Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 23:1
Then Job answered and said,
Job 23:1-6
Oh, that I knew where I might find Him.
The cry for restored relations with God
The language of the text is exclusively that of men on the earth,–although it also characterises the state and feelings only of some of the guilty children of men. Some among the human race have already sought God, and found Him a present help in the time of trouble. The desire expressed in the text is that of one under affliction. It is either the prayer of an awakened sinner, crying and longing for reconciliation, to God, under deep conviction, and full of sorrow and shame on account of it: or the cry of the backslider awakened anew to his danger and guilt, under Gods chastisements, remembering the sweet enjoyment of brighter days, and ardently longing for its return.
I. It implies a painful sense of distance from God. Men of no religion are far off from God, but this gives them no concern. The presence of Christ constitutes the believers joy, and he mourns nothing so much as the loss of Gods favour. Sad and comfortless as the state of distance from God must be to the believer, still he is painfully conscious of his own state, and crying like Job, Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! The occasions that most generally give birth to the complaint and cry in the text are such as these.
1. Bodily suffering, or the pressure of severe and long-continued outward calamities, may contribute to enfeeble the mind, and lead the soul to conclude that it is forsaken by its God. The dispensations of Divine providence appear so complex and difficult, that faith is unable to explore them, or hope to rise above them. The mind magnifies its distresses, and dwells on its own griefs, to the exclusion of those grounds of consolation and causes of thankfulness afforded in the many mercies that tend to alleviate their bitterness. In reality God is not more distant from the soul, though He appears to be so.
2. Another and more serious occasion of distance and desertion is sin cherished, long indulged, unrepented of, and unpardoned. This alienates the soul from God. Sin is just the wandering of the soul in its thoughts, desires, and affections from God, and God graciously makes sin itself the instrument in correcting the backslider. The righteous desert of the souls departure from God, is Gods desertion of the soul. God is really ever near to man. He is not far from any one of us. But sin indulged, whether open, secret, or presumptuous, grieves the Holy Spirit, expels Him from the temple He loved, and cheered by His presence. Let us thank God that distance is not utter desertion. When the misery of separation and distance from God is felt, the dawn of restoration and reconciliation begins.
II. As the language of earnest desire. When brought to himself the backslider rests not satisfied with fruitless complaints, but the desire of his soul is towards his God. It is one thing to be conscious of distance from God, and quite another thing to be anxious to be brought near to Him by the blood of Christ. Conviction of guilt and misery is not conversion. What avails it, to know our separation from God, unless we are brought to this desire and anxiety, Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!
III. As the language of holy freedom. The text is a way of appeal by Job to God concerning his integrity. Though he had much to say in favour of his integrity before men, he did not rest on anything in himself as the ground of his justification before God. His language expresses a resolution to avail himself of the privilege of approaching the Most High with holy freedom and humble confidence, to present his petition.
IV. As the language of hope. Job could expect little from his earthly friends. All his hopes flowed from another–an Almighty Friend. Those who wait on God, and hope in His Word, will surely not be disappointed. Then never give way to a rebellious spirit. Give not way to languor in your affections, coldness in your desires, indifference as to the Lords presence or absence, or to feebleness of faith. Let the desires of your soul be, as Davids, a panting after God. (Charles O. Stewart.)
The great problem of life
This cry of Job is represented to us in this passage as a cry for justice. He has been tortured by the strange mystery of Gods providence; he has had it brought before himself in his own painful experience, and from that has been led to look out on the world, where he sees the same mystery enlarged and intensified.
He sees wrong unredressed, evil unpunished, innocence crushed under the iron heel of oppression. He does not see clear evidences of Gods moral government of the world, and he comes back ever to the personal problem with which he is faced, that he though he is sure of his own innocence, is made to suffer, and he feels as if God had been unjust to him. He wants it explained; he would like to argue the case, and set forth his plea; he longs to be brought before Gods judgment seat and plead before Him, and give vent to all the bitter thoughts in his mind. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. He feels Gods very presence about him on every side, ever present, but ever eluding him; everywhere near, but everywhere avoiding him. Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him. On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him. It is not his own personal pain that makes the problem, except in so far as that has brought him before the deeper problem of Gods providence which he now confronts. Everything would be clear and plain if he could but come into close relations with God, and that is just what meanwhile he cannot attain. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!
I. In perhaps a wider sense than its original application in the passage of our text, these words of Job are as the very sigh of the human heart, asking the deepest question of life. Men have always boon conscious of God, as Job was, sure that He was near, and sure also, like Job, that in Him would be the solution of every difficulty and the explanation of every mystery. The race has been haunted by God. St. Pauls words to the Athenians on Mars Hill are a true reading of history, and a true reading of human nature; that all men are so constituted by essential nature that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us. It is the deepest philosophy of human history. Even when men have no definite knowledge of God they are forced by the very needs of their nature, driven by inner necessity, to reach out after God. Though, like Job, when they go forward He is not there, and backward they cannot perceive Him. On the left hand and on the right hand they cannot see Him, yet they are doomed to seek Him, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him. Man is a religious being, it is in his blood; he feels himself related to a power above him, and knows himself a spirit longing for fellowship with the Divine. Thus religion is universal, found at all stages of human history and all ages; all the varied forms of religion, all its institutions, all its sorts of worship, are witnesses to this conscious need which the race has for God. Job may assent to Zophar the Naamathites proposition that finite man cannot completely comprehend the infinite. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? But this assertion does not disprove the fact of which he is certain, that he has had fellowship with God, and has had religious experiences of which he cannot doubt. All forms of faith are witnesses to mans insatiable thirst for God, and many forms of unbelief and denial are only more pathetic witnesses still of the same fact. Many a denial of the Divine is just the bitter faith that He is a God that hideth Himself. When men come to consciousness of self they come also to consciousness of the unseen, a sense of relation to the power above them. The great problem of life is to find God; not to find happiness, not even by being satiated with that can the void be filled; but to find God; for being such as we are, with needs, longings, aspirations, we are beaten with unsatisfied desire, struck with restless fever, till we find rest in God. The true explanation is the biblical one, that man is made in the imago of God, that in spirit he is akin to the eternal Spirit, there is no great gulf fixed between God and man which cannot be bridged over. Man was created in the likeness of God, but was born a child of God. Fellowship is possible, therefore, since there is no inherent incapacity; there is something in man which corresponds to qualities in God. The conclusion, which is the instinctive faith of man, is that spirit with spirit can meet. God entered into a relation of love and fatherhood with man, man entered into a relationship of love and sonship with God. Certain it is that man can never give up the hope and the desire, and must be orphaned and desolate until he so does find God.
II. If it be true, as it is true, that man has ever sought God, it is a deeper fact still that God has ever sought man. The deep of mans desire has been answered by the deep of Gods mercy. For every reaching forth of man there has been the stooping down of God. History is more than the story of the human soul seeking God; in a truer and more profound sense still is it the record of God seeking the soul. The very fact that men have asked with some measure of belief, though struck almost with doubt at the wonder of it, Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? is because God has dwelt with men, has entered into terms of communion. The history of mans attainment is the history of Gods self-revelation. It is solely because God has been seeking man that man has stretched out groping hands if haply he might feel after Him and find Him. Faith has survived just because it justifies itself and because it embodies itself in experience. Religious history is not only the dim and blundering reaching out of mans intelligence towards the mystery of the unknown, it is rather the history of God approaching man, revealing His will to man, declaring Himself, offering relations of trust and fellowship. If Christ has given expression to the character of God, if He has revealed the Father, has He not consciously, conclusively, proved to us that the Divine attitude is that of seeking men, striving to establish permanent relations of devotion and love? He has also given us the assurance that to respond to Gods love is to know Him, the assurance that to seek Him is to find Him, so that no longer need we ask in half despair, Oh that I knew where I might find Him! Prayer, trust, worship, self-surrender, never fail of Divine response, bringing peace and hearts ease. When to the knowledge that God is, and is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, there is added the further knowledge that God is love, we receive a guarantee–do we not?–that not in vain is our desire after Him, a guarantee that to seek Him is to find Him. Ah, the tragedy is not that men who seek should have failed to find God, but that men should not seek, that men should be content to pass through life without desiring much, or much striving, to pierce the veil of mystery. It is mans nature to seek God, we have said, but this primitive intuition can be overborne by the weight of material interest, by the mass of secondary concerns, by the lust of flesh and the lust of eye and pride of life. A thousand-fold better than this deadness of soul is it to be still unsatisfied, still turning the eyes to the light for the blissful vision; to be still in want, crying to the silent skies, Oh that I knew where I might find Him! But even that need not be our condition. If we seek God, as we surely can, as we surely do, in the face of Jesus Christ, the true picture is not man lost in the dark, not man seeking God his home with palsied steps and groping hands. The true picture is the seeking God, come in Christ to seek and save the lost. (H. Black, M. A.)
Mans cry for fellowship with God
The provision to satisfy this longing of the soul must involve–
I. A personal manifestation of God to the soul. It is not for some thing, but for some person that the soul cries. Pantheism may gratify the instinct of the speculative, or the sentiment of the poetic, but it meets not this profoundest craving of our nature.
II. A benevolent manifestation of God to the soul. For an unemotional God the soul has no affinity; for a malevolent one it has a dread. It craves for one that is kind and loving. Its cry is for the Father; nothing else will do.
III. A propitiable manifestation of God to the soul. A sense of sin presses heavily on the race. So mere benevolence will not do. God may be benevolent and yet not propitiable. Does then our Bible meet the greatest necessity of human nature? Does it give a personal, benevolent, and propitiable God? (Homilist.)
Job looking round for God
Job looks round for God, as a man might look round for an old acquaintance, an old but long-gone friend. Memory has a great ministry to discharge in life; old times come back, and whisper to us, correct us or bless us, as the ease may be. After listening to all new doctors the heart says, Where is your old friend? where the quarter whence light first dawned? recall yourself; think out the whole case. So Job would seem now to say, Oh that I knew where I might find Him! I would go round the earth to discover Him; I would fly through all the stars if I could have but one brief interview with Him; I would count no labour hard if I might see Him as I once did. We are not always benefited by a literally correct experience, a literally correct interpretation, even. Sometimes God has used other means for our illumination and release, and upbuilding in holy mysteries. So Job might have strange ideas of God, and yet those ideas might do him good. It is not our place to laugh even at idolatry. There is no easier method of provoking an unchristian laugh, or evoking an unchristian plaudit, than by railing against the gods of the heathen. Jobs ideas of God were not ours, but they were his; and to be a mans very own religion is the beginning of the right life. Only let a man with his heart hand seize some truth, hold on by some conviction, and support the same by an obedient spirit, a beneficent life, a most charitable temper, a high and prayerful desire to know all Gods will, and how grey and dim soever the dawn, the noontide shall be without a cloud, and the afternoon shall be one long quiet glory. Hold on by what you do know, and do not be laughed out of initial and incipient convictions by men who are so wise that they have become fools. Job says, Now I bethink me, God is considerate and forbearing. Will He plead against me with His great power? No; but He would put strength in me (verse 6). It is something to know so much. Job says, Bad as I am, I might be worse; after all I am alive; poor, desolated, impoverished, dispossessed of nearly everything I could once handle and claim as my own, yet still I live, and life is greater than anything life can ever have. So I am not engaged in a battle against Omnipotence; were I to fight Almightiness, why I should be crushed in one moment. The very fact that I am spared shows that although it may be God who is against me, He is not rude in His almightiness, He is not thundering upon me with His great strength; He has atmosphered Himself, and is looking in upon me by a gracious accommodation of Himself to my littleness. Let this stand as a great and gracious lesson in human training, that however great the affliction it is evident that God does not plead against us with His whole strength; if He did so, He who touches the mountains and they smoke has but to lay one finger upon us–nay, the shadow of a finger–and we should wither away. So, then, I will bless God; I will begin to reckon thus, that after all that has gone the most has been left me; I can still inquire for God, I can still even dumbly pray; I can grope, though I cannot see; I can put out my hands in the great darkness, and feel something; I am not utterly cast away. Despisest thou the riches of His goodness? Shall not the riches of His goodness lead thee to repentance? Hast thou forgotten all the instances of forbearance? Is not His very stroke of affliction dealt reluctantly? Does He not let the lifted thunder drop? Here is a side of the Divine manifestation which may be considered by the simplest minds; here is a process of spiritual reckoning which the very youngest understandings may conduct. Say to yourself, Yes, there is a good deal left; the sun still warms the earth, the earth is still willing to bring forth fruit, the air is full of life; I know there are a dozen graves dug all round me, but see how the flowers grow upon them everyone; did some angel plant them? Whence came they? Life is greater than death. The life that was in Christ abolished death, covered it with ineffable contempt, and utterly set it aside, and its place is taken up by life and immortality, on which are shining forever the whole glory of heaven. Job will yet recover. He will certainly pray; perhaps he will sing; who can tell? He begins well; he says he is not fighting Omnipotence, Omnipotence is not fighting him, and the very fact of forbearance involves the fact of mercy. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
How to find God
There are many senses in which we may speak of finding God; and in one or other of these senses it may be we have all of us yet need to find Him.
1. Some there are who will confess at once that they are at times–not always, not often perhaps, but sometimes–troubled with speculative doubts about Gods existence. So many thoughtful, earnest men around them seem to regard it as an open question whether the problems of nature may not be solved on some other hypothesis.
2. Others dislike controversy, and would rather not enter upon the question whether they have found God. These are Christians, and the first article of their creed is, I believe in God.
3. Some are ready timidly to confess that again and again they have found their faith in Gods presence fail them, when they have most needed it.
4. A happier group, by a well-ordered life of devotion, and daily attendance on the ordinances of the Church, are keeping themselves near to God. And yet even these may have a misgiving that they are growing too dependent on these outward helps for the sustaining of their faith. Jobs words may well awaken an echo in all our hearts. Oh that I knew where I might find Him! There is comfort in the fact that holy men of old felt this same desire to find God in some deeper sense than they had yet attained to. If they felt it, we need not be unduly distressed if we feel it also. How then are we to seek to find God? Intellectually or otherwise? Not to mere intellect, but to a higher faculty, the moral and spiritual faculty. When we speak of knowing a thing intellectually, we mean that we know it by demonstration of sense or reason. When we speak of knowing a thing morally or spiritually, we mean that we either know it intuitively or take it on trust. We do not mean that the evidence in this latter case is less certain than in the former; it may be far more certain. Scepticism in religion is simply that failure of faith which is sure to result from an endeavour to grasp religious truths by a faculty that was never intended to grasp them. But how am I to know what is a Divine revelation, and what is not? He who is in direct correspondence with God, holding direct intercourse with God, will not need any further evidence of Gods existence. If any here would find God, let him first go to the four Gospels, and try to see clearly there what Christ promises to do for him. Then let him take this promise on trust, as others have done, and act upon it. And if perseveres, he will sooner or later most surely find God. (Canon J. P. Norris, B. D.)
The universal cry
When Job uttered this cry he was in great distress. That God is just is a fact; that men suffer is also a fact; and both these facts are found side by side in the same universe governed by one presiding will. How to reconcile the two, how to explain human suffering under the government of a righteous Ruler, is the great problem of the Book of Job. It is a question which has occupied the thoughts of the thinking in every age. The form in which it presents itself here is this,–Is God righteous in afflicting an innocent man? The friends say there are just two ways of it. Either you are guilty or God is unjust. It is not so much the character of Job that is at stake as the character of God Himself; the Almighty Himself stands at the bar of human reason. The patriarch felt assured that there was a righteous God who would not afflict unjustly, and he cries, Oh that I knew where I might find Him! Obviously he was not ignorant of the Divine Being, not ignorant of His existence, but ignorant how He was to be approached.
I. The cry of the human soul after God. Notice the object of the cry. It is for God. It goes straight to the mark, right over all lower objects and minor aims. He felt he had come to a crisis in his life, when none but God could avail. Give me God, and I have enough. When Job uttered this cry he unconsciously struck the keynote of universal desire. It is the cry of the human race after God. It is the instinctive cry of the human soul. Nature told men that there was a God, but it could not lead them to His seat. The sages went to philosophy for an answer, but philosophy said, It is not for me. In view of this fruitless search, a question might be started, a question easier to ask than to answer,–Why did God keep Himself and His plans hidden from mankind so long? This is one of the secret things that belong to God. We cannot tell, and we need not speculate.
II. The gospel answer to the text. Christ in human form satisfies the longing of the human spirit. He is Immanuel,–God with us. You will find the Father in the Son, you will find God in Christ. This cry may come from a soul who has never known God at all, or it may come from one who has lost the sense of His favour and longs for restoration. In either case the cry can be answered only in Christ. Have you found God? If you will take Christ as your guide, He will lead you up to God. (David Merson, B. D.)
The souls inquiry after a personal God
It is characteristic of man to ask questions. Question asking proceeds from personal need, curiosity, or love of knowledge, either for its own sake or its relative usefulness. We feel that we are dependent upon others for some direction or solution of difficulties; hence we ask for direction or instruction, because the limited character of our nature, and our dependence upon one another demand it. There are questions man asks himself, in his secret communion and examination with and of himself; there are some he asks of the universe; but the greatest and gravest are those he asks direct of God in sighs and supplications both by night and day. The sentence of the text is a question which the soul, in its search after God, continually asks; which is one of the greatest questions of life.
I. The need of the soul of a personal God. The human soul ever cries for God. It never ceases in its cry, and is weary in its search and effort in seeking the absolute reality and good of life. The soul needs an object to commune with, and this it finds in a Divine personality, and nowhere else. The soul asks, Where is the living One? The soul needs security, and that is not to be found according to the language of conviction but in a personal God. The soul seeks unity, hence it seeks a personal God.
II. The soul in search after a personal God. So near is the relation between conviction of the need of God, and the search after Him, that in the degree one is felt, the other is done. The soul is not confined to one place, or one mode of means in the search.
III. The perplexity of the soul in its search for the personal God. The perplexity arises partly from the mystery of the object of search.
IV. The secret confidence of the soul in the personal God whom it seeks. There is a general confidence in Gods mercy and in His all-sufficiency. (T. Hughes.)
Craving for God
These words are the utterance of a yearning and dissatisfied soul. The words were put into the mouth of Job, the well-known sufferer, whose patience under accumulated calamities is proverbial. Perhaps Job was not a real individual, but the hero of a majestic poem, through which the writer expresses his thoughts on the world-old problem that suffering is permitted by a good God to afflict even the righteous. Nevertheless, the writer may have had some special sufferer in his eye. No man without experience could have drawn these sublime discussions from his own fancy. They reflect too truly the sorrows and perplexities of human hearts in this life of trial. This man cries out, almost in despair, Oh that I knew where I might find Him! Find whom? God, the Almighty and Eternal, the Maker and Ruler of all. What a longing! What a search! In the mere fact of that search the downcast soul proclaims its lofty nature. And whoever is prompted by his needs and sorrows to cherish this desire, is raised and bettered thereby.
I. The search for God. Among the acts possible to man only, is that he alone can search for God. Strange are the contrasts which human nature exhibits. Language cannot describe the elevation to which man is capable of rising–the lofty self-devotion, the quest for truth, above all, the earnest search for God. Of all the many things men seek, surely this is the noblest, this search for God.
II. The search for God unavailing. This is an exclamation of despair about finding God. It seems to be Jobs chief trouble that he cannot penetrate the clouds and darkness which surround his Maker.
III. The search for God rewarded. The deep, unquenchable craving of frail, suffering, sinful men to find their Maker, and to find Him their friend, is met in Jesus Christ. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)
Oh that I knew where I might find Him
As these words are often the language of a penitent heart seeking the Saviour, Comforter, and Sanctifier, inquire–
I. Who are the characters that employ this language?
1. The sinner under conviction.
2. Believers in distress.
3. Penitent backsliders.
II. Point out where the Lord may be found.
1. In His works, as a God of power.
2. In providence, as a God of wisdom and goodness.
3. In the human breast, as a God of purity and justice.
4. In the ordinances of religion, as a God of grace. It is chiefly on the throne of mercy that He is graciously found.
III. From what sources you draw arguments.
1. From His power.
2. His goodness.
3. His mercy.
4. His truth.
5. His impartiality.
6. His justice.
The text is the language of sincere regret; restless desire; guilty fear; anxious inquiry; willing submission. (J. Summerfield, A. M.)
Man desiring God
God comes only into the heart that wants Him. Do I really, with my whole heart, desire to find God, and to give myself wholly into His hands? Do not mistake, if you please. This is the starting point. If you be wrong at this point my lesson will be taught entirely in vain. Everything depends upon the tone and purpose of the heart. If there is one here, really and truly, with all the desire of the soul, longing to find God, there is no reason why He should not be found, by such a seeker, ere the conclusion of the present service. How is it with our hearts? Do they go out but partially after God? Then they will see little or nothing of Him. Do they go out with all the stress of their affection, all the passion of their love,–do they make this their one object and all-consuming purpose? Then God will be found of them; and man and his Maker shall see one another, as it were, face to face, and new life shall begin in the human soul. Let me say, truly and distinctly, that it is possible to desire God under the impulse of merely selfish fear, and that such desire after God seldom ends in any good. It is true that fear is an element in every useful ministry. We would not, for one moment, undervalue the importance of fear in certain conditions of the human mind. At the same time, it is distinctly taught in the Holy Book that men may, in certain times, under the influence of fear, seek God, and God will turn His back upon them, will shut His ears when they cry, and will not listen to the voice of their appeal. Nothing can be more distinctly revealed than this awful doctrine, that God comes to men within certain seasons and opportunities, that He lays down given conditions of approach, that He even fixes times and periods, and that the day will come when He will say, I will send a famine upon the earth. Not a famine of bread, or a thirst of water, but of hearing the Word of the Lord. When men are in great physical pain, when cholera is in the air, when smallpox is killing its thousands week by week, when wheat fields are turned into graveyards, when Gods judgments are abroad in the earth, there be many who turn their ashen faces to the heavens! What if God will not hear their cowardly prayer? When God lifts His sword, there be many that say, We would flee from this judgment. And when He comes in the last, grand, terrible development of His personality, many will cry unto the rocks, and unto the hills to hide them from His face; but the rocks and the hills will hear them not, for they will be deaf at the bidding of God! I am obliged, therefore, you see, as a Christian teacher, to make this dark side of the question very plain indeed; because there are persons who imagine that they may put off these greatest considerations of life until times of sickness, and times of withdrawment from business, and times of plague, and seasons that seem to appeal more pathetically than others to their religious nature. God has distinctly said, Because I called, and they refused; I stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; I will mock at their calamity, I will laugh at their afflictions, I will mock when their fear cometh–when their fear cometh as desolation, and judgment cometh upon them as a whirlwind! Then they will cry unto Me, but I will not hear! Now, lest any man should be under thee impression that he can call upon God at any time and under any circumstances, I wish to say, loudly, with a trumpet blast, There is a black mark at a certain part of your life; up to that you may seek God and find Him,–beyond it you may cry, and hear nothing but the echo of your own voice! How then does it stand with us in this matter of desire? Is our desire after God living, loving, intense, complete? Why, that desire itself is prayer; and the very experience of that longing brings heaven into the soul! Let me ask you again, Do you really desire to find God, to know Him, and to love Him? That desire is the beginning of the new birth; that longing is the pledge that your prayers shall be accomplished in the largest, greatest blessing that the living God can bestow upon you. Still it may be important to go a little further into this, and examine what our object is in truly desiring to find God. It may be possible that even here our motive may be mixed; and if there is the least alloy in our motive, that alloy will tell against us. The desire must be pure. There must be no admixture of vanity or self-sufficiency; it must be a desire of true, simple, undivided love. Now, how is it with the desire which we at this moment may be presumed to experience? Let me ask this question, What is your object in desiring to find God? Is it to gratify intellectual vanity? That is possible. It is quite conceivable that a man of a certain type and cast of mind shall very zealously pursue theological questions without being truly, profoundly religious. It is one thing to have an interest in scientific theology, and another tiring really and lovingly to desire God for religious purposes. Is it not perfectly conceivable that a man shall take delight in dissecting the human frame, that he may find out its anatomy and understand its construction; and yet do so without any intention ever to heal the sick, or feed the hungry, or clothe the naked? Some men seem to be born with a desire to anatomise; they like to dissect, to find out the secret of the human frame, to understand its construction and the interdependence of its several parts. So far we rejoice in their perseverance and their discoveries. But it is perfectly possible for such men to care for anatomy without caring for philanthropy; to care about anatomy, from a scientific point of view, without any ulterior desire to benefit any living creature. So it is perfectly conceivable that man shall make the study of God a kind of intellectual hobby, without his heart being stirred by deep religious concern to know God as the Father, Saviour, Sanctifier, Sovereign of the human race. I, therefore, do not beg you to excuse me in the slightest degree in putting this question so penetratingly. It is a vital question. Do you seek to know more of God simply as a scientific theological inquirer? If so, you are off the line of my observations, and the Gospel I have to preach will hardly reach you in your remote position. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Jobs thoughts concerning an absent God
Whether there ever was such a being as a speculative atheist, it may not be easy to determine; but there are two classes of atheists which are very easily found. There are some who are atheists by disposition. There are also practical atheists.
I. Jobs condition. Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. In some this murmuring and repining is a natural infirmity; they seem to be constitutionally morbid and querulous. In others this is a moral infirmity, arising from pride and unbelief and discontent, against which it becomes us always carefully to guard.
II. Jobs desire. Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to Iris seat! He does not express the name of God. Here we see an addition to his distress; he was now in a state of desertion. God can never be absent from His people, as to His essential presence, or even as to His spiritual presence. But He may be absent as to what our divines call His sensible presence, or the manifestation of His favour and of the designs of His dealings with us. This greatly enhances any external affliction. For the presence of God, which is always necessary, is never so sweet as it is in the day of trouble. It is a sad thing to be without the presence of God; but it is far worse to be senseless of our need of it. The desire after God arises from three causes.
1. The new nature. Persons will desire according to their conviction and their disposition.
2. Experience. When they first sought after God, they felt their need of film
3. A consciousness of their entire dependence upon Him. They feel that all their sufficiency is of God. Observe, in the case of Job, the earnestness of his desire.
III. His resolution.
1. He says, I would order my cause before Him. Which shows that the Divine presence would not overpower him, so as not to leave sense, reason, and speech.
2. He says, I would fill my mouth with arguments. Not that these are necessary to excite and move a Being who is love itself; but these are proper to affect and encourage us.
3. He says, I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say unto me. In general, a Christian wishes to know the Divine pleasure concerning him. You will attach little importance to prayer, if you are regardless of Gods answer to it.
IV. His confidence and expectation. The power of God is great. Notice the blessedness of having this power employed for us. He will put strength in me. How dreadful must it be for God to plead against a man by His great power. (William Jay.)
Jobs appeal to God
Taking the Book of Job as a whole, it may be called a dramatic epic poem of remarkable merit, in which the author graphically discusses the general distribution of good and evil in the world, inquiring whether or not there is a righteous distribution of this good and evil here on earth, and whether or not the dealings of God with men are according to character. Job was saved from consenting to the conclusions of the three friends, through the consciousness of personal integrity and the confidence of his heart in a loving God. Jobs struggle was desperate. Those long-continued days and weeks were a trial of faith beyond our estimate. The question was not whether Job would bear his multiplied afflictions with a stoical heroism, but whether he would still turn to God, would rest in the calm confidence of his heart that God would be his justification and vindication. We now look at this storm-tossed man in his extremity, and discover him–
I. Anxious to find how he can get his cause before God for arbitration. Job illustrates what ought to be true of every man. We should be anxious to know what God thinks of us, rather than what men think of us. We should remember that One is to be our Judge who knows our heart, before whom, in the day of final assize, we are to appear for inspection, and whose recognition of our integrity will insure blessedness for us in the great hereafter.
II. We discover Job calmly confident that Gods decision of his cause will be just. He does not imagine for a moment that God will make mistakes concerning him, or that Omnipotence will take advantage of his weakness.
III. In great perplexity, because he seems to be excluded from the trial which he seeks. The lament of this man here is painful and mysterious. Jobs hope had been that God would appear somewhere. But all is night and silence. This is human experience caused by human infirmities. Life is a season of discipline, a season of education and evolution.
IV. We find Job calm in the assured watchfulness of God over him, and in his confidence of ultimate vindication. Here is supreme faith in the all-knowing and finally delivering God. Jobs faith is the worlds need. (Justin E. Twitchell.)
Where God is found
This Book of Job represents a discussion upon Gods providential relations to the world, and shows how the subject perplexed and baffled the minds of men in those early days in which it was written. God, in the book, does not give the required explanations; but, pointing out the marks of His power, wisdom, and goodness, in His natural works, leaves His hearers to the exercise of a pure and simple trust. With reference to the loss of Gods presence, over which men mourn in our day–this longing to find God and to come unto His mercy seat, which is so widespread and so unsatisfied–we must not treat it with reproof due only to moral delinquency or religious indifference; but do our best to furnish direction which reason and conscience will approve. Call to mind the circumstances under which men have been thrown into all this doubt and perplexity. Then we shall find it is not that they have been intellectually brought into a position in which it is impossible to believe in Divine communion; but that the special system with which the forms of Divine communion have, during the last few centuries, been associated, has broken down, and left men without a perfect basis for their faith, and without an intellectual justification of the act of Divine communion. If you feel this to be true, if under the sense of the worthlessness of those systems of divinity which your conscience even more than your understanding rejects, you are yet longing for Divine communion, I have now to assert that God is to be found, not through systems of divinity, or processes of logical thought, but by the simple, childlike surrender of the soul to those influences which God, through all the objects of truth, goodness, beauty, and purity, exerts directly on it. The sense of Gods presence is obtained through the pure and quiet contemplation of Divine objects. To seek our divinity merely in books and writings is to seek the living among the dead. It is only of the knowledge of God in His relations to ourselves that I speak. In our knowledge of God two elements are necessarily mingled.
1. There is the feeling which is excited within us when we come preparedly into contact with what is Divine. The soul feels Gods presence, however He may be named, and with whatever investiture He may be clothed. But then the understanding interprets the devout feeling Divine objects awaken, by representing God under such forms as its culture enables it to think out. God has appointed many objects through which He makes His revelation directly to the soul. Everything in the natural and moral world, which greatly surpasses mans comprehension or attainments, becomes the medium through which God speaks to the soul, touches its devout feeling, and so reveals Himself. You may say, It is not feeling I want,, but a justification of my feeling; a reconciliation of my feeling with the facts science, history, and criticism have taught me. Nay, it is feeling, intense, irresistible feeling, of Gods presence with us and in us that we need. No thinking can give you back the God you have lost; it is in feeling, the feeling awakened by coming into contact with God, that alone you can find Him. There is, however, one condition–a man must come with a pure heart, a free conscience, and a purpose set to do Gods will. (J. Cranbrook.)
Jobs spiritual sentiments
These words exhibit a pattern of the frame of spirit habitually felt, in a good degree, by every child of God, while he is in the posture of seeking for the presence of God, and for intimate communion with Him.
I. The different spiritual sentiments implied in this holy exclamation. Here is–
1. A solemn appeal from the unjust censures of men, to the knowledge, love, and faithfulness of God, the supreme Judge. Apostasy from God hath rendered mankind very foolish and erroneous judges in spiritual matters. The more of God there is in any mans character and exercises, the more is that man exposed to the malignant censures, not only of the world at large, but even of Christians of an inferior class. For the weakest Christians are most forward to go beyond their depths, in judging confidently of things above their knowledge. Against assaults of this kind the children of the Most High have a strong refuge. The shield of faith quenches the fiery and envenomed darts of calumny, misrepresentation, and malice.
2. An intended bold expostulation with God, in respect of the strangeness and intricacy of His dealings with His afflicted servant. It is one of the hardest conflicts in the spiritual life, when God Himself appears as a party contending with His own children. Job could discover no special reason for Gods severity against him. His faith naturally vents itself in the way of humble, yet bold expostulation.
3. A perplexing sense of distance from God. Renewed souls have such perceptions of God as are mysterious to themselves and incredible to others. When God seems to hide His face, an awful consternation, confusion, dejection, and anguish are the consequence. This situation is the more perplexing when, as was Jobs case, there is felt a very great need for the presence of God, and when all endeavours to recover it seem to be vain. Then the conclusion is sometimes rashly drawn by the people of God, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God. But in all these afflictions of His people, the Lord Himself is afflicted.
4. Jobs exclamation expresses most vehement desires after the spiritual presence of God.
5. What is particularly to be attended to is the nature of the access to God which Job desired. He was in pursuit of the most near and intimate communion with God.
II. Bring home the whole of these sentiments.
1. Such instances of deep and sober spiritual exercise furnish a convincing proof of the reality of religion, and of the certainty of the great truths with which the power of religion is so closely connected.
2. The things which have been treated of give us a view of the nature as well as of the reality of religion.
3. Such characters as that of Job carry in them the condemnation of various classes of people.
4. This subject may be applied for the encouragement of the upright. (J. Love, D. D.)
The believer under affliction
Job was justly chargeable with a disposition to self-justification, though he was not guilty of that insincerity, hypocrisy, and contempt of God which his precipitate and unfeeling friends alleged against him. This self-approving temper God took means to correct. One of the methods He used was, hiding His face from him, and leaving him to feel the wretchedness and helplessness of this state of spiritual desertion. The text may be regarded as mirroring the state of one suffering under a conscious absence of God, who longs for the returning smile of His reconciled countenance.
I. The deep, painful, and distressing feeling which these words bring before us. The language of the text is not the language of one possessing either a false security or a real and solid peace. There is a peace which disturbs the soul, a treacherous calm, the harbinger of the tempest. There is a rest which is not a healthy repose, but the torpor of one over whose members there is stealing the unfelt effects of that lifeless inactivity which so often precedes a second death. Those who are the victims of this fatal insensibility see no danger, and therefore fear no evil. They apprehend no change, and so prepare against no danger. How different is the state implied in the text! The mind, aroused from its carelessness, finds itself wretched and miserable, poor and blind and naked. It knows no peace; it has no comforter. Oh that I knew where I might find Him! is the language of such a spirit in the hour of its dimness and darkness and perplexity. The language is even more truly descriptive of the feeling of one who, having known the grace of God in truth, has lost his sense of the Divine favour, and walks in heaviness under the chastening hand and frowning countenance of his Heavenly Father.
II. The ardent desire. The first symptom of returning health and soundness in the mind is that restlessness which urges the soul to flee again unto its God. Satan has recourse to various artifices for the purpose of diverting the desires into another channel. When God is absent from you, do not rest until He return to you, as the God of your salvation.
III. Holy resolution. I would order my cause before Him. There is an important sense in which a sinner may order his cause before God; and there are irresistible arguments which he is authorised to advance, and which he is assured will be favourably received. Combined with self-abasement, there should be confidence in the mercy of that God to whom you so reverently draw nigh. Alas! how many there are who will not give themselves the trouble earnestly to desire and diligently to seek the Lord! (Stephen Bridge, A. M.)
Pleading with God
God hath chosen His people in the furnace of affliction. The greatest saints are often the greatest sufferers.
I. Where shall I find God? Where is His mercy seat? Whore doth He graciously reveal Himself to those who seek Him? I know that I may find Him in nature. The world, the universe of worlds, are the works of His hands. We may find Him in the Bible, in the secret place of prayer, and in my own heart.
II. How shall I approach him? Sinner that I am, how shall I order my cause before a righteous and holy Judge? Prayer is the appointed method, the duty enjoined upon all, the universal condition of forgiveness and salvation. Why is prayer made the condition of the blessing? Because it is the confession of my need, and the declaration of my desire; the acknowledgment of my helpless dependency, and the expression of my humble trust in His almighty goodness. But all prayer must be offered through the mediation of Gods beloved Son. And we must come with sincerity.
III. What plea must I employ? Shall I plead the dignity of my rank, or the merit of my work, or the purity of my heart? I will plead His glorious name, and His unspeakable gift, and His great and precious promises. I will plead the manifestation of His mercy to others, and the numberless instances of His grace to myself.
IV. And what answer shall I receive? Will God disregard my suit? No. He will put strength in me. He will show me what is in my favour; suggest to my mind additional and irrefutable arguments. I shall know the words that He will answer me. (J. Cross, D. D.)
Jobs appeal to God
This passage opens with a statement of Jobs dissatisfied condition of mind (verses 1, 2), followed by a wish that he might find God and defend himself before Him (verses 3-7); and it concludes with a lament that he is not able to do so (verses 8-10). In thinking over this passage, remember two things–
1. The abstract question of the possibility of any man being absolutely innocent in the sight of God is not raised here. Men are divided into two great classes–those who (however imperfectly) seek to serve God and do right, and those who live in selfishness and sin. The former class are called the righteous. In the relative sense, Jobs claim as to his own character was true.
2. We are not to find in Job, as he is here exhibited, a model for ourselves when we are afflicted. Try to separate in Jobs condition those things in which he was right from those things in which he was wrong. He was right–
1. In his consciousness of innocence.
2. In using his reason on the great problem of suffering.
3. In wanting to know Gods opinion of him.
4. In his desire to be just before God.
5. In holding fast to his belief in God.
6. Job believed in justice as an essential element in the character of God, even though he did not see how God was just in the present instance.
Job was wrong–
1. In his imperfect theory of suffering–wrong, that is, in the sense of being mistaken.
2. In his restless desire to know all the reasons for Gods dealings with him.
3. In wanting to have God bring Himself down to a level of equality with him, laying aside His omniscience, and listening, as though He were only a human judge, to Job.
4. And Job was plainly wrong in his impatient fooling towards God (verse 2). (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXIII
Job answers; apologizes for his complaining; wishes to plead
his cause in the presence of his Maker, from whom he knows he
should receive justice; but regrets that he cannot find him,
1-9.
He, however, gives himself and his cause up to God, with the
conviction of his own innocence, and God’s justice and
goodness, 10-14.
He is, nevertheless, afraid when he considers the majesty of
his Maker, 15-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXIII
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Then Job answered and said. In reply to Eliphaz; for though he does not direct his discourse to him, nor take any notice of his friends; yet, as a proof of his innocence, against his and their accusations and charges, he desires no other than to have his cause laid before God himself, by whom he had no doubt he should be acquitted; and, contrary to their notions, he shows in this chapter, that he, a righteous man, was afflicted by God, according to his unchangeable decrees; and, in the next, that wicked men greatly prosper; so that what he herein says may be considered as a sufficient answer to Eliphaz and his friends; and after which no more is said to him by them, excepting a few words dropped by Bildad.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Then began Job, and said:
2 Even to-day my complaint still biddeth defiance,
My hand lieth heavy upon my groaning.
3 Oh that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come even to His dwelling-place!
4 I would lay the cause before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments:
5 I should like to know the words He would answer me,
And attend to what He would say to me.
Since (for which the lxx reads , ; Ew. , from his hand) usually elsewhere signifies obstinacy, it appears that Job 23:2 ought to be explained: My complaint is always accounted as rebellion (against God); but by this rendering Job 23:2 requires some sort of expletive, in order to furnish a connected thought: although the hand which is upon me stifles my groaning (Hirz.); or, according to another rendering of the : et pourtant mes gmissements n’galent pas mes souffrances (Renan. Schlottm.). These interpretations are objectionable on account of the artificial restoration of the connection between the two members of the verse, which they require; they lead one to expect (as a circumstantial clause: lxx, Cod. Vat. ). As the words stand, it is to be supposed that the definition of time, (even to-day still, as Zec 9:12), belongs to both divisions of the verse. How, then, is to be understood? If we compare Job 7:11; Job 10:1, where , which is combined with , signifies amarum = amartiduo , it is natural to take also in the signification amaritudo , acerbitas (Targ., Syr., Jer.); and this is also possible, since, as is evident from Exo 23:21, comp. Zec 12:10, the verbal forms and run into one another, as they are really cognates.
(Note: and both spring from the root [ vid. supra, p. 396, note], with the primary signification stringere , to beat, rub, draw tight. Hence Arab. marra , to touch lightly, smear upon (to go by, over, or through, to move by, etc.), but also stringere palatum , of an astringent taste, strong in taste, to be bitter, opp. Arab. hala , soft and mild in taste, to be sweet, as in another direction , to be loose, weak, sick, both from the root Arab. hl in halla , solvit, laxavit. From the signification to be tight come amarra , to stretch tight, istamarra , to stretch one’s self tight, to draw one’s self out in this state of tension – of things in time, to continue unbroken; mirreh , string, cord; , to make and hold one’s self tight against any one, i.e., to be obstinate: originally of the body, as Arab. marra , tamarra , to strengthen themselves in the contest against one another; then of the mind, as Arab. mara , tamara , to struggle against anything, both outwardly by contradiction and disputing, and inwardly by doubt and unbelief. – Fl.)
But it is more satisfactory, and more in accordance with the relation of the two divisions of the verse, if we keep to the usual signification of ; not, however, understanding it of obstinacy, revolt, rebellion (viz., in the sense of the friends), but, like moreh, 2Ki 14:26) which describes the affliction as stiff-necked, obstinate), of stubbornness, defiance, continuance in opposition, and explain with Raschi: My complaint is still always defiance, i.e., still maintains itself in opposition, viz., against God, without yielding (Hahn, Olsh.: unsubmitting); or rather: against such exhortations to penitence as those which Eliphaz has just addressed to him. In reply to these, Job considers his complain to be well justified even to-day, i.e., even now (for it is not, with Ewald, to be imagined that, in the mind of the poet, the controversy extends over several days, – an idea which would only be indicated by this one word).
In Job 23:2 he continues the same thought under a different form of expression. My hand lies heavy on my groaning, i.e., I hold it immoveably fast (as Fleischer proposes to take the words); or better: I am driven to a continued utterance of it.
(Note: The idea might also be: My hand presses my groaning back (because it would be of no use to me); but Job 23:2 is against this, and the Arab. kamada , to restrain inward pain, anger, etc. by force (e.g., mat kemed , he died from suppressed rage or anxiety), has scarcely any etymological connection with .)
By this interpretation ydy retains its most natural meaning, manus mea, and the connection of the two members of the verse without any particle is best explained. On the other hand, all modern expositors, who do not, as Olsh., at once correct into , explain the suffix as objective: the hand, i.e., the destiny to which I have to submit, weighs upon my sighing, irresistibly forcing it out from me. Then Job 23:2 is related to Job 23:2 as a confirmation; and if, therefore, a particle is to be supplied, it is (Olsh.) and no other. Thus, even the Targ. renders it machatiy, plaga mea. Job’s affliction is frequently traced back to the hand of God, Job 19:21, comp. Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 13:21; and on the suffix used objectively (pass.) we may compare Job 23:14, ; Job 20:29, ; and especially Job 34:6, . The interpretation: the hand upon me is heavy above my sighing, i.e., heavier than it (Ramban, Rosenm., Ges., Schlottm., Renan), also accords with the connection. can indeed be used in this comparative meaning, Exo 16:5; Ecc 1:16; but is an established phrase, and commonly used of the burden of the hand upon any one, Psa 32:4 (comp. Job 33:7, in the division in which Elihu is introduced; and the connection with , 1Sa 5:6, and , 1Sa 5:11); and this usage of the language renders the comparative rendering very improbable. But it is also improbable that “my hand” is = the hand that is upon me, since it cannot be shown that was directly used in the sense of plaga ; even the Arabic, among the many turns of meaning which it gives to Arab. yd , does not support this, and least of all would an Arab conceive of Arab. yda passively, plaga quam patior . Explain, therefore: his complain now, as before, offers resistance to the exhortation of the friends, which is not able to lessen it, his (Job’s) hand presses upon his lamentation so that it is forced to break forth, but – without its justification being recognised by men. This thought urges him on to the wish that he might be able to pour forth his complain directly before God. is at one time followed by an accusative (Job 14:4; Job 29:2; Job 31:31, Job 31:35, to which belongs also the construction with the inf., Job 11:5), at another by the fut., with or without Waw (as here, Job 23:3, Job 6:8; Job 13:5; Job 14:13; Job 19:23), and at another by the perf., with or without Waw (as here, Job 23:3: utinam noverim , and Deu 5:26). And is, as in Job 32:22, joined with the fut.: scirem ( noverim) et invenirem instead of possim invenire eum ( ), Ges. 142, 3, c. If he but knew how to reach Him (God), could attain to His throne; (everywhere from , not from ) signifies the setting up, i.e., arrangement (Eze 43:11) or establishment (Nah 2:10) of a dwelling, and the thing itself which is set out and established, here of the place where God’s throne is established. Having attained to this, he would lay his cause ( instuere causam , as Job 13:18, comp. Job 33:5) before Him, and fill his mouth with arguments to prove that he has right on his side ( , as Psa 38:15, of the grounds of defence, or proof that he is in the right and his opponent in the wrong). In Job 23:5 we may translate: I would, or: I should like (to learn); in the Hebrew, as in cognoscerem , both are expressed; the substance of Job 23:5 makes the optative rendering more natural. He would like to know the words with which He would meet him,
(Note: is generally accented with Dech, with Munach, according to which Dachselt interprets: scirem, quae eloquia responderet mihi Deus , but this is incorrect. The old editions have correctly Munach, Munach (taking the place of Dech, because the Athnach -word which follows has not two syllables before the tone-syllable; vid., Psalter, ii. 104, 4).)
and would give heed to what He would say to him. But will He condescend? will He have anything to do with the matter? –
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Reply of Job to Eliphaz; Job Appeals from Man to God. | B. C. 1520. |
1 Then Job answered and said, 2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! 4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. 6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me. 7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
Job is confident that he has wrong done him by his friends, and therefore, ill as he is, he will not give up the cause, nor let them have the last word. Here,
I. He justifies his own resentments of his trouble (v. 2): Even to day, I own, my complaint is bitter; for the affliction, the cause of the complaint, is so. There are wormwood and gall in the affliction and misery; my soul has them still in remembrance and is embittered by them, Lam 3:19; Lam 3:20. Even to day is my complaint counted rebellion (so some read it); his friends construed the innocent expressions of his grief into reflections upon God and his providence, and called them rebellion. “But,” says he, “I do not complain more than there is cause; for my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Even today, after all you have said to convince and comfort me, still the pains of my body and the wounds of my spirit are such that I have reason enough for my complaints, if they were more bitter than they are.” We wrong God if our groaning be heavier than our stroke, like froward children, who, when they cry for nothing, have justly something given them to cry for; but we do not wrong ourselves though our stroke be heavier than our groaning, for little said is soon amended.
II. He appeals from the censures of his friends to the just judgment of God; and this he thought was an evidence for him that he was not a hypocrite, for then he durst not have made such an appeal as this. St Paul comforted himself in this, that he that judged him was the Lord, and therefore he valued not man’s judgment (1Co 4:3; 1Co 4:4), but he was willing to wait till the appointed day of decision came; whereas Job is impatient, and passionately wishes to have the judgment-day anticipated, and to have his cause tried quickly, as it were, by a special commission. The apostle found it necessary to press it much upon suffering Christians patiently to expect the Judge’s coming, Jam. v. 7-9.
1. He is so sure of the equity of God’s tribunal that he longs to appear before it (v. 3): O that I knew where I might find him! This may properly express the pious breathings of a soul convinced that it has by sin lost God and is undone for ever if it recover not its interest in his favour. “O that I knew how I might recover his favour! How I might come into his covenant and communion with him!” Mic 6:6; Mic 6:7. It is the cry of a poor deserted soul. “Saw you him whom my soul loveth? O that I knew where I might find him! O that he who has laid open the way to himself would direct me into it and lead me in it!” But Job here seems to complain too boldly that his friends wronged him and he knew not which way to apply himself to God to have justice done him, else he would go even to his seat, to demand it. A patient waiting for death and judgment is our wisdom and duty, and, if we duly consider things, that cannot be without a holy fear and trembling; but a passionate wishing for death or judgment, without any such fear and trembling, is our sin and folly, and ill becomes us. Do we know what death and judgment are, and are we so very ready for them, that we need not time to get readier? Woe to those that thus, in a heat, desire the day of the Lord, Amos v. 18.
2. He is so sure of the goodness of his own cause that he longs to be opening it at God’s bar (v. 4): “I would order my cause before him, and set it in a true light. I would produce the evidences of my sincerity in a proper method, and would fill my mouth with arguments to prove it.” We may apply this to the duty of prayer, in which we have boldness to enter into the holiest and to come even to the footstool of the throne of grace. We have not only liberty of access, but liberty of speech. We have leave, (1.) To be particular in our requests, to order our cause before God, to speak the whole matter, to lay before him all our grievances, in what method we think most proper; we durst not be so free with earthly princes as a humble holy soul may be with God. (2.) To be importunate in our requests. We are allowed, not only to pray, but to plead, not only to ask, but to argue; nay, to fill our mouths with arguments, not to move God (he is perfectly apprized of the merits of the cause without our showing), but to move ourselves, to excite our fervency and encourage our faith in prayer.
3. He is so sure of a sentence in favour of him that he even longed to hear it (v. 5): “I would know the words which he would answer me,” that is, “I would gladly hear what God will say to this matter in dispute between you and me, and will entirely acquiesce in his judgment.” This becomes us, in all controversies; let the word of God determine them; let us know what he answers, and understand what he says. Job knew well enough what his friends would answer him; they would condemn him, and run him down. “But” (says he) “I would fain know what God would answer me; for I am sure his judgment is according to truth, which theirs is not. I cannot understand them; they talk so little to the purpose. But what he says I should understand and therefore be fully satisfied in.”
III. He comforts himself with the hope that God would deal favourably with him in this matter, Job 23:6; Job 23:7. Note, It is of great use to us, in every thing wherein we have to do with God, to keep up good thoughts of him. He believes, 1. That God would not overpower him, that he would not deal with him either by absolute sovereignty or in strict justice, not with a high hand, nor with a strong hand: Will he plead against me with his great power? No. Job’s friends pleaded against him with all the power they had; but will God do so? No; his power is all just and holy, whatever men’s is. Against those that are obstinate in their unbelief and impenitency God will plead with his great power; their destruction will come from the glory of his power. But with his own people, that love him and trust in him, he will deal in tender compassion. 2. That, on the contrary, he would empower him to plead his own cause before God: “He would put strength in me, to support me and bear me up, in maintaining my integrity.” Note, The same power that is engaged against proud sinners is engaged for humble saints, who prevail with God by strength derived from him, as Jacob did, Hos. xii. 3. See Ps. lxviii. 35. 3. That the issue would certainly be comfortable, v. 7. There, in the court of heaven, when the final sentence is to be given, the righteous might dispute with him and come off in his righteousness. Now, even the upright are often chastened of the Lord, and they cannot dispute against it; integrity itself is no fence either against calamity or calumny; but in that day they shall not be condemned with the world, though God may afflict by prerogative. Then you shall discern between the righteous and the wicked (Mal. iii. 18), so vast will be the difference between them in their everlasting state; whereas now we can scarcely distinguish them, so little is the difference between them as to their outward condition, for all things come alike to all. Then, when the final doom is given, “I shall be delivered for ever from my Judge,” that is, “I shall be saved from the unjust censures of my friends and from that divine sentence which is now so much a terror to me.” Those that are delivered up to God as their owner and ruler shall be for ever delivered from him as their judge and avenger; and there is no flying from his justice but by flying to his mercy.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 23
JOB’S RESPONSE TO ELIPHAZ
Verses 1-17:
JOB’S REBUTTAL TO ELIPHAZ . . .HE LONGS FOR GOD
Verses 1, 2 begin Job’s seventh speech, and his third rebuttal to the late charges from Eliphaz. The phrase “even today” suggests that the debate had been carried on for several days. His spirit was bitter, reflected in his complaint to the Lord, because of his afflictions. He declared that his stroke of suffering had found no relief to that hour. His suffering was more painful than his groanings in the ears of his friends, and he could find no relief, Job 19:21; Psa 32:4.
Verses 3, 4 lament that Job longed to know where God was through all his sufferings, and how he longed to find Him, even come before His seat, to plead his cause face to face with Him, Job 13:3; Heb 10:19-22. Job desired to approach the very throne-seat of the Lord and plead his case before Him, Heb 4:14-16. He would then methodically state his case of affliction to the Lord-Judge of the universe, with clear conscience, Job 13:18; Isa 43:26.
Verse 5 states that then, in God’s Divine presence, he would be able to understand or comprehend what God was saying to him, through these afflictions, Job 10:2; Job 13:22-23; Job 42:2; Job 42:6. It little mattered to Job what men might say against him, if only he could know why God was judging him, Gal 6:9; 1Co 10:13; 1Pe 4:12-16.
Verse 6 asks whether or not the omnipotent God would plead against him with his mighty power. He then answers, no. But He would show compassion, a thing Job’s accusers, pretended friends, had not done, Job 9:19; Job 9:33-34; Isa 27:4; Isa 27:8; Isa 57:16; Mic 2:1. He believed that God would strengthen and help him, if only he could come into His presence, Hos 12:3-4.
Verse 7 declares that there, before the glory throne, the righteous might dispute with the Lord; If so he believed that he would be relieved of his judgmental afflictions, and accounted innocent of charges of wickedness the friends had launched against him, v. 6.
Verses 8, 9 further declare as Job went forward and backward, he could not see the Lord-advocate, either on his right hand or on his left, where the Lord did work and hide himself on every side of him, in all parts of the earth, Psa 19:1-3; Psa 139:7-12; 1Co 10:13.
Verse 10 acknowledges, however, that the Lord knew the way Job went; and when the Lord had tried or tested him, he would come forth like gold, having had all dross removed, Psa 17:3; Jas 1:12; 1Pe 1:7; Psa 139:1-3; Psa 17:10; Psa 66:10. The Lord already knew all about him, he confessed, and would cause him to be delivered in the end. This Job knew; And in him he trusted with all his heart, Pro 3:5; 2Ti 1:12.
Verses 11, 12 recount Job’s testimony of his behavior before the Lord and his fellowman. He declared that his foot had held in line with the way of the Lord, neither bearing to the left nor to the right. Such is the walk of a perfect, mature, or upright servant of the Lord, Psa 44:8; Mat 5:48. God has gone before us. We are to follow in His path, as set forth in His Word, Psa 17:5; Psa 125:5; Jas 1:22. He added that he had not gone back (backslidden) from the commandment from the lips of the Lord. Because he esteemed or held highly the words of the Lord, as necessary food for his soul, given to strengthen him, Psa 119:11; Jer 15:16; Pro 30:8.
Verse 13 declares that the Lord is of one mind or purpose. He then inquires, “who can turn him?” The Lord is not fickle or haphazard in what He does; He is sovereign in His purpose and actions, doing whatsoever His soul desires, Job 9:12; Job 34:29; Psa 115:3; Num 23:19-20; Ecc 1:15; Ecc 3:14; Rom 9:19; Jas 1:17.
Verse 14 recounts Job’s acknowledgment that the Lord, in His sovereignty, was progressively performing what was appointed to him, for His glory; Though the purpose of Job’s affliction was hidden with God, Job 10:13; 1Th 3:3. Like Paul, Job knew that somehow God had an holy purpose in permitting him to suffer, Rom 8:28; 2Co 12:7-11.
Verses 15, 16 state that Job was therefore troubled and afraid of the Lord’s hand of judgment that was against him, as he was tested by these afflictions. He added that the Lord had made his heart to be soft or faint, had melted his courage. These words were much like those spoken by Jesus, Psa 22:14.
Verse 17 explains that Job’s fearfulness of the future was because the Lord had not already let him die, before these calamities had come upon him. He therefore trembles at other dark adversity that may yet befall him. Yet, the Lord did not permit him to be tested of Satan beyond what he could bear, even as he did not Joseph, David, the three Hebrew children, or Paul, 1Co 10:13; Heb 13:5; Psa 34:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
JOBS THIRD REPLY TO ELIPHAZ
Ceases directly to address his friends. His present speech rather a soliloquy. Takes no notice of the charges laid against him by Eliphaz. Laments the want of access to God in order to plead his cause before Him. Expresses his consciousness of integrity and obedience to the Divine will, as well as his solemn awe at the absolute sovereignity of God, and the mysterious character of His dealings with him.
I. Complains of the continuance of his troubles and the view still taken of his conduct under it (Job. 23:2). Even to-day [after all I have already suffered] is my complaint bitter (or, even to-day [after all I have asserted of my innocence] is my speech [regarded as] rebellion); my stroke is heavier than my groaning (or, is [viewed as] heavy on account of my groaning). Expresses either his own sorrowful experience, or the views of his friends regarding it. His troubles now of some weeks, or perhaps months, continuance. No relief as yet either to his mental distress or physical disease. Observe
1. Protracted trouble worst to endure. The spirit worn out and exhausted by continued suffering. Davids complaintDay and night thy hand was heavy upon me (Psa. 32:4). The misery of the lost that time brings no change. Eternity the only lane that has no turning. As the tree falls, so it lies.
2. An aggravation of trouble when complaint is construed into rebellion. Jobs complaint perhaps not always entirely free from it. His spirit not always what it was in ch. 1 and
2. To complain under such sufferings only human. Bitterness of complaint not always rebelliousness of spirit. Bitter complaint consistent with meekness and submission. A bitter cry heard on the cross from the lips of the only spotless sufferer (Mat. 27:46). Job alone conscious of the depth of his distress. The heart knoweth its own bitterness.
3. Grace forbids not to groan under trouble, but puts a bridle upon the lips. Jobs groanings frequent but restrained. He is a conqueror, not who never groans under protracted trouble, but who holds out patiently to the end. Terrible conflict sometimes to be maintained
(1) Against suffering;
(2) Against sin;
(3) Against suffering and sinning at the same time.
II. Longs for free access to God (Job. 23:3). O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat. I would order my cause before him, I would fill my mouth with arguments [in proving myself an innocent sufferer]; I would know [without fear of the result] the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me [in answer to my arguments, and in reference to my character and the cause of my suffering]. Perhaps his answer to the exhortation of Eliphaz (ch. Job. 22:21). God so familiar to Jobs thoughts as to be spoken of without being named. His life, like Enochs, a walking with God. Observe
1. No uncommon thing for one who walks with God to be at times without free access to Him. God, for wise purposes, hides Himself at times even from His own (Jer. 14:8). No finding God but as He reveals Himself. Want of access in time of trouble a special trial of faith and patience.
2. Access to God the privilege of believers. A time for finding God (Psa. 32:6; Isa. 55:6). The contrary implied (Pro. 1:24-29). God found nowhere but in Christ. Christ the way to the Father (Joh. 14:6). Free access to God for sinners through Him and His shed blood (Heb. 4:15-16; Heb. 10:19-22. The Holy Spirit given to believers in order to their free access and approach to God through Christ (Eph. 2:18). The spirit of grace and of supplication (Zec. 10:12); of adoption, crying: Abba Father (Gal. 4:6). Helps infirmities of the saints, making inward intercession for them with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26).
3. God not always found immediately (Pro. 8:34-35; Luk. 18:17). Yet always found where there is earnestness, humility, and faith in seeking Him (Isa. 45:9; Jer. 29:13). In the time of Job, the way to God through Christ still comparatively obscure, and the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of supplication and adoption, still comparatively withheld. God found the sooner the more we are humbled under a sense of sin and unworthiness. Jobs desire still rather to have access to God as a righteous man, in order to have his innocence affirmed, than as a sinner to have his sins forgiven. God reveals Himself to the humble and contrite, not the self-righteous (Isa. 66:2; Luk. 18:10-14).
Job still persuaded of Gods favourable regard (Job. 23:6). Will he plead against me (overawe me or put me down) with his great power [as unable to prevail by words]? No, but he would put strength in me (enabling me to plead my cause successfully; or, he would give heed to me, affording a gracious and impartial hearing to my case). God the opposite of the Unjust Judge in the Parable. Not only hearkens to our pleading but gives strength to plead. So the Divine angel wrestling with Jacob at Penuel (Gen. 32:24-30).
His confidence as to the result (Job. 23:7). There (in such a caseon being admitted to His tribunal) the righteous might dispute with him (the innocent manreferring to himselfmight freely plead his cause); so should I be delivered for ever (come off victorious) from my judge.
(1) Gods throne at once one of justice and grace.
(2) The comfort of true and tried believers that they shall obtain a favourable verdict from God. Believers have(i.) The testimony of a good conscience; (ii.) The consciousness of a personal interest in Christ as their Surety and Advocate with the Father (1Jn. 3:21; 1Jn. 2:1). The believer not absolutely righteous in himself, but in Christ the Righteous One his Head and Representative (Rom. 5:14; 2Co. 5:21). The confidence of Messiah, as Gods righteous servant transferred to His believing members (Isa. 50:5-9; Rom. 8:32-34).
(3) A small matter that man condemns if God approves (1Co. 4:3).
III. Laments his inability to find God as he desired (Job. 23:8). Behold, I go forward (or, to the east) but he is not there; and backward (or, to the west), but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand (or, on the north) where he doth work (the north being the more populous part of the world, the region of stars and constellations and the birthplace of storms and tempests), but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand (or, on the south, where all is solitude and waste), but I cannot see him. Observe
1. A believer, while in darkness and trouble, makes continual attempts to find God (Son. 3:2). Nothing satisfies a living soul but God Himself (Psa. 63:1-2).
2. God found anywhere with humility, earnestness, and faith; without them, nowhere. Found neither in solitude nor society unless He graciously reveals Himself in Christ through the Spirit. Gods absolute presence everywhere; His gracious manifested presence only as He is pleased to afford it. The latter promised to faithful believers (Joh. 14:21-23). Gods dealings with men in Providence with a view to their seeking Him, feeling after Him, and finding Him (Act. 17:26-27).
3. God often graciously near us when we are without sense or consciousness of His presence. Jobs case now like that of Hagar in the Wilderness (Gen. 16:13; Gen. 21:19).
4. Prayer answered at the best time and in the best way. Jobs desire ultimately granted after Elihus speech had prepard him for it. Then no longer has a case to plead, but conscious of personal unworthiness and the Divine perfection, is able to leave it entirely in the Lords hands. Our own spirit generally the greatest hindrance to our prayers being answered.
5. Gods manifested and enjoyed presence the greatest happiness. Happy when everything in nature, sunrise and sunset, storm and calm, prompts with remembrance of a present God.
His presence who made all so fair, perceived,
Makes all still fairer.
IV. Comforts himself with the thought of the Divine omniscience and the assurance of ultimate triumph (Job. 23:10). But he knoweth the way that I take (Margin: that is with me,all my experience and conduct in this affliction, as well as all my previous course of life); when he hath tried me [sufficiently by these troubles; or, simply, he hath tried me, viz., by these present sufferings], I shall come forth, out of this furnace of affliction, or out of this probation to which I am now subjected] as gold [comes out of the fire that tries and purifies it, refined from the dross of remaining corruption, and freed from all charges and suspicions as to my character and conduct]. Observe
1. The mark of an upright believer to rejoice that God is acquainted with all his ways.
2. A believers comfort under affliction and reproach, to know that God is perfectly acquainted both with his character and experience. If in trouble we cannot see God, it should be our comfort that God sees us, and knows all about us. Hagars happy discovery in the wilderness: Thou God seest me (Gen. 16:13).
3. Our great comfort, when reproached by men, to know that our conduct is approved by God. Our main concern, therefore, ought to be to obtain that approval. Let them curse, but bless Thou (Psa. 119:28).
4. God tries and proves all his children (Psa. 11:5; Jer. 20:12). The desire of a sound believer to be tried by God (Psa. 17:3; Psa. 26:2; Psa. 139:23). A believers trials and afflictions often only the divinely intended means of proving his principles and faith (1Pe. 1:7; Jas. 1:12; Deu. 8:2).
5. The result of a true believers trials certain. This result threefold:
(1) The justification of his faith;
(2) The confirmation of his hope;
(3) The purification of his love (Rom. 5:4, &c.; Isa. 27:9; Heb. 12:10-11; Dan. 12:10).
6. Genuine believers like gold.
(1) Precious (Lam. 4:2; Isa. 43:4);
(2) Rare (Mat. 7:14; Luk. 12:32);
(3) Usually found mixed with earth and dross (Isa. 1:25);
(4) Subjected to the fire of purification (Zec. 13:9); 1Pe. 1:7;
(5) Able to endure the fire (1Co. 3:12;
(6) Ultimately made perfectly pure (Isa. 1:25).
V. Declares the ground of his assurance (Job. 23:11-12). That ground the consciousness of his character and conduct (1Jn. 3:21). Job conscious of
1. Persevering obedience to Gods will (Job. 23:11). My foot hath held his steps (followed faithfully and perseveringly the steps he prescribed to me, and which were pleasing in his sight); his ways have I kept, and not declined: neither have I gone back from the commandments of his lips. Gods steps not only prescribed by Him, but trodden by Himself. Be ye followers of God, as dear children. Be ye holy, for I am holy. Be merciful, as your heavenly Father is merciful (Eph. 5:1; 1Pe. 1:16. Luk. 6:36). Especially trodden by God manifest in the flesh (Joh. 13:15; Eph. 5:2; Php. 2:5; 1Pe. 2:21; 1Jn. 2:6). Those steps marked in the Scriptures (1Th. 4:2). Observe
(1) The proof of sincerity not merely to put our feet in Gods steps, but to keep them there; not only to enter upon Gods way, but not to decline or turn aside from it.
(2) Gods way to be kept, not our own;
(3) Many temptations to decline from Gods way. These are(i.) From the world; (ii.) From our own heart. Sometimes the frowns of the world, sometimes its smiles, prove temptations. Hence Agurs prayer (Pro. 30:8-9).
(4) Possible for a man to keep Gods way, and not decline from it. True generally, though not absolutely. Not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves (Pro. 7:20; 1Jn. 1:8). In a general sense, possible with Paul to live in all good conscience before God (Act. 23:1). So David, as typical of Christ (Psa. 18:21-23); Hezekiah (2Ki. 18:6; 2Ki. 20:3); Josiah (2Ki. 22:2; 2Ki. 23:25); the writer of Psalms 119. (Daniel?) (Psa. 119:22; Psa. 119:31; Psa. 119:51; Psa. 119:55-56). Gods Word given and to be attended to for this purpose (Jos. 1:7-8; Psa. 119:11). Requires(i.) Reflection. (Pro. 4:26; Psa. 119:59; (ii.) Resolution (Psa. 119:106); (iii.) Courage; (iv.) Watchfulness; (v.) Dependence on Divine strength; (vi.) Prayer.
(5) Job in the Old, an example to believers in the New Testament dispensation. Much more light and grace vouchsafed in the latter than in the former. The Gospel dispensation especially the dispensation of the Spirit (2Co. 3:8-11). Hence a still higher and holier life to be expected. Believers to be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18).
2. High esteem for the words of God (Job. 23:12). I have esteemed (Hebrew: hidden, or treasured up) the words of His mouth more than my necessary food (Margin: My appointed portion; or, than my own purpose, when these have come in collision). Words from Gods mouth known in all ages. God, at sundry times and in divers manners, spake in time past to the fathers (Heb. 1:1). The words of Gods mouth treasured up in the Scriptures of truth (Deu. 31:19; Deu. 31:22; Deu. 31:24; Isa. 30:8; Hab. 2:2). Spoken and preserved as the rule of faith and practice. To be
(1) Highly esteemed as our most precious treasure;
(2) Chosen and adopted as the only rule of our faith and practice;
(3) Carefully treasured up in memory and heart;
(4) Held fast and persevered in.
Reasons for highly esteeming Gods Word.
(1) Its source,God Himself;
(2) Its nature and character(i.) Pure; (ii.) True; (iii.) Efficacious.
(3) Its tendency and end. The Word of God is(i.) A means of convincing of sin and error (Psa. 19:11; Heb. 4:12); (ii.) A means of conversion (Psa. 19:7); (iii.) The Holy Spirits instrument in regeneration (Jas. 1:18); 1Pe. 1:23); (iv.) Means of spiritual enlightenment (Psa. 19:8; Psa. 119:130); (v.) Directory as to duty and the way of salvation (2Ti. 3:16; Joh. 5:39); (vi.) Means of spiritual comfort, refreshment, and delight (Psa. 119:50; Psa. 119:54; Psa. 119:111; Psa. 19:8; Psa. 19:10; Jer. 15:16; (vii.) Means of sanctification (Joh. 15:3; Joh. 17:17; 2Co. 3:18); (viii.) Means of spiritual fruitfulness (Joh. 15:7-8); (ix.) Means of perfecting Christian character (2Ti. 3:17); (x.) Means of preparing for usefulness (2Ti. 3:17).
Evidences of highly esteeming Gods Word(i.) When it is attentively read or heard (Pro. 8:34; Joh. 5:39; (ii.) When seriously and frequently pondered (Luk. 2:19); (iii.) When carefully treasured up in the memory (Psa. 119:11); (iv.) When preferred to earthly comforts, possessions, liberty, even life itself; (v.) When our own views, purposes, and practices are given up because in opposition to its teachings; (vi.) When suffering and loss are preferred to the violation of its precepts.
Examples of such esteem: David (Psa. 19:10; Psa. 119:97); Jeremiah (Job. 15:16); Daniel (Dan. 6:5; Dan. 6:10); Mary (Luk. 10:39-42). I had rather be without meat, drink, light, everything than Mat. 11:28.Selneccer. I would not for all the world that Joh. 17:24 had been left out of the Bible.Baxter. My soul hath found inexpressibly more sweetness and satisfaction in a single line of the Bible, than in all the pleasures found in the things of the world, since the creation, could equal.John Brown of Haddington. I would not live in Paradise without the Word, and could live in hell with it.Luther.
Gods Word to be esteemed more than our necessary food, His Word the food of the soul, and necessary unto health and vigour (1Pe. 2:2). The spiritual part of our nature of greater consequence than the material. Mans life not sustained by bread alone, but by every word of God (Mat. 5:4; Deu. 8:3). Gods favour better than life. Spiritual refreshment sweeter and more valuable than corporeal. Better for the soul to be satisfied from Gods Word than for the body to be satisfied from the best spread table. The flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life (Joh. 6:63). Mans soul can no more dispense with spiritual than the body with material food. A famine of the Word of God a much greater calamity than a famine of bread (Amo. 8:11).
VI. Recals with awe the unchangeableness and absolute sovereignty of God (Job. 23:13). But he is of one mind (or, truly He is one, the only Supreme Ruler and Potentate; or, He is one and the same [in purpose], i.e. unchangeable; or, when he is [set] on any one [object or purpose]) who can turn Him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. And he performeth the thing that is appointed for me; and many such things (either such sovereign and mysterious purposes and proceedings in relation to His creatures, or such severe dealings in relation to Job himself), are with Him. Therefore am I troubled at His presence [in my thoughts, or at His dealings with me]; when I consider [His majesty, power, and sovereignty], I am afraid of Him. Observe
1. God the only Potentate or supreme Ruler of the universe (1Ti. 6:15). Rules and works according to His will. None able to influence, restrain, check, or counteract His procedure.
2. God unchangeable in His purposes. Ever like Himself. The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Free from the inconstancy and variableness adhering to creatures. The Father of lights, without variableness or shadow of turning (Jas. 1:17). Is of one mind, character, and purpose. Hence our safety and comfort. I am the Lord; I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed (Mal. 3:6). God neither fickle in Himself, nor capable of being influenced by persons or events so as to change His purpose. The history of the universe eternally planned and mapped out by His infinite mind, in full harmony with the freedom of the creatures will and the operation of second causes, which are included in it. Eternity, with all its actualities and possibilities, every moment open to His all-seeing view. His being one eternal NOW. Unnecessary and impossible for a Being, omniscient and omnipotent, all-holy, all-wise, and all-good, to change His purpose. Such change at any time only apparent. Ascribed to Him in condescension to our capacity. A change in His external procedure no change in His eternal plan.
3. God irresistible in His purposes. I will work, and who shall let it (Isa. 43:13). God as irresistible in His power as He is immutable in His purpose. Nothing too hard for the Lord. For creatures to resist His will is for thorns and briars to oppose a consuming fire. God as able to execute, as He is wise to construct, His plan. The creatures safety, happiness, and success, in falling in with the Creators will.
4. Gods purposes extend to all His creatures. No creature so insignificant but has his lot appointed for him. Nothing in the universe left to chance. The fall of a sparrow under His goverance as truly as the wreck of a world. Nothing either too minute or too vast for an infinite mind to direct or an almighty hand to control. Creatures and events linked with each other in His purpose throughout the universe, the chain extending from one eternity to another. The combination of a thousand events necessary to raise Joseph to his designed elevation, in order, among many other things, to save much people alive (Gen. 50:20).
5. Gods Being, Purposes, and Providence such as to beget deep reverential awe. Too deep and mysterious for mans faculties to fathom or comprehend. The constant nearness of such a Being to us, our intimate relation to, and absolute dependence upon, Him, overwhelming. Our comfort that He is at once infinitely wise and holy, and just and good. The interests of all His creatures safe in His hands. Only disobedience and rebellion can interfere with the creatures happiness. God revealed in the Gospel in the most amiable possible light as love itself, and as giving the most unequivocal evidence of His character as such, in assuming our nature, obeying His own law, and enduring the utmost penalty of our disobedience, in order to our eternal redemption (1Jn. 3:16; 1Jn. 4:8-10).
6. Fear the natural effect of thoughts of God viewed apart from Christ and His work of redemption. Man inwardly and secretly conscious of sin and alienation from God. Fear, Peters first feeling on the apprehension of Christs Divine character, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord (Luk. 5:8).
VII. Returns to his own particular case (Job. 23:16). For God maketh my heart soft [with fear and dismay (Jos. 2:11)], and the Almighty troubleth (or confoundeth) me [by His mysterious and apparently cruel procedure]: because I was not cut off [by death] before the darkness [of these calamities came], neither hath he covered the darkness (Heb. thick darkness of such accumulated trouble) from my eyes [by hiding me in the tomb]. Observe
1. God able by His providence to make the stoutest heart soft with fear. Able also by His grace to make the hardest heart soft with penitence and love. Often makes the softness of fear from the iron rod of the law a precursor and preparative to the softness of love from the golden sceptre of the Gospel.
2. God able to trouble and confound the wisest and most daring by His mysterious and righteous dealings (Exo. 14:24; Exo. 8:19).
3. Gods dealings with ourselves often such as we are unable to comprehend.
4. A mystery that a benevolent and Almighty Being brings men into the world who are destined to suffer. But
(1) No suffering which is not in some way the consequence of sinning.
(2) All things made by God for Himself and for His own glory. In a way unknown to us, every creature made to contribute to the end of its creation. Perhaps Gods highest glory hereafter from those who suffer most here. Gods grace often greatly glorified by patient suffering even in this life. A patient, submissive, and thankful sufferer here probably one of the brightest jewels in the cabinet of God hereafter.
(3) Suffering the appointed path to glory (Act. 14:22; Rom. 8:17). Probably the greatest sufferer in time the loudest singer in eternity. The crown of thorns preparatory to the crown of glory. As with the Head, so with the members (Luk. 24:26; Rom. 8:17).
(4) The sufferings of one made to contribute to the benefit of another. Pauls testimony in reference to himself, applicable to believers in general (Col. 1:24). The members thus made to share with the Head. Probably the happiness, moral excellence, and mutual love of redeemed men greatly increased by such a Divine arrangement.
(5) The wisdom and the love of God in bringing Job into the world where he had so much to suffer, long ago made manifest both to himself and others.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B.
JOBS PERSISTENT DESIRE OR VALUE OF ARGUING WITH GOD? (Job. 23:1Job. 24:25)
1.
Job has honored God and obeyed his word, but God will not give him a hearing; He intentionally avoids him. (Job. 23:1-17)
TEXT 23:117
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 Even to-day is my complaint rebellious:
My stroke is heavier than my groaning.
3 Oh that I knew where I might find him!
That I might come even to his seat!
4 I would set my cause in order before him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words which he would answer me,
And understand what he would say unto me.
6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
Nay; but he would give heed unto me.
7 There the upright might reason with him;
So should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there;
And backward, but I cannot perceive him;
9 On the left hand, when he doth work, but I cannot behold him;
He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.
10 But he knoweth the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 My foot hath held fast to his steps;
His way have I kept, and turned not aside.
12 I have not gone back from the commandment of his lips;
I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
14 For he performeth that which is appointed for me:
And many such things are with him.
15 Therefore am I terrified at his presence;
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
16 For God hath made my heart faint,
And the Almighty hath terrified me;
17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.
COMMENT 23:117
Job. 23:1This begins Jobs seventh response. As Chapter 21 was entirely polemical, chapter 23 is completely devoted to Jobs internal reflections and his search for God. There is no reference, except in Job. 23:11-12, to his consolers or their doctrines. This speech is profoundly mournful. Now, suddenly, Job begins to dwell on Gods remoteness and inaccessibility. God still has not broken His silence. Jobs dark night of the soul haunts him oppressively, and Gods absence is tormenting his soul, as the soul of one who loves and formerly knew God face to face.[257] His reply to Eliphaz falls into four sections: (1) Jobs longing to meet GodJob. 23:2-7; (2) The power and inaccessibility of GodJob. 23:8-17; (3) Silence of God in the face of human oppression and injusticeverses Job. 24:1-17; (4) Problem about continuity of Job. 24:18-25. These verses do not appear to come from Job as they rather express the sentiments of his friends concerning the wicked.
[257] For discussion of Jobs mystical theology, see Vie spirituelle, 1956, pp. 372391.
The substance of Jobs reply to Eliphaz is that his observation of the human situation provides no unchallengeable assurance of the moral structure of the universe.[258] Is it possible that we live in an amoral world? Are moral values nothing more than cultural mores, changing standards of social peer groups?
[258] Same thesis presented by R. L. Rubenstein, Job and Auschwitz, Union Seminary Quarterly, 1969, pp. 421437; see also his After Auschwitz, Bobbs-Merrill, pb., 19
The friends have charged Job with impious rebellion against Gods standards of morality. He respondsEven or still today my complaint is rebellious . . . So Job declares that he will continue to be a rebel in their eyes. The even or still implies that the debate has been going on for some time. My stroke should read his[259] hand is heavy (no justification for heavier in A. V.) in spite of my groaning. Job has no scruples against making the charge directly against God.
[259] The Hebrew suffixes which represent my and his have only slight variation in form. Following LXX, Dahood, and Bloomerde, we take the text as third masculine suffix.
Job. 23:3Even though God suppresses Job, he desires to see HimJob. 9:34 ff; Job. 13:3. Strahan correctly observes that a major distinction between Job and his friends is that he desires to see God; they do not. Job aspires to appear before Gods dwelling place, His judgment seat.
Job. 23:4Once more the courtroom scene is evokedJob. 9:13-21. But Job is no longer afraid that God would refuse to hear him or continue His agonizing silenceJob. 13:18 a. He would prepare his case and present it to God.
Job. 23:5Job merely wishes to hear Gods charges against him. The divine indictment Job would accept, but not the wrathful innuendoes of his three consolers.
Job. 23:6He is confident that God would give him a fair hearing and ultimately a vindication. Gods power would give way (yasingive heed to) to His just consolation. Tur Sinai has shown that here koah means legal power and that rab-koah means power of attorney.[260]
[260] See his imaginative commentary, Tur Sinai (N. H. Torczyner) The Book of Job, rev., ed., 1969, Kirjath Sepher on this verse; see also the excellent analysis in G. Many, Der Rechtsstreit mit Gott (rib) im Hiobbuch, (Diss. Munchen, 1970), see Elenchus bibliographicus, 1972, p. 144, for full notation.
Job. 23:7The verse is an echo of Job. 13:16. The emphasis is upon upright. If he could get an audience with God, he would be vindicated (preserve my rights) as a righteous man. There is a powerful image set forth in this verse. The verb here is used in Job. 21:10 b of a cow giving birth. The image is that of justice emerging successfully as from a womb. In Hab. 1:4 this idiom is employed to convey the distortion of justice, or its unsuccessful delivery.
Job. 23:8His hope for encountering God is shattered. He goes forward (Heb. qedemeast, westall directionsIsa. 9:11) seeking God, but He is elusive. In contrast, the Psalmist (Psa. 139:7 ff) declares that God is everywhere.
Job. 23:9The Hebrew text says when he works as A. V., but this hardly makes sense. Even the grammatical difficulties do not hide the meaning of the verse, which might be rendered When I turn to the left I do not see Him. This translation would fit the parallelism of the second line very nicelyPss. 64:14; Psa. 73:6; Psa. 139:7-10.
Job. 23:10There are two possible understandings of the verse: (1) God eludes Jobs search because He always knows where Job is going; or (2) In spite of Gods unavailability to Job, he knows that God is still watching over him. When God has completely tested Job, He will discover no dross in him, only pure goldPsa. 139:1-6 and Jer. 11:20. Dahood suggests that the verb translated come forth actually means shinewith reference to the shining surface of the crucible, after the dross is removed.
Job. 23:11Jobs assurance is grounded in his conviction that he has always walked in Gods way. His integrity is matched only by his loyalty to GodPsa. 17:5. This verse is a denial of Job. 22:6-9.
Job. 23:12Eliphaz has exhorted JobJob. 22:22to receive instruction from his mouth, and lay up His words in his heart. Job responds to this exhortation by asserting that he has always lived in that manner. The A. V. expands the Hebrew text in translating more than my necessary food, but for this theme see Psa. 119:11. Jobs possible Israelite (patriarchal) background is suggested by his use of the word miswah for In my bosom I treasured the words of his mouth.[261]
[261] For a defense of this translation, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 1967, p. 427.
Job. 23:13The first line in the A. V. incorrectly translates the text (adds mind), which literally says He is in one meaning that God freely chooses His own course, and His power is irresistible. The parallelism all but confirms the necessary emendation (change from bhd to bhr). In Psa. 132:13 the same two verbswish and chooseoccur in parallel structure.
Job. 23:14Gods decrees are unchangeableIsa. 45:23; Isa. 55:10-11. He will execute my sentence.[262] This does not imply any Calvinistic fatalism. The last line is ambiguous; it is not certain whether God has more suffering reserved for him or others or both.
[262] M. Dahood, Orientalia, 1963, p. 499; followed by Blommerde, Northwest Semitic Grammar and Job.
Job. 23:15When he thinks of Gods mysterious ways with men, he is terrified once moreJob. 21:6.
Job. 23:16The emphatic words in the text are God and Almighty. The verb translated made . . . faint means to be tender. It is used in parallel with fear in Deu. 20:3; Isa. 7:4; Jer. 51:46; in this verse it is in parallel with a strong word meaning overwhelms. Contemplating all of his misery, Jobs heart fills him with horror.
Job. 23:17There is a difficulty in the verse because of the presence of the negative (to). The Hebrew text reads in part of line one I was not annihilated because of darkness. The word rendered cut off can mean be silent; thus Dhorme translates I was not silent because of darkness.[263] Both make sense and describe how Job actually responded to the darkness of Gods silence. In bondage to fear and darkness, Job is reduced to utter despondency. What disturbs Job more than his misery is the thought that God has decreed it.
[263] Dhorme, Job, p. 352.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXIII.
(1) Then Job answered.Job replies to the insinuations of Eliphaz with the earnest longing after God and the assertion of his own innocence; while in the twenty-fourth chapter he laments that his own case is but one of many, and that multitudes suffer from the oppression of man unavenged, as he suffers from the stroke of God.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JOB’S SEVENTH REPLY, Job 23, 24.
1. Then Job answered In response to the touching exhortation of Eliphaz, calling him to prayer and holy living, Job pleads that his great misery is that he cannot find God. East, west, north, and south Job had earnestly sought God, but he seemed to hide Himself, lest, hearing his cause, love of righteousness should compel him to absolve his servant. Job’s consciousness of integrity the thought that if tried he should come forth like gold from the furnace buoys him up as he contemplates the absolute and unchangeable Arbiter of his fate. Chap. 24. He abruptly takes up again the line of thought pursued in the twenty-first chapter, with the question why it is, if God appoints days of judgment for the wicked, that his servants do not see them. On the contrary, God’s eye constantly rests on oppressors of every hue, who everywhere trample upon the defenceless poor, the groans and cries of whom cease not day nor night. Beneath the same Eye murderers and adulterers riot in the unholiest works of darkness. Instead of manifesting himself for the deliverance of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty, he grants these malefactors either an euthanasia, a quick and easy death, or else he lengthens out their life till at last, like ripened grain, they drop into the grave. Nowhere else are the perplexities of the divine government exhibited in so vivid colours; perplexities that now, as then, defy all human solution.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:10
Job 31:4, “Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?”
Job 23:10 “when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” Scripture Reference – Note:
1Pe 1:7, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.
Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.
The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.
Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22
Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34
Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job Desires a Judicial Decision of God
v. 1. v. 2. Even today is my complaint bitter, v. 3. Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat, v. 4. I would order my cause before Him, v. 5. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say unto me, v. 6. Will He plead against me with His great power, v. 7. There the righteous might dispute with Him,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Verses 1-24:25
Job replies to Eliphaz in a speech of no great length, which, though it occupies two chapters, runs to only forty-two verses. He begins by justifying the vehemence of his complaints, first, on the ground of the severity of his sufferings (verse 2), and secondly, on the ground of his conviction that, if God would bring him to an open trial before his tribunal, he would acquit him (verses 3-12). By the way, he complains that God hides himself, and cannot be found (verses 3, 8, 9). He then further complains that God is not to be bent from his purpose, which is set against Job (verses 13-17). In Job 24:1-25. he goes over ground already trodden, maintaining the general prosperity of the wicked, and their exemption from any special earthly punishment (Job 24:2-24). He winds up, finally, with a challenge to his opponents to disprove the truth of what he has said (Job 24:25).
Job 23:1, Job 23:2
Then Job answered and said, Even to-day is my complaint bitter; i.e. even to-day, notwithstanding all that has been said by my opponents against my right to complain, I do complain, and as bitterly as ever. And I justify my complaint on the following groundmy stroke is heavier than my groaning. If I complain bitterly, I suffer even more bitterly (comp. Job 6:2).
Job 23:3
Oh that I knew where I might find him! This is the cry of the desolate human soul, feeling its need of God, and yet not knowing how to approach him. God seems to be very far removed from us. He is in heaven, and we are on earth; nay, he is in the highest heaven, or outside it, walking on its circumference (Job 22:14). How are we to approach near to him, so near as to be sure that he can hear us? How are we to “find” him? So, in all ages, has the human heart gone out to God, aspiring towards him, seeking after him, but, for the most part, baffled and disappointed. Job, like most other men in the olden times, though he has faith in God, though he serves him and prays to him, has yet the feeling that he is remote, distant, well-nigh inaccessible. It needed revelation to let man know that God is not far off, but very near to each one of us; that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Act 17:28). That I might come even to his seat! Job’s idea of bridging the distance between himself and God is that he should rise to the region where God is, not that God should condescend to come down to him. He wishes to “come to God’s seat”to that awful throne in the heaven of heavens, where God sitteth, surrounded by his hosts of angels, dealing out justice and judgment to mortal men (comp. Psa 9:4, Psa 9:7; Psa 11:4; Psa 45:6; Isa 6:1).
Job 23:4
I would order my cause before him. Job has put away the feelings of shame and diffidence, which were predominant with him when he said, “How should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand” (Job 9:2, Job 9:3); and again, “How much less shall I answer him, and cheese out my words to reason with him? Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer; but I would make my supplication to my Judge” (Job 9:14, Job 9:15). He now wishes to contend and argue and reason. This is quite in accordance with our experience. Many am the moods of manvarious and conflicting his desires! His mind never continues long in one stay. And fill my mouth with arguments (comp. Psa 38:14, where our translators render the same word by “reproofs,” but where “arguments” or “pleadings” would be more appropriate). The LXX. has there , and in the present passage . The word is forensic.
Job 23:5
I would know the words which he would answer me. It would be a satisfaction to Job in his present mood to know exactly how God would answer him, what reply he would make to his “arguments.” The tone of thought is too bold for a creature, and would certainly not be becoming in Christians. And understand what he would say unto me. Here we have another of the redundant second clauses, which merely echo the idea contained in the previous clause.
Job 23:6
Will he plead against me with his great power? rather, Would he contend against me in the greatness of his power? (see the Revised Version). That is, “Would he crush me by mere strength and force? Would he use against me that overwhelming might which he possesses? No, Job answers, certainly not; but he would put strength in me; or, rather, but he would give heed to me‘ he would pay attention to my cause (comp. Job 4:20, ad fin; where the same verb is used).
Job 23:7
There the righteous might dispute with him. There, before his high tribunal (Job 23:3), the upright man () might argue or reason with him, appealing from his justice to his mercyfrom God the Judge to God the Saviour (Loathes), vindicating his integrity, acknowledging his transgressions, and pleading that they were sins of infirmity-and at last obtaining from God the acquittal anticipated in the second clause of the verse. In the absence of any revelation of an Advocate who will plead our cause before God for us, Job would seem to have been justified in expecting such a liberty of pleading his own cause as he here sets forth. So should I be delivered for ever from my Judge. The “Judge of all the earth” will certainly and necessarily “do right.” Job’s conscience testifies to his substantial integrity and uprightness. He is, therefore, confident that, if he can once bring his cause to God’s cognizance, he will obtain acquittal and deliverance.
Job 23:8, Job 23:9
Here Job returns to the complaint of verse 3. He cannot “find” God. God hides himself. It is in vain that he searches on every side. There is no manifestation, no open vision. Nothing, however, leads him to doubt God’s existence, or even his presence where he is unperceived. “Job’s conviction of God’s absolute presence comes out most strongly when he feels that he cannot discern him” (Cook).
Job 23:8
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; that is, “He is not there to my perceptions.” I may believe it, but I have no sensible proof of it, and I cannot demonstrate it. And backward, but I cannot perceive him. In describing locality, the Hebrews, Arabs, and Orientals generally always imagined themselves to be looking eastward, facing the rising sun. Hence the same word is used for” in front,” “forwards,” and “the east;” for “behind,” “backwards,” and “the west;” for “the left hand” and “the north;” for “the right hand” and “the south.”
Job 23:9
On the left hand, where he doth work; literally, in his workshop. There is an ellipse after “workshop” of some phrase like “I look for him.” But I cannot behold him; rather, but I apprehend him notI cannot as it were, lay my hand upon him (LXX; ). He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him; literally, and I do not see him.
Job 23:10
But he knoweth the way that I take; or, the way that is with me. My inability to find God does not in any way interfere with his perfect knowledge of me. God knows both “the way of the righteous” (Psa 1:6) “and “the way of the wicked,” which” he turns upside down “(Psa 146:9). He is “about our path, and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways” (Psa 139:2). When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold; i.e. as gold from the furnace, I shall come forth purified, when my trial is over (comp. Psa 12:6; Isa 1:25; Jer 6:29, Jer 6:30; Jer 9:7, etc.). Job seems at last to have woke up to the conception that there is a purifying power in affliction.
Job 23:11
My foot hath held his steps; rather, hath held dose to his steps, or his path; i.e. I have followed in God’s way, and kept as close to it as possible. In other words. I have kept his way, and not declined from it.
Job 23:12
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. Professor Lee rightly observes that this declaration “takes it for granted that, at least, some precepts of God had been revealed before this time”. Them were “commandments” which Job recognized as having proceeded from God, and “words” which he looked upon as being the utterances of his mouth. This is strong evidence of a primeval revelation which, if not reduced to writing, had, at any rate, been handed down by tradition to Job’s day. Gen 3:14-19 and Gen 9:1-7 may afford the true explanation of this difficulty. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. This is scarcely strong enough. Job says, “I have treasured up‘ taken to myself, and preserved the words of his mouth,” either “more than my necessary food” or “more than my own law.” If the former rendering be preferred, there is no need of explanation; if the latter, we must regard “my own law” as meaning “the law of my own mind, my own will, the will of the natural man” (Cook).
Job 23:13
But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? Once more we hear the voice of complaint. The happier tone of thought which extends from Job 23:6 to Job 23:12 grows out of a sanguine hope on Job’s part that God will bring him before his tribunal, and judge his cause according to righteousness. Now he bethinks himself that hitherto God, notwithstanding his prayers, has refused to summon him to his judgment-seat, and begins to fear that there is no likelihood of his changing. “He is One,” or “in one.” With him is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (Jas 1:17). How is it likely that he will act in the future otherwise than he has acts! in the past? What his soul desireth, even that he doeth. A somewhat harsh way of saying that God doeth that which seemeth him bestand which, therefore, is best. Job does not really suppose that God is actuated by caprice or favouritism.
Job 23:14
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me; i.e he will assuredly accomplish whatever he has decreed for me. I cannot expect that he will blench or change. And many such things are with him. He has many other weapons in his armoury, many other woes with which he might afflict me.
Job 23:15
Therefore am I troubled at his presence. The thought of these further afflictions troubles me, and makes me shrink from his unseen presence. I know.not how soon he may lay a fresh burden upon me. When I consider, I am afraid of him. When I reflect on the many forms of suffering which I may still have to undergo, my fears increase, I tremble at the future.
Job 23:16
For God maketh my heart soft; of faint‘ as in Le 26:36 and Deu 20:3. He takes away my courage, and leaves me a prey to terror. And the Almighty troubleth me. The verb used (the hiph. form of ) is a very strong one, and means “hath filled me with horror and consternation?
Job 23:17
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face. Job complains of two things:
(1) That he was not cut off (i.e. removed from earth) before the great darkness fell upon his life (comp. Job 3:11-13).
(2) That he was not “covered,’ i.e. sheltered and protected, by the love and care of God when the dark days came.
HOMILETICS
Job 23:1-7
Job to Eliphaz: 1. The experience of a seeker after God.
I. GREAT SORROW. (Verse 2.) Two wonders.
1. An afflicted man a seeker after God. Designed to recall men to God (Job 36:8, Job 36:9; Isa 19:22; Jer 2:27; Hos 5:15), temporal calamity is not always attended by so blessed a result. Unaccompanied by grace, it tends to harden rather than soften the human heart, to repel rather than attract the soul’s confidence and love. Happily, however, in Job’s case its natural tendencies were corrected. With greater urgency and vehemence than before, it impelled him to inquire after God (cf. 2Ch 15:4; 2Ch 33:12; Psa 34:6; Psa 77:2; Psa 119:67; Hos 6:1; Luk 15:18).
2. A seeker after God an afflicted man. Strange that one who sought God so sincerely as Job did should have been subjected to such overwhelming tribulation. Yet the more triumphant waxed Job’s faith, the heavier seemed to fall the pressure of his misery. Notwithstanding the lofty declarations of confidence in God which had fallen from his lips (Job 13:15; Job 19:25), his complaint still bade defiance, while Ms hand lay heavy upon his groaning (Delitzsch), refusing to let it go, because, of course, the cause of it was not removed. His physical disease was in no degree abated. The calumniations of his friends were aggravated, not ameliorated. The felt absence of God was become more intolerable than ever. Even the groaning which involuntarily escaped his lips was pronounced rebellion. But saints and seekers after God have no guarantee of exemption from trouble. Rather, trouble is to them as a refining fire. Hence the loftier their piety, the hotter may be made the furnace through which they walk. Nay, their afflictions may so abound, bodily pain, mental distress, spiritual desolation, that they are compelled to “groan, being burdened” (2Co 5:4); but, like true saints and genuine seekers after God, they will neither complain too bitterly nor groan too heavily, but study to keep their complaint in subjection, and to make their groaning less than their suffering.
II. ARDENT LONGING. (Verse 2.)
1. A seeker after God at a loss to find him. Considering that God desires (Act 17:27) and commands men to seek him (Isaiah Iv. 6), and promises that they who seek shall find (Mat 7:7), it would almost seem as if such a thing should be impossible. But Job being witness, and David (Psa 42:2), even a saint, losing his inward consciousness of God’s presence and favour, may be unable to recover either. And if a saint, then. much more a sinner, who has never yet met with God, may find it hard to reach his seat. It is, of course, certain that true seekers will ultimately find. Only the time of finding, for wise and holy purposes, may be delayed; sometimes to try the faith or increase the earnestness of the seeker, sometimes because of sin or wilful defect in the seeker, sometimes to make known to the seeker the unchallengeable sovereignty of God in discovering himself to men.
