold by keeping the weeds of sin out of the fields of our heart and mind, allowing God’s Word to flourish within our fertile minds (read Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; 26-29).

By allowing the weeds to grow in his fields, Job would be accepting the judgment of his community while still providing for his own sustenance. It would be more work, for he would have to separate the weeds from the good grain. Nevertheless, he could let them grow together until time to harvest and have enough to feed his wife and himself. Jesus taught how certain confederates may enter a faith fellowship, and the dangers of expelling them before bringing up those who were beginning their faith journey (read Matthew 13:24-30). Jesus corroborated Job’s thinking by teaching that, in order to preserve the good wheat, both the wheat and the tares had to grow together, then they would be separated at harvest.

Sometimes we allow briers to come up within our faith communities in order to nurture and preserve the faith walk of younger less experienced Believers. Don’t be fooled by a legalistic mindset in portraying the purity of the gospel – let briers come up instead – and let God deal with them at a later time.

Have a blessed day…