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Job 31:29-30
29 If I rejoiced [samach] at the destruction [piyd] of him that hated [sane'] me, or lifted up [`uwr] myself when evil [ra`] found [matsa'] him:
30 Neither have I suffered [nathan] my mouth [chek] to sin [chata'] by wishing [sha'al] a curse ['alah] to his soul [nephesh]. KJV-Interlinear
29 'Have I rejoiced at the extinction of my enemy, Or exulted when evil befell him? 30 'No, I have not allowed my mouth to sin By asking for his life in a curse. NASB
Job has referred to his attitude toward the poor or helpless folks of the world. He has referred to his attitude toward possessions or his various positions in society. And now, he is introducing another category of attitudes, these being referred to those folks who oppose him, those folks who hate him, those folks who seek harm to fall on him.
If you have lived for any length of time on this earth and have had interactions with people in anyway, then no doubt, you have been the target of gossip, maligning, judging, rage, insults, and so forth.
There is no shortage of people who are implacable and seek revenge or harm against anyone they simply do no like.
The character of wickedness is vanity. Vanity means nothing, or nothingness. Nothing means empty, and empty means shallow. So the principle nature of people who lack a spiritual life, is their shallowness.
People will do bad things out of spite, in seeking political advantage (office, social, etc.), from jealousy or envy, and so forth.
If you have any degree of prosperity or success, or if others simply perceive that you are well off, then they will hate you just because you have what they want. They may veil their attitude with criticism or some convenient standard which they subscribe to, in order to help their gossip arguments to seem legitimate, but deep down in there soul is jealousy or hate and nothing more.
Your destruction accomplishes nothing but satisfaction of their ego in seeing you fall.
You may know who your enemies are, and many times in life, you will never know them. Often times you will hear about attacks against you, second hand, if at all.
So now you can lower yourself to the standards of your enemies, or you can follow the standard which Job states here.
Matt. 5:44-48
44 'But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you 45 in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 'For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? 47 'And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 'Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. NASB
To adopt revenge or hate, compromises and defeats your spiritual life. Your spiritual life is more valuable than all the wealth in the world combined. So why would you throw that away over a little anger toward someone who is clearly a fool.
You gain nothing, just as they gain nothing. And you risk losing vast spiritual wealth for nothing.
Being successful, Job was certainly the target of many jealous types. Being in business, he most likely made others feel cheated or injured, even if they were not.
Life in this world is not perfect, and often times errors or flaws occur, or things just do not work out as you planned. Others may feel that you are the cause of their failure or loss.
And whether you are to blame or not, is irrelevant anyway. Everyone should look to God for their provision unique to them and their life, and get over whatever difficulties crop up in life.
But of course we know that most folks will get upset for one reason or another, so confrontation, jealousy, envy, and such are all going to be a part of life, regardless of your efforts or failures.
Job was not a perfect man, but suffice to say, he was probably more perfect than any of us.
Sure, you will get your feathers ruffled from time to time. You will blow your stack from time to time. But the spiritually advancing believer will recover his poise, recover his composure and move on with life. You should never go out of your way to plan or coordinate a counter-attack (socially), against anyone who just doesn't like you.
Your best course is to simply ignore them, avoid them and move on with a life that is far more important to you, than getting bogged down in someone else's emotional failures.
If you have to blow off steam, then buy a punching bag and hang it up in the garage. The exercise would be good for you anyway. Then go have a sandwich!