2. A seeker after God always possessed of certain characteristics; as:
(1) Knowledge. Like Job, he may be ignorant of where God’s seat is; but he must know that God is, and has a seat. Like the Greeks who spoke to Andrew and Philip (Joh 12:21), he may not understand how to reach the Saviour’s presence; but he must be aware that a Saviour exists. The first step in seeking God or Christ is illumination. The minimum of knowledge for a seeker after God is more now than in the days of Job. God must be known as revealed in Christ.
(2) Faith. Like Job, he must not simply know that God is and has a seat; he must believe that God is accessible to sinful men (Heb 11:6). Besides understanding where to find God, viz. anywhere, in Christ, seated on a throne of grace, we must apprehend the way to that throne to be continually open (2Co 5:19; Heb 4:16; Heb 10:22). Faith in this now constitutes an indispensable prerequisite for genuine seeking after God.
(3) Desire. Like Job, and like the Greeks who were anxious to see Jesus, the seeker after God must be in earnest. Those whose longings after God are as intense as were David’s (Psa 63:1; Psa 42:2) cannot always obtain access to his presence; but it is certain they who have no such warm aspirations will be denied, though they seek.
III. HOLY BOLDNESS. (Verses 4, 5.) The courage of the patriarch arose from three things.
1. Well-arranged thoughts. Coming into God’s presence, and commencing to plead before God’s throne, he would set forth his words in orderly array. This implied that Job had spent much time in communing with his heart. Thoughts seldom arrange themselves spontaneously or unconsciously, rather their arrangement requires deliberate and sometimes protracted mental effort. Intelligent disposition of the soul’s ideas and emotions before pressing forward to heaven’s throne is not only demanded by the ineffable majesty of him who sits upon the throne (Job 37:19), but is eminently conducive to the spiritual fortitude of him who as a suppliant approaches the throne. Thoroughly prepared and well-arranged words never fail to impart confidence to a speaker, as inward disorder is almost sure to overwhelm him with outward confusion.
2. Well-constructed arguments. Job meant that he was able to adduce convincing proofs of his integrity. What these were is not stated, but that he alluded to the witness of his past life may be reasonably conjectured. The best evidence of piety is the testimony of the outer walk and conversation (Mat 7:20; Joh 15:8; Gal 5:22; 1Jn 3:10). Nor is any sign so assuring to the heart before God as the consciousness of inward sincerity when supported by the argument of outward propriety. And to this the believer may legitimately appeal in his pleadings before God, like St. Peter when he said to the risen Christ, “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee” (Joh 21:17).
3. Well-assured hope. So confident is Job of having right upon his side, that he fears not to hear the decision of the Judge. In this Job was perhaps a little guilty of pride. The spirit here evinced is that of self-righteousness, rather than of trust in the mercy of God. Still, a child of God might now evince as great a confidence as Job without being open, like him, to the challenge of self-righteousness; might be able to anticipate the Judge’s decision without alarm, not because of his own personal integrity, but because of the all-sufficient merit of Jesus Christ (cf. Job 13:18, homiletics).
IV. SUBLIME CONFIDENCE. Of two things Job declares himself satisfied.
1. God‘s mercy towards him. (Verse 6.) God would not confound him with the fulness of his strength, or terrify him with his majesty (Job 9:34, q.v.), but would mercifully strengthen him to plead his cause, or, according to a more literal translation, would set his heart upon him, i.e. would regard him with affectionate attention, not only giving him a fair hearing, but dispelling his apprehensions, and enabling him to present his case with lucidity and completeness. What Job anticipated, the believer in God is promised. God will not overawe with his majesty any suppliant who comes to his throne; but will regard him with tender love (Pro 15:8; Zec 13:9; Joh 4:23); will listen to his cries (2Ch 7:15; Psa 34:15; Psa 145:18); will even strengthen him with might by his Spirit in the inner man (Zec 12:10; Rom 8:26; Eph 2:18).
2. His victory through God. (Verse 7.) The sincerely upright man, having an opportunity to plead before God, would be certain of ultimate triumph over all who should seek to condemn him; and so shall the Christian believer come off victorious, when he stands before God’s throne, and be made more than a conqueror through him that loved us (Rom 8:33-39).
Learn:
1. The first step towards blessedness is taken by man when he becomes a seeker after God.
2. A man may be getting nearer God, though all outward signs appear to proclaim the reverse.
3. The gospel has for ever rendered Job’s prayer unnecessary.
4. If a man fails to find God, he must be seeking for him in the wrong quarter or the wrong way.
5. They who come to God’s throne in earnest will find mercy to pardon, and grace to help in every time of need.
Job 23:3
A great question answered.
I. THE RECORDED QUESTION. “Oh that I knew where I might find him!”
1. Necessary; since man does not naturally understand either where or how to find God (Rom 1:28; 1Co 1:21; Eph 4:18).
2. Important; since only in the finding and knowing God lies the secret of true happiness (Job 22:21) and the pathway to eternal life (Joh 17:3).
3. Personal; since no man can find God for his neighbour, but every individual for himself alone (Ecc 11:9; Rom 2:6; Gal 6:5).
4. Urgent; since the present is the only moment a soul can count upon for putting such a question (Pro 27:1; 2Co 6:2).
II. THE UNWRITTEN ANSWER. God is to be found:
1. In the Person of Jesus Christ (2Co 5:19), as opposed to the temple of nature, which may speak of God (Psa 19:1; Rom 1:20), but does not unveil his presence like the Incarnation.
2. In the shrine of the human spirit (Joh 4:23, Joh 4:24), as opposed to definite localities. For the truly spiritual worshipper every spot of ground on which he stands is consecrated.
3. In the contrite heart (Isa 57:15), as opposed to the soul of the unbeliever.
Learn:
1. The necessity of earnestness in seeking God.
2. The certainty of finding God, if sought in faith.
Job 23:8-12
Job to Eliphaz: 2. A child of light walking in darkness.
I. THE CHILD OF LIGHT. That Job was entitled to be so described will appear from a consideration of:
1. The creed he professed. It is obvious that Job believed in:
(1) The existence of God. He was not one of those fools who in their hearts say, “No God!” (Psa 14:1). Throughout this, as throughout his previous discourses, the personality of God is assumed, and indeed is frequently referred to without being named.
(2) The providence of God. As little was the patriarch one of those practical atheists to whom he himself had alluded (Job 21:14). Eliphaz insinuated such a charge against the suffering saint whom he pretended to comfort. But Job implicitly repelled the imputation by recognizing that God’s presence, if unseen, was still around him, and God’s hand, though ever veiled, was always working.
(3) The authority of God. Job recognized that the supreme Lawgiver for man was this invisible but omnipresent and continually working Deity, the commandment of whose lip and the word of whose mouth was the perpetually and universally binding rule of life and obedience, rather than the inward resolves, purposes, determinations of the individual, as is commonly but mistakenly supposed by the natural heart (Job 21:15; Exo 5:2; Jer 18:12; Luk 19:14).
(4) The omniscience of God. Job believed not simply that God exercised a general superintendence over mundane affairs, but that his inspection of the world embraced a knowledge of particulars. Like Hagar in the wilderness, he could say, “Thou God seest me!” (Gen 16:13). Like David, he could sing, “I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me” (Psa 40:17). Like Jeremiah, he could pray, “Lord, thou knowest all their counsel against me” (Jer 23:23). Like Peter, he could protest, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee” (Joh 21:17). Job regarded his whole life as lying continually beneath the eye of God: “He knoweth the way that is with me” So God’s eyes are always upon the ways of man (Job 34:21), and in particular of the righteous (Psa 1:6). It is the part of a good man to walk before God (Gen 17:1), and to rejoice that he can say, “All my ways are before thee” (Psa 119:168).
2. The character he maintained. Besides being an intellectual believer in God, Job was:
(1) An earnest seeker after God. Not content with knowing that God’s presence filled the universe around him, and that God’s hand was constantly working beside him in the mysterious phenomena of nature and providence (Job 9:11), Job desired a visible manifestation of and a personal acquaintance with this unseen Deity. Many believe in God’s existence, character, and work who never seek to know God himself, or make the slightest effort to secure his favour. Such a visible manifestation of God as Job craved, and afterwards obtained (Job 38:1-41 :), has been vouchsafed to men in Christ, the Image of the invisible God (2Co 4:4; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3), in whom alone, accordingly, God can now be found.
(2) A faithful servant of God. Recognizing his allegiance to God, Job not only used means to acquaint himself with God’s will, as all saints should do, but accepted that will as the rule and pattern of his life:
(a) cheerfully, making God’s way his way, like the Messianic Sufferer (Psa 40:7, Psa 40:8), and like Christ (Joh 6:38);
(b) perpetually, adhering to God’s commandment always. (Psa 119:44), rendering obedience not alone to precepts which accorded with his inclination, but to every word that proceeded from God s mouth (Psa 119:88);
(c) firmly, holding fast to God’s steps by his foot, resisting all attempts to cause him to decline or turn aside (Psa 44:18; Psa 119:88;
(d) appreciatingly, esteeming the words of God’s mouth more than his necessary food (Authorized Version), like David (Psa 19:10; Psa 119:72), Jeremiah (Jer 15:16), Daniel (Dan 6:5, Dan 6:10), Mary (Luk 10:39-42), and New Testament believers generally (1Pe 2:2); according to another translation,
(e) carefully, treasuring up God’s Word in his breast, like the Hebrew psalmist (Psa 119:11); and
(f) sacrificingly, preferring, Gods commandments to the inclinations, resolves, and purposes of his own heart, when at any time these came into collision, like St. Paul (Rom 7:22);all which proclaimed Job a genuinely pious man.
II. THE CHILD OF LIGHT IN DARKNESS. The passage exhibits Job in three different situations.
1. Encompassed by the darkness. The darkness alluded to not the cloud of outward pain and distress by which Job was overshadowed, but the inward mental and spiritual obscuration which these occasionedthe horrible eclipse which his faith suffered, the terrible revulsion of unrequited love which his soul experienced. A genuine believer and lover of God, who was conscious in his inmost soul of sincerity, who with admirable fortitude had shunned every evil way, and who with unrelaxing tenacity had adhered to the path of truth and right, preferring on every occasion God’s will to his own, he had yet lost all sense of the Divine favour as well as all conscioushess of the Divine presence. Though he earnestly longed to meet and made frantic efforts to obtain an interview with God, it was always in vain. “Behold, I go eastward, but he is not there; and westward, but I perceive him not. Northwards where he worketh, but I behold him not; he turneth aside southwards, and I see him not.” Job meant that he looked in all directions for some visible manifestation of God before which he might come and plead his cause. Job’s spiritual desolation and fruitless longing after God are not without their counterparts in the experiences of Old Testament saints and New Testament believers (Isa 50:10; Joh 20:14), who sometimes, like David on account of sin (Psa 30:7), or like Ethan through calamity (Psa 89:46), or like Mary through bereavement (Joh 20:14), or like the travellers to Emmaus through spiritual dejection (Luk 24:17), are altogether unable to realize the comfortable shining of God’s favour and Christ’s love upon their souls. Job’s inward condition had its highest exemplification in the soul-desertion of Christ upon the cross.
2. Supported in the darkness. As God did not leave Christ entirely without consolations in the hour of his great sorrow, so neither does he leave any of his people (Isa 43:2; Heb 13:5). Job was upheld in the gloom by three considerations.
(1) The knowledge of God’s presence. He could not see God, but he was perfectly aware that God could see him. Though God seemed far removed, Job knew that he was close at handif a veiled presence, yet still a presence. So Christ believed his Father to be nigh though his face was hid. And faith should teach saints to believe in the continual encompassing of God’s gracious presence, even when all inward sense of that presence has departed from the soul.
(2) The consciousness of personal integrity. David could not, have enjoyed this when he lost God’s favour in consequence of sinning with Bathsheba. It is a terrible aggravation to the soul’s distress to know that through personal transgression one has relapsed into the gloom. On the other hand, the calm clear persuasion that one’s conduct has been such as not only conscience but God commends, must prove a rock of adamant beneath the fainting spirit.
(3) The discernment of God’s purpose in affliction. This seemingly a new discovery to the patriarch. Formerly inclined to view his misfortunes as a token of Divine anger, he now regards them as sent for his trial, as designed to test his spiritual character as fire is employed to assay gold. So God did tempt Abraham ,(Gen 22:1), and so believers are subjected to manifold temptations for “the trial’ of their faith (1Pe 1:7). That saints are so tried proves them to be saints. This thought, conjoined with the gracious purpose aimed at in affliction, makes it possible for God’s people to glory in tribulations (Rom 5:3; 1Pe 1:6; Jas 1:12).
3. Emerging from the darkness. Indirectly alluded to, but contemplated as certain.
(1) At what time? “When he hath tried me,” when the process of assaying has been completed, but not till then. Trouble and adversity are not removed from a child of God till they have done their work in him (Rom 5:3; Heb 12:11) as well as for him (2Co 4:17). But the great Refiner never keeps a soul in the furnace longer than is needful to accomplish its purification and salvation (Mal 3:3).
(2) In what manner? “As gold;” i.e. true as gold and shining like gold. Sincere saints are never injured by affliction, as pure gold is never hurt by the refiner’s pot. Heat only evinces the genuine quality of precious metal, and the fires of adversity only manifest the saint’s integrity of character. Adulterated metal is always harmed by the process of assaying, and untrue disciples are without fail detected in times of persecution and seasons of affliction (Mat 24:12). But the sufferings of this present life only serve to refine and purify, to burnish and beautify, the faithful disciple and humble believer.
(3) With what result? That he no longer walks in darkness, but in the light of God’s countenance, in the enjoyment of his friendship and favour for evermore.
Learn:
1. It is better to be a child of light walking in darkness than a child of darkness walking in light, i.e. in the sparks of his own kindling.
2. Though God’s way is sometimes hid from a saint, the saint’s way is never hid from God.
3. It is a special privilege which the good man enjoys that he is never afflicted but with an eye to his improvement.
4. The severest season of trial through which a follower of God may be called to pass is certain to have an end.
5. The sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
6. The only way to happiness for man is the way of God.
7. It is a sure mark of wisdom to prefer God’s commandment to the wishes or resolves of self.
Job 23:13-17
Job to Eliphaz: 3. A meditation on the Divine Being.
I. LOFTY THOUGHTS CONCERNING GOD.
1. The unity of the Divine nature. “For he is in one mind;” literally, “for he is in one” (verse 13). The interpretation which regards this as an allusion to the absolute majesty and undivided essence of the Deity, as in the sublime monotheistic confession of Israel (Deu 6:4), though not accepted by all expositors, is yet pronounced by most to be perfectly admissible. How far Job had attained to a perception of the unique personality of the Godhead, as containing more hypostases (persons) than one, may be a subject of controversial discussion. But an utterance like the present seems to mark off Job by a wide gulf from ancient polytheistic idolaters. Job, his three friends, and doubtless many more besides, were monotheists, who held by the grand doctrine of the unity of Goal, which had descended to them in the line of primitive tradition, and which was subsequently republished to Israel from the summit of Mount Sinai. Nay, such passages as those which speak about a Daysman (Job 10:1-22 :33), a heavenly Witness (Job 16:19-21), and a Kinsman Redeemer (Job 19:25), seem to intimate that Job at least, in his ecstatic moments, had caught a glimpse of the doctrine of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead, just as throughout the Old Testament generally the same doctrine is found lying in embryo, though not fully or distinctly revealed (cf. Gen 1:1-3; Psa 2:7; Psa 33:6; Psa 110:1).
2. The immutability of the Divine purpose. “But he is in one,” i.e. one purpose or determination, e.g. towards Job. Hence adds the patriarch, “Who can turn him?” (verse 13), meaning, nothing could deflect him from his fixed resolution to treat Job as a criminal. Dropping out of view the misconception which gave tone and color to all Job’s representations of the Divine Being, the truth which remains, that the supreme God is unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, and therefore invariable and unalterable in his decrees and purposes, is in accordance not only with the teachings of Scripture (Num 23:19; 1Sa 15:29; Psa 102:27; Pro 19:21; Ecc 3:14; Mal 3:6; Act 15:18), but with the dictates of reason. A Being not absolutely perfect in himself cannot be Divine. But a Being in himself absolutely perfect cannot be affected by anything from without or within so as to render him either less or more perfect than he is. Hence absolutely and in himself he must be” the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” If upon any of his dispensations towards the creature changes seem to pass, these changes, having been fixed and determined from the beginning, are in no degree inconsistent with his immutability. Whatever further alteration appears to surround his decrees is the result of change or variability in the creature.
3. The irresistibility of the Divine power. “And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth;” literally, “And his soul desireth, and he doeth” (verse 13). Not only does the Supreme Intelligence act in accordance with a plan, but he has power adequate to carry into complete realization every item and detail of that plan. Nay, with such ease does he accomplish his purposes, his resources being unlimited, that he has simply to speak and it is done, to command and it standeth fast (Psa 33:9), or, as here represented, to form a wish and proceed to execute it (cf. Psa 115:3; Isa 46:10, Isa 46:11; Jer 32:17, Jer 32:27; Dan 4:25; Eph 1:11), without apprehension of defeat (Job 9:12; Job 11:10; Job 41:10, Job 41:11; 2Ch 20:6; Isa 43:13); or failure (Job 42:2; Gen 18:14; Luk 1:37; Eph 3:20).
4. The particularity of the Divine decrees. “For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me” (verse 14). What the Divine mind had preappointed as Job’s portion, the Divine hand was engaged in carrying out. The plan of the universe is one that provides for attention to individuals. Nothing is too vast for infinite wisdom and power to comprehend or execute; nothing too mean and insignificant for the Divine mind to notice, or the Divine hand to govern. The falling of a sparrow equally with the dissolution of an empire has a place in the programme of the world which is prearranged by God. The portion of the feeblest saint on earth is as truly prepared for him as is the place that shall be filled by a nation or a race.
5. The universality of the Divine government. “And many such things are with him.” Possibly Job meant that God had many more applications and calamities of a like description wherewith to torture him; but the interpretation is not wrong which understands Job to say that his case was not exceptional, that his sufferings formed part of a great plan in which others besides himself were embraced; that, in fact, the supreme Ruler was exercising over mankind at large the same sort of irresistible sovereignty as over him, Job. And certainly the thought should in some degree mitigate the stroke of affliction when it falls on us, that no strange thing has happened to us, but only such as is common to men (1Pe 4:12; 1Pe 5:9).
II. MINGLED FEELINGS TOWARDS GOD.
1. A sense of awe. “Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him” (verse 15). If the thought of an all-powerful, irresistibly and universally decreeing God arrayed against Job possessed him with inward fear and confusion, terror and dismay, much more should such emotions fill the minds of men who are as yet in their natural condition. And though in the case of such as have made peace with God there is no occasion for inward trepidation, slavish terror, or paralyzing fear, yet even they must find it difficult to contemplate the Divine character as above depicted without a consciousness of awe, without a feeling of profound veneration. So David remembered God, and was troubled (Psa 77:3). Christ’s followers, however, have no need to be troubled by thoughts of either the Divine character or presence (Joh 14:1). “Perfect love casteth out fear” (1Jn 4:18). And we have received not the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15).
2. A consciousness of weakness. “For God maketh my heart soft” (verse 16), i.e. deprives it of strength, makes it faint and feeble (Deu 20:3; Isa 7:4; Jer 51:46). The effect produced on Job by a contemplation of the Divine character as an all-wise, irresistibly powerful, moral Governor, who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will, is not infrequently experienced by serious minds. Nothing impresses men with a conviction of his feebleness like a vivid realization of the power and wisdom of God as displayed in the material universe (Psa 8:5, Psa 8:6); nothing affords a glimpse into his spiritual worthlessness and insufficiency like a luminous presentation before his soul’s eye of the moral majesty of God (Isa 6:5; Luk 5:8; Rev 1:17). Indeed, the human heart never either breaks or becomes dejected, discerns its weakness or realizes its insufficiency, until it comes in contact with God, e.g. Moses (Exo 4:10); Isa 6:5; Job (Job 42:6).
3. A feeling of perplexity. As understood by our translators, Job (verse 17) expresses amazement that God had not cat him off “before the darkness” of affliction had come upon him; i.e. either that God had kept him alive solely for the purpose of inflicting on him such mysterious suffering as he then endured (cf. Job 3:10), or that God had not removed him while at the height of prosperity, and in visible enjoyment of the Divine favour. So good people are often puzzled to understand why, in the providence of God, they should have been reserved for this or that particular ca]amity; and why, being what they are, sincere and humble followers of God, they should be treated with as much severity as if they were his foes. But this, of course, results from imperfect knowledge of’ the special design and gracious benefits of affliction.
4. A deficiency of faith. Otherwise interpreted, the language of Job (verse 17) asserts that what confounds him is not the external darkness covering his face, surrounding him on every side, and threatening to engulf him but the reward thought that God is against him. And just here Job evinces a lack of genuine trust, or spiritual confidence, in God. Had Job been as honest towards God as he was just towards himself, had he given God as full credit for sincerity as he claimed for himself, he would never have accused God of dealing with him as an enemy, but, rather than impeach God’s immutable love towards his faithful followers, would have sought another solution for the mystery of his sufferings. Learn:
1. The proper study of mankind is God.
2. The immutability of God is as full of comfort to God’s people as it is of terror to God’s adversaries.
3. When God’s purposes have been revealed, whether in providence or in grace, they should not be resisted, but received with meekness and submission.
4. Only one Being in the universe, viz. God, can do what his soul desireth; every other is dependent upon God’s will.
5. No man can be truly said to be the architect of his own future, since every man’s lot is assigned him by God.
6. When a saint is afraid of God’s presence, he has either taller into sin, like Adam (Gen 3:10) and like David (Psa 30:7), or has misconstrued the character of that appearance, like the apostles (Joh 6:19).
7. The breaking or the bruising of a sinner’s heart is a work for which only God is competent.
8. There are worse calamities than death to a good man; e.g. the loss, or supposed loss, of the Divine favour.
9. Whatever befalls a child of God on earth, he should never part with faith in his heavenly Father’s love.
Job 23:13
The unchanging God.
“He is in one mind” with regard to
I. THE PLAN OF THE UNIVERSE.
1. There is such a plan. “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Act 15:18; Eph 1:11).
2. This plan is so perfect that it never requires subsequent modification (Job 36:4; Job 37:16; Psa 104:24; Pro 3:19; Isa 40:13).
3. This plan is efficiently carried out in its minutest detail (Num 11:23; 2Ch 20:6; Job 42:2; Psa 33:9; Isa 14:24).
II. THE SIN OF MAN.
1. That it is an abomination in his sight (Deu 25:16; Psa 5:4; Pro 15:9; Jer 44:4; Zec 8:17; Luk 16:15).
2. That it is infinitely dangerous to man (Num 16:38; Deu 29:18; Job 5:2; Pro 1:31; Eph 5:6).
III. THE SCHEME OF SALVATION. “There is none other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” (Act 4:12). From the Fall downwards, the gospel of the grace of God has been substantially the same-salvation.
1. In antediluvian times, through faith in the woman’s Seed (Gen 3:15; Gen 4:4).
2. In patriarchal times, through faith in Abraham’s promised Child (Gen 12:3; Gen 15:6).
3. In Mosaic times, through faith in the sacrificial Lamb, of which the Levitical offerings were the shadows and the types (Heb 9:8-10; Heb 10:3).
4. In the times of the monarchy, through faith in David’s Son (2Sa 7:15).
5. In the times of Isaiah, through faith in the suffering Servant of Jehovah (Isa 53:1).
6. In the fulness of the times, through faith in him who was the woman’s Seed, Abraham’s Descendant, David’s Son, the suffering Servant of Jehovah, and the world’s Paschal Lamb, all in one.
IV. THE PURPOSE OF AFFLICTION. Ever since God’s mercy came to this fallen world, and that was immediately upon Adam’s transgression, the design aimed at in life’s discipline has been not to punish man, but to convert and save, to purify and perfect him (Gen 3:23; Deu 8:5; Job 5:17; Psa 94:12; Eze 20:37; Joh 15:2; Act 14:22; Rom 5:3; 1Co 11:32; Heb 12:7).
V. THE DESTINY OF HIS PEOPLE. Though not as clearly understood or revealed in pre-Christian times as now under the gospel dispensation, it was still the same “better country, even an heavenly,” to which saints in all ages have looked forward, Cf. Abraham (Heb 11:10), David (Psa 17:15), Paul (Php 1:23; 2Ti 4:8).
Conclusion. “Who can turn him?”
1. Consolation to the saint.
2. Condemnation to the wicked.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Verse 1-24:25
Struggles of faith with doubt.
To this long and severe accusation of Eliphaz the sufferer returns no reply. He comes back to the wish he has already expressed more than once, that God will appear as Witness and Judge of his innocence, and so put an end to this long embroilment (see Job 9:1-35. and 13.). He is distressed by the doubt that God has withdrawn himself from him, and left him to drain the cup of suffering to the dregs. And, again, many examples occur to him of wicked men who lived in happiness to a good old age, even to death; and he dwells on these pictures with a kind of pleasure, thinking to establish his position: the incomprehensibility of the Divine government.J.
Job 23:1-17
Longing for the appearance of the delivering and justifying God.
I. EXCLAMATION. (Job 23:2-5.) So bitter is his complaint, “his hand is heavy upon his groaning,” i.e. he must force groan after groan out of himself. Oh that he knew where to find the judgment-seat of God, and that he might have the opportunity of pleading his cause! (Job 23:3-5). He possesses still “faith and a good conscience,” those best jewels of a Christian (1Ti 1:5), and can think of appearing before God, not with terror, but with confidence. “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence with God” (1Jn 3:21).
II. DOUBT (Job 23:6-9) of the possibility of this intervention of God on his behalf. He timidly thinks of the overwhelming effect of God’s majesty upon him (comp. Job 9:34; Job 13:21). But here, relying on the consciousness of innocence, he casts the doubt away. “Would he contend with me in his omnipotence? No; he would only attend to me” (Job 23:6). It would be seen that it is a righteous man who enters into judgment with him, and Job would escape his Judge (verse 7). But then this cheerful expectation is checked by the thought that God is nowhere to be foundneither east nor west, north nor south (verses 8, 9), although present in all quarters (Psa 139:8-10). Without the definite revelation of the gospel, we may readily lose ourselves in a vague and aimless pantheism. God is everywhere, yet nowhere; present in all things for the intellect, found in none by the heart. It is the doctrine of the Mediator, of the Man Christ Jesus, which resolves this contradiction. God must meet us in the form of man, otherwise he is but an abstraction.
III. REASON OF GOD‘S WITHDRAWAL. (Verses 10-13.) According to Job, this is, that although God knows his innocence, he will not depart from his resolve not to be found of him. Verses 10-12 contain strong assertions of his innocence. God knows Job’s wonted way or manner of life; and, if proved, he would come out like gold from the furnace. His foot has kept firmly to God’s step, God’s way he has observed, and has not turned aside, nor departed from the commandment of his lips. “More than my own law I kept the words of his mouth,” i.e. more than the dictates of pleasure or self-will (verse 12). “But he remains one, and who will turn him” from his design (comp. Psa 33:9; Num 23:19; 1Sa 15:29)?
IV. AWE AND HUMILITY IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. (Verses 14-17.) God will fulfil Job’s destiny, like that of many others (verse 14). The thought of this unfathomable counsel of God through which Job must suffer fills him with fearfulness and amazement (verse 15). It is God himself, not the mere sufferings, who has unnerved Job and overthrown him (verse 16). It is not the darkness of his trouble (Job 22:11) nor his own hideous form (Job 19:13-15) which have stupefied him. No, it is God alone who is the cause of this stupor, who is behind these sufferings with his incomprehensible counsels.
Here, again, we see how deep is faith in the heart of Job, how inextinguishable the longing and the need for communion with God, which is life to him, and more than life l He can bear pain, he can dispense, if need be, with human sympathy; but he cannot bear the absence of God! As the plant in the cellar, so the faithful soul ever turns and struggles towards the light; and the only Light of the soul is God!J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN
Job 23:3-13
The true support under deferred judgment.
In the bitterness of his complaint and the heaviness of his stroke, Job makes known his desire to appeal directly to God. In the impossibility of this his faith is more and more severely tested; but he reposes in an assurance that the Divine eye is upon him, and he is confident of a just and even merciful sentence. So does conscious integrity uphold the tried and suffering believer, over whom for the present the shadows of suspicion gather, although the sufferer is tried by deferred judgment.
I. THE DEMAND FOR A PATIENT HEARING. Only the consciously upright would desire to plead with his judge. The self-accused tries to hide from the keen eye of detection and exposure; but he who knows himself to be unjustly accused may well desire to appear before a righteous tribunal. It is a high testimony to Job’s character that he makes demand to be tried by One who cannot err (verses 3-7). But his longing is not allayed. A further test is applied to his character. For the present, at least, judgment is denied him.
II. JUDGMENT WITHHELD, A FURTHER TRIAL. To the unjustly condemned no severer testing could be given than the withholding of the desired judgment. Job’s hope is in God; but God is hidden. If he attempts to “go forward,” behold “he is not there.” If “backward,” he “cannot perceive him.” Turning to the right hand or to the left, it is the same. God, his Friend, is hidden. His only refuge is closed. How severely is faith tried and patience put to the proof by the hiding of God! The struggle is a spiritual one. The soul is cast upon the unseen. It is thrown back upon its integrity and upon its power to wait. It is the supreme test of faith. It precedes the dawn of the day of vindication, of judgment and deliverance. It is a further weight upon the already tried heart of the patriarch. To an afflicted spirit is added a suffering body, and for the present the cruel accusations of would-be friends, who mistake the discipline of God for his judgment against sin.
III. IT IS HERE THAT JOB‘S FAITH IN THE DIVINE JUSTICE SHINES OUT WITH CLEARNESS. He knows God would not take advantage of his “great power” to plead that against him or to crush him with it. Nay, rather he would “put strength” in the poor suppliant. He would compassionate the oppressed, and concede to him. So Job comforts himself in the quiet repose upon the justice of the Divine decisions. The fruits of early obedience and faith are now gathered. He who sows in his own heart the seeds of Divine truth in earlier days, prepares for himself a harvest of consolation in the days of trial and adversity. Job is proving the blessedness of the man whose ways please the Lord.
IV. ALL THIS IS BASED UPON JOB‘S CONSCIOUSNESS OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY. With confidence he rebuts the accusations of his accusing friends. He rejoices in the assurance of the Divine cognizance of his doings: “He knoweth the way that I take.” Happy the man who can appeal with confidence to the searching of the Divine eye! Job may have had cause sufficient to be abased before God, but he is conscious of innocence of the charges preferred by his friends. Thus is falsely accused innocence sustained when its judgment is deferred. And Job appears a bright example of the comfort derived in affliction from faith in God and consciousness of untarnished integrity.R.G.
Job 23:14-17
The humbled and overwhelmed sufferer.
The position of Job is one of confusion and unexplained mystery. He is in the hands of the Almighty. His punishment, as some affirm it to be, is very heavy. It at times seems to be greater than he can bear. Yet he is uncondemned within. He holds fast to his integrity. Like his friends, he interprets sufferings into punishments for sin. Yet he is not conscious of sin, certainly not of sin to such a degree as to merit such heavy judgment. He is confounded. He can but yield. He believes in the Divine justice, although his faith in it is tried by the conflicting convictions of his mind and his inability to interpret the Divine ways. That his own righteousness will shine out ultimately he is persuaded. “When he hath tried me, “shall come forth as gold.” In the mean while he is overpowered. The struggle is severe; the strain upon his faith is very great. It is the uninterpreted mystery, the apparent confliction of the Divine dealings, that bows Job to the earth. He is troubled at the Divine presence; when he thinks of God he is afraid, and his heart is dejected. This picture of the humbled, overwhelmed servant of God holding fast his faith in the consciousness of integrity, declares the true causes of the support which Job experienced in his overwhelming afflictions to be
(1) a consciousness of integrity;
(2) faith in the Divine Name;
(3) patient anticipation of final vindication.
I. Without THE ASSURANCE OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY Job could not be free from the sorrows which come of condemnation. The testimony of conscience to the wrongness and disobedience of life is the keenest and most penetrative of afflictions. It reaches to the very core of the spirit. The utmost sensibility of the soul is aroused. No outward calm can allay this inner agitation. But if there is peace within; if the soul is not at war with itself; if there is the inestimable consciousness of personal freedom from condemnation, the soul may writhe in its pain, but it is upheld by the assurance that the affliction comes not weighted with the burden of retribution.
II. It is through this freedom from self-reproach and self-condemnation alone that TRUE FAITH IN GOD can be sustained. Job may be overwhelmed at the thought of God, but he lacks not faith in him; and them is no sense of buried wrong weakening his trust, or impairing the comfort that comes from a belief in the deep, if hidden, Divine approval.
III. And it is this which supports him in THE HOPE OF A FINAL VINDICATION The unjustly condemned may wait. Trouble may overshadow him, he may be heavily burdened, his heart may quake and fear, but he knows he shall at last rise superior to all aspersions of evil-doing. Herein lies the secret of a sustaining peace in the midst of the severest of earth’s trials; this is the true ground of hope, this the encouragement to sustaining faith.R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 23:2
The bitter complaint.
Job’s comforters have failed. Their many words have not lightened his troubles. On the contrary, they have aggravated them. To external disaster has been added cruel misunderstanding and false accusation. Of all this Job naturally complains most bitterly. Many troubles are softened with time. It is not so with his. The same melancholy despondency, the same cry of agony, the same grievous complaining, are still with him.
I. IT IS NATURAL TO GIVE EXPRESSION TO GRIEF. In the East this is done with great demonstration, and even ostentation. Any extravagance is foolish; self-restraint is certainly more manly than a wild abandonment to sorrow. Yet it is neither necessary nor desirable to suppress all signs of feeling. God, who has made the fountain of tears, cannot require it to be always sealed. There is a relief in the natural expression of sorrow. To hide it in the bosom is to injure the soul. Extreme reserve and self-restraint may lead to insanity. We are more likely to think unjust thoughts of God when we brood over our wrongs in secret than when we venture to give an external expression to them.
II. THE GREATEST GRIEF EXCEEDS EXPRESSION. Job feels that this is the case with his sorrow. Bitter as his complaint is, his stroke is heavier than his groaning. We are tempted to exaggerate the smaller troubles of life; but we cannot find adequate expression for the greater ones. They who have never suffered from those troubles cannot understand how keenly they are felt. It is, therefore, unjust to judge of the complaining spirit of other men, as the three friends did of Job’s. On the other hand, inexpressible grief is perfectly understood by God. It is no drawback to his sympathy that men cannot give full expression to their feelings, because he reads the heart.
III. THE BITTER COMPLAINT OF GRIEF SHOULD LEAD TO PRAYER. This is the case with Job; and after one brief utterance of his burdened soul, the suffering man turns at once to God (see verse 2). Then he must do more than give expression to grief. While God listens patiently to the complaints of his suffering children, it is not a worthy thing on their part only to burden him with those complaints. Submission, obedience, and trust should have a part in the utterance to God.
IV. NO HUMAN GRIEF CAN EQUAL THAT OF CHRIST‘S SORROWS. Job’s sufferings seemed to be unique. But they were fearfully surpassed by what Christ endured. To know that some one has suffered more is not to lighten the present sufferer’s load. On the contrary, this fact only makes the world look the darker and the more miserable. But there are characteristics of Christ’s sufferings that should help other sufferers. He shows us how to bear suffering. More than that, his suffering brings healing to others. “With his stripes we are healed” (Isa 53:5). Thus the sufferer may look for saving deliverance from his own trouble to the Christ who suffered for him.W.F.A.
Job 23:3
The search for God.
I. ITS SOURCE. Job is prompted to seek God by his terrible troubles. The false accusations make him the more anxious to find the just Judge, who can clear up the dreadful misunderstandings and vindicate his injured cause. Thus the innocent man in trouble needs God. Still more does the guilty man; for no one can deliver from sin but he against whom one has sinned. Although it is most evident that many who thus need God are not actively seeking for him, yet, even if held back by fear or distracted by worldliness, all men have somewhere in the depths of their hearts the instinct of hunger for God. We need God, and we can have no rest till we find him.
II. ITS HOPE. Job believes that, if only he can find God and come to his seat, justice will be done, and right will be apparent; for Job is only thinking of vindication. No doubt that result will follow. But others also enter into the great human hope for God. If he were only to vindicate the righteous, the great multitude of men could hope for little from him. But the great Judge who does this is the compassionate Father, who has pity on his children’s needs apart from their deserts. Thus the hope turns to the mercy of God for deliverance and blessing. Still, it is not wise to separate these two forms of the hope. God can only bless by leading us to righteousness; and it is really for our good that he is just. We need God not only that he may judge the righteous cause, but also that he may make the sinner righteous.
III. ITS DIFFICULTY. Job expresses a deep, heartfelt desire with great anxiety. He has not yet found God. Others have been in the same conditionlonging for God, yet finding him not. Where is the difficulty?
1. God is a Spirit. If we try to find God by earthly means we must fail. He is not hidden among the mountains or above the clouds. He is simply invisible by nature. We must look for him in spiritual ways.
2. We are sinful. Nothing so blinds us to God as sin. This first of all banishes us to a great distance from God, and then makes darkness about our way back.
3. Life is often perplexing and sorrowful. Job had lost the vision of God in his sorrow, rather than through sin. So had Christ on the cross when he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Great grief seems to blot out the heavens and leave us in desolation.
IV. ITS REWARD. Job did find God at last (Job 42:5). God has promised that they who seek him earnestly shall find him (Pro 8:17), and Christ that if men seek they shall find (Mat 7:7).
1. God reveals himself to faith. We believe in order that we may see, trust in order that we may know. This is true of all knowledge of persons.
2. God is seen in Christ. Philip expressed the soul’s desire for God when he said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us;” and then Christ declared where the revelation of God was to be seen: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Joh 14:8, Joh 14:9).
3. The full vision of God is dependent on purity of heart. Some know]edge of God can be had without this; but we cannot see him as he is till we are like him (Mat 5:8).W.F.A.
Job 23:8, Job 23:9
The unseen God.
Job enlarges on the idea of his search for God and the efforts that he has vainly made to find him. God is still invisible; searching has not found him.
I. THE PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF SEEING GOD. There is more to be said for modern agnosticism than for eighteenth-century deism. Pure rationalism will not find God. Physical science cannot discover him. The animal is dissected, the metal is melted in the crucible, but the analysis reveals not Divinity. We sweep the heavens with the telescope, and can see no Deity enthroned above the stars. But we are very foolish if we expect to find God in any of these ways. He is neither seen by the bodily eye nor discovered by the scientific faculty. Science, indeed, points to causation, and reveals order and thought; but she does not say how these things came to be. Natural theology prepares the way for the revelation of God; or, if it may be said that it is a revelation of God, still this comes only in such a large and confusing idea that we cannot find in it what we needthe revelation of our Father in heaven.
II. THE MORAL DIFFICULTY OF SEEING GOD. Job’s search was not in regions of science. He looked abroad on the great world, and he probed into the deep musings of his own heart, but not as a philosopher seeking for a scientific explanation of the universe. It was his deep distress that drove him to God. He missed God in life, in the providential control of human affairs. It is not always easy to see God in this strangely confused human world, where so many things go wrong, and where so little seems to be done to keep them right. In his perplexity and distress man cries out, “Where is God? If there is indeed a God, why does he not declare himself? why does he not put forth his hand and rectify the world that so greatly needs him?” Whatever may be the theoretical scepticism that gathers round problems of science and philosophy, the moral doubt that springs from the experience of injustice and misery is much more keenly felt.
III. THE SPIRITUAL CAPACITY TO SEE GOD. We cannot find him by means of our philosophy; we miss him in the dark struggles of man’s world of action and suffering. But why? Because we are looking for him in wrong directions. The true vision of God is only to be seen by means of spiritual fellowship with him. Meanwhile, although this is hard to obtain, we may console ourselves with the know]edge that if he does indeed exist, his being does not become shadowy and unreal just because we do not see him. It is desirable that we should have a more intimate acquaintance with our Father, but even before we have attained to this, even while we are blundering and stumbling in the darkness, God is truly existing, and is ruling over all. Our ignorance does not limit God’s being, our blindness does not cripple his activity. We cannot see him; we find it hard to trace his purposes among the tangled threads of life; all looks dark and aimless. Yet God is God, and therefore he will not desert his creatures.
“God’s in his heaven,
All’s right with the world.”
(Browning.)
W.F.A.
Job 23:10
God’s knowledge and man’s discipline.
I. GOD‘S KNOWLEDGE.
1. The fact. Job has just been owning his difficulty in finding God. He searches in all directions, forward and backward, on the left hand and on the right, and he cannot discover God (verses 8, 9). But although it is so hard for him to attain to a knowledge of God, he is quite certain that God knows him. We are known by God before we think of acknowledging him, and when we are bewildered with the mystery of life all is clear and open to God.
2. Its scope. God knows the way that his servants take.
(1) Past experiences. He knows what we have had to contend with, and why our lives have been vexed and tried.
(2) Present circumstances. At the very moment when we have some new difficulty to face, some new height to climb, or some new snare to avoid, God is with us, perfectly understanding the whole situation.
(3) Future scenes. One step is enough for us, because God knows all that lies before us. Although our way may seem to be leading to impossible regions, he who sees the end from the beginning can lead us through.
3. Its consequences. If God knows our way, we have not to travel, like Columbus, over untried seas. The whole route has been mapped out by God. We cannot be lost if he who knows our way is our Guide. Gordon’s favourite passage from Browning shows the right spirit of one who trusts this truth
“I go to prove my soul.
I see my way as birds their trackless way.
I shall arrive! What time, what circuit first,
I ask not; but unless God send his hail
Or blinding fireballs, sleet or stifling snow,
In some time, his good time, I shall arrive.
He guides me, and the bird. In his good time.”
II. MAN‘S DISCIPLINE. Job is now confident that when God has tried him he will come forth as gold.
1. Its source. The suffering man holds to the idea that his trouble comes from God. All along he has not perceived Satan’s share in it. Therefore his faith is the more remarkable. He is right to some extent, because his trouble is only what God permits. God may not be the direct agent of a person’s affliction. This may come from the cruelty of men or from other undetected causes. Yet it is all within the restraint of God.
2. Its process. Job perceives that he is being tried by God. This is the first time that he has given evidence of holding such an ides. Hitherto he has been simply dismayed and distressed at the problem of suffering. He has had no theory to oppose to his friends’ orthodox notion that it is the merited punishment of sin. That that notion was wrong, experience and observation have made him see quite clearly. But hitherto he has not been able to supply an alternative idea. Now there dawns on him a perception of the disciplinary purpose of suffering. The husbandman purges the vine-branch because it is fruitful (Joh 15:2). The father chastises his son because he loves him (Heb 12:6). God tries his servant, not to punish him, but because he values him.
3. Its aim. That the sufferer may come forth as gold. Job will have his innocence vindicated. A deeper result than vindication, however, is the perfecting of the soul through suffering. The fire not only tests, it refines.
4. Its success. The end aimed at will be attained. The assurance of this lies in the previous thought of God’s knowledge. He does not need to assay the soul in order to discover for himself whether it is of true gold. He knows the worth of his servants. He adapts their discipline to their requirements. It seems disproportionate, but it is suitable; for God knows the way of his people; therefore he will bring them forth as gold.W.F.A.
Job 23:11, Job 23:12
A faithful life.
I. ITS COURSE.
1. A course of conduct. Job speaks of his foot holding, etc. He is reviewing his actions. It would have been of little use for him to have vindicated his creed and his sentiments if his conduct had been faithless. The most important question is as to how a man lives, not as to what he thinks or how he feels.
2. A continuous course. It is a way, and Job has had to keep to it, A momentary spasm of virtue will not satisfy the requirements of the Divine Law. To achieve a single heroic deed that makes the world ring with one’s fame, and then sink into idle apathy, is not the way to earn the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant!“
3. A Divine course. It is easy to persist in one’s own way. The difficulty is to leave that and to accept and follow faithfully in God’s way. Yet he has marked out the course of service for every one of his people, and the plain duty is to find it and follow it.
4. An arduous course. It is not easy to keep to God’s steps. The way is narrow (Mat 7:13, Mat 7:14). Many temptations urge us to forsake it for flowery paths or for the broad road. The Christian life is a course of self-denial. The path leads uphill. Even while we only think of standing still we are really slipping back It is a mistake to suppose that the Christian life is necessarily a growth and a progress. There is danger of worse than stagnation, of declension and decay. We may have done well in the past, and yet have been hindered later on in life. To be true Christians we must be ever watchful, earnest, active in pressing forward along God’s way.
II. ITS INSPIRATION. How is it possible to be faithful, keeping continuously to God’s way?
1. My the guidance of revelation. Job has been following God’s commandments. We cannot follow God’s way without the aid of light from heaven. Instinct and conscience are our natural guides; but instinct is blind, and conscience has been in some cases perverted. Therefore God has given us “the more sure word of prophecy.” God’s Word is a lamp to the feet of his people. This is its chief object. Difficulties are felt as to certain questions about the Bible, e.g. how to reconcile Genesis with geology, how to settle the relation of the Law to the prophets, how to harmonize the gospel narratives. But these questions do not touch the main purpose of the Bible, which is to be a guide to conduct. The righteousness of the ten commandments, the blessedness of the sermon on the mount, and, above all, the glory of Christ, still shine from the sacred page as beacon-lights undimmed by the clouds of controversy that gather about quite secondary points.
2. In the power of affection. Job has set a supreme value on the words of God’s mouth. Their truth and goodness and beauty won the heart of the author of the hundred and nineteenth psalm. We have still greater attractions in the New Testament. Christ, the living Word of God, draws men to himself by his love and by his sacrifice of himself, so that when he is known and loved faithfulness becomes possible for his sake. Christians are called to walk, not only in the steps which God has marked out for them, but in those which Christ has trodden, which he has made sacred by his own presence.W.F.A.
Job 23:13
The inflexibility of God.
I. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS ESSENTIAL TO HIS NATURE. He has not the reasons for changing that we have.
1. He knows all things. Men decide from partial knowledge, and then fuller information leads them to change their minds. But God knows everything from the first.
2. He is strong. Men are persuaded against their better judgment, or they weakly yield to temptation. But God is perfect in will and character. He cannot be urged to do what he knows is not the absolutely best.
3. He is good. It is well that men can and do change, for much of the past course of the world’s history is wrong, and the only hope for man is in his mending his ways. But God has been faultless from the first; there is nothing for him to repent of.
II. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS A WARNING AGAINST MAN‘S PRESUMPTION. The danger is in judging God by man’s changeable standards. Thus people come to think that he will not really perform what he threatens. They trust to the influence of time in melting away the Divine purposes against sin; or they rely on their own urgency in attempting to persuade God not to accomplish his will; or they imagine that in some way they shall be able to elude the grasp of his Law. All these courses show a foolish misapprehension of the firmness and strength of God. They are false because he is true.
III. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS AN ENCOURAGEMENT FOR FAITH.
1. In his Law. He has revealed his will, and we may be sure that he will keep to it. He is not like a fickle despot, whose shifting moods baffle the watchfulness of the most subservient courtier. When we once know his will, we may rely upon it that this is permanent.
2. In his promises. God has revealed himself in gracious purposes. These purposes he will never abandon. The ingratitude of man does not destroy the good will of God. A weaker being would be worn out with the constant rebellion and the utter unworthiness of his children. But God is infinitely patient. In spite of the world’s folly and sin, he holds inflexibly to his purpose of saving and redeeming it. It cannot be that of all the Divine attributes mercy only is fragile and transitory; that while God’s truth and justice remain, this one characteristic may be broken down, and may vanish away. On the contrary, it is explicitly revealed to us over and over again that “the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever.”
IV. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH HIS VARYING TREATMENT OF US. He has no rigid, uniform method of action. He adapts his treatment of us to our conduct and our need. His inflexibility is in his character, not in details of action. The very fact that he is changeless in himself leads to the result that he acts differently under different circumstances. We are governed not by an iron law, but by a faithful God.
1. In answer to prayer. God is not changed or bent by our prayer. But he sees fit to do, in response to our confidence in him, what he would not think well to do without it.
2. In the redemption of the world. This is a new action. The gospel declares a fresh Divine movement. But all of it springs from the eternal purposes of God; and all of it is in accordance with his changeless character of love and righteousness.W.F.A.
Job 23:15, Job 23:16
Troubled at the presence of God.
I. THIS IS NATURAL IN GREAT DISTRESS. The soul is plunged into grief; like Jacob, the desponding sufferer exclaims, “All these things are against me” (Gen 42:36). Then he comes to regard God as the Source of his misfortunes. God seems to be his Enemy, and any approach of God is regarded with apprehension, as bringing fresh trouble. We have to learn not to form our judgment of God in our darker moments. It is difficult to have any well-balanced opinion when we are plunged in deep distress. While the knife is in him it is possible that the patient may think the surgeon rough, cruel, even malignant. But he is not then in a fit state for forming an opinion.
II. THIS IS RIGHT IN THE GUILT OF SIN. The wonder is that people sin with so little reflection as to how God regards them, and that they are often quite ready to meet him without a thought of their great guilt. Thus it is said of a bad man’s end, that “he died like a lamb”! As though his dull and senseless departure from this life were any guarantee of his spiritual state. But when conscience is roused, it shrinks from the searching gaze of God. Blind eyes may be turned to the sun, at which seeing eyes cannot glance without pain. It is not only that God can punish sin. There is a sense of shame in the thought that One so good and holy should ever see it. Then it is all a direct offence against him. When the sinner meets God, he encounters One whom he has grievously wronged. Lastly, as God is our Father, there is an especial ground of trouble in his rebellious children meeting him.
III. THIS MAY BE OVERCOME BY A BETTER ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD. The fear should not be perpetual. Something is wrong, or it would not have arisen, and that which caused the fear can and ought to be removed. It is not well that any man should continue to live in a chill fear of God. In the New Testament God is so revealed that all terror of him may be dissipated.
1. As our Father. If we thought him hard and stern, we were unjust. Christ has revealed his true nature in his Fatherhood. Therefore the idea that God’s presence is itself terrible comes from ignorance. Following the light of Christ, we discover that God is the home of our souls, and that no place is so safe, or so peaceful and happy, as where his presence is felt.
2. As our Redeemer. The just fear that arises from sin cannot be rightly expelled until the cause of it is removed. As God must be angry with sin, it would only be a dangerous deception that covered up and hid the thought of his wrath. But God himself has provided the best, the only right way of dispelling the fear of his presence by giving us a remedy for sin. Now, as it is he who sends the remedy, we have to know his intentions in order that we may no longer live in fear of him. The very fact that Christ was sent from heaven to save the world from sin shows how terrible the evil was; but it also shows how deep and strong the love of God must bedeeper than his wrath, outlasting his chastisements.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XXIII.
Job wishes that he might be allowed to plead his cause before God; but, wherever he turns himself, he cannot find or behold him. He acknowledges, however, that God observes his paths, and therefore he doth not despond.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 23:1. Then Job answered and said Job, being tried to a high degree, by the freedom which Eliphaz had taken with him in his last speech, charging him directly with the most enormous sins, (see the 15th, and following verses) turns to God, according to his custom, and earnestly begs that he would bring him to his trial; that he would hear the matter fully, and determine between him and his friends. The passage from this to the end of the 10th verse is a very fine one; in which a candid reader can see nothing, I should suppose, but an earnest desire in Job to come before his judge, and take his trial, and be delivered, once for all, from the unjust suspicions of his friends. The word rendered order, in the 4th verse, is used for drawing up a speech, chap. Job 32:14 or preparing a table for an entertainment, Isa 21:5. Moses uses the same word, Lev 6:9, for preparing a burnt offering; and David, Psa 5:3 for addressing himself to his devotions. Our translators have rightly added the word strength in the 6th verse, Will he plead against me with his great strength? no; but he will put strength into me. Munster and Vatablus, two of the most judicious among the critics, follow this sense. Le Clerc gives another, not quite so natural, but a very good one, if the Hebrew will bear it; thus, Will he strive with me with his great might? no; but he would attend to me: that is, “he would give me a patient hearing, and attend to the reasonableness of my plea; which you do not.” Heath, and some others, render the 2nd verse, Still must my complaint be rebellious obstinacy: his hand is heavier than my groaning. The word rendered seat, in the 3rd verse, denotes the throne or tribunal of God; the usual place for the administration of justice. From my judge, in the 7th verse, is rendered by Heath and Houbigant, From my accusation, or judgment: and in the 9th verse, instead of, where he doth work, Heath reads, towards his brightness; which makes a better sense, and is a proper antithesis to his hiding himself in the latter part of the verse. See Peters, p. 173.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
B.Job: Seeing that God withdraws Himself from him, and that moreover His allotment of mens destinies on earth is in many ways most unequal, the incomprehensibleness of His ways may hence be inferred, as well as the short-sightedness and one-sidedness of the external theory of retribution held by the friends
Job 23-24
1. The wish for a judicial decision of God in his favor is repeated, but is repressed by the thought that God intentionally withdraws from him, in order that He may not be obliged to vindicate him in this life
Job 23
1Then Job answered, and said:
2Even to-day is my complaint bitter:
my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
3O that I knew where I might find Him!
that I might come even to His seat!
4I would order my cause before Him,
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5I would know the words which He would answer me,
and understand what He would say unto me.
6Will He plead against me with His great power?
No; but He would put strength in me.
7There the righteous might dispute with Him;
so should I be delivered forever from my judge.
8Behold I go forward, but He is not there;
and backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
9on the left hand where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him;
He hideth Himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him.
10But He knoweth the way that I take:
when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
11My foot hath held His steps,
His way have I kept, and not declined.
12Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips;
I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
13But He is in one mind, and who can turn Him?
and what His soul desireth, even that He doeth.
14For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me:
and many such things are with Him.
15Therefore am I troubled at His presence:
when I consider, I am afraid of Him.
16For God maketh my heart soft,
and the Almighty troubleth me.
17Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
neither hath He covered the darkness from my face.
2. The darkness and unsearchableness of Gods ways to be recognized in many other instances of an unequal distribution of earthly prosperity, as well as in Jobs case
Job 24
1Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty,
do they that know Him not see His days?
2Some remove the landmarks;
they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
3They drive away the ass of the fatherless,
they take the widows ox for a pledge.
4They turn the needy out of the way;
the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
5Behold, as wild asses in the desert,
go they forth to their work, rising betimes for a prey:
the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
6They reap every one his corn in the field:
and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
7They cause the naked to lodge without clothing,
that they have no covering in the cold.
8They are wet with the showers of the mountains,
and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
9They pluck the fatherless from the breast,
and take a pledge of the poor.
10They cause him to go naked without clothing,
and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
11which make oil within their walls,
and tread their wine-presses, and suffer thirst.
12Men groan from out of the city,
and the soul of the wounded crieth out:
yet God layeth not folly to them.
13They are of those that rebel against the light;
they know not the ways thereof,
nor abide in the paths thereof.
14The murderer rising with the light
killeth the poor and needy,
and in the night is as a thief.
15The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight,
saying, No eye shall see me:
and disguiseth his face.
16In the dark they dig through houses,
which they had marked for themselves in the daytime:
they know not the light.
17For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death:
If one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death
18He is swift as the waters;
their portion is cursed in the earth:
he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
19Drought and heat consume the snow waters:
so doth the grave those which have sinned.
20The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him;
he shall be no more remembered;
and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
21He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not:
and doeth not good to the widow.
22He draweth also the mighty with his power:
he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
23Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth;
yet his eyes are upon their ways.
24They are exalted for a little while, but are gone
and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others,
and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
25And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar,
and make my speech nothing worth?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Instead of replying directly to the injurious accusations of Eliphaz in Job 22:6 sq.; Job here recurs first of all to the wish which he has already uttered several times (especially in chs. 9 and 13), that God Himself might manifest Himself as Umpire and as Witness of his innocence, and so end authoritatively the controversy which in each successive stage was becoming more and more involved. This wish is, however, immediately repressed by the thought that God purposely keeps Himself removed from him, in order to make him drink the cup of his sufferings to the dregs (Job 23). And in connection with the mournful fact that his state is so cheerless and so full of suffering, and furnishes living proof that God withholds the exercise of His retributive justice, he arrays forthwith (in the second and longer division of his discourse, Job 24), numerous facts of a similar character, which may be observed in the sphere of human life in general. In particular he sets forth many examples of the prosperity of the wicked, continuing to extreme old age, or even to the end of life. He dwells with evident satisfaction on his description of these examples, in order in this way to establish and illustrate most fully, the incomprehensibleness of the divine ways.The whole discourse, apart from the two principal divisions, which coincide with the customary division by chapters, is divided into smaller strophes of four verses each (in one case of five) in accordance with the strophe-divisions of Ewald, as well as of Stickel and Delitzsch, which in the present case are entirely in harmony.
2. First Division. Repetition of the wish, heretofore uttered, that God might appear to rescue and to vindicate him, together with a self-suggested objection, and an expression of doubt whether the wish would be realized: Job 23.
First Strophe: Job 23:2-5. Even to-day my complaint is still bitter.Both the authority of the Ancient Versions, such as the Targ., Pesh., Vulg. [E. V.], and also the comparison with former passages, such as Job 7:11; Job 10:1, favor the view that signifies bitterness, and is thus synonymous with , the possibility of which is shown by the cognate radical relation of the verbs and , which occasionally interchange forms; comp. Delitzsch on the passage. If we take the word however in its ordinary signification of frowardness, perverseