After having spent several Sunday mornings looking at "The Full Length Portrait of a Virtuous Woman" in Proverbs 31, now we must look at her counterpart in "The Heart of a Godly Man" in Job 31. A virtuous woman needs a godly man, and a godly man needs a virtuous woman - in the Lord, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman, I Corinthians 11:11.

All the other books of the Old Testament have as their focus the relation of the covenant people of Israel with Jehovah, the holy nation with their God. But the Book of Job is unique in that it is a personal life-history of an individual man and his relation to Jehovah. No other book is like it in the Bible. The Book of Ruth is about Ruth, Naomi and Boaz; Ezra and Nehemiah are about the restoration of Israel; Esther is the story of two courageous people; the Song of Solomon is about a married couple, but Job stands alone and by himself. In studying this Spirit-produced book of the Bible, we are privileged to look deeply into the heart and mind of a godly man. May the godliness of this man be the model for all men.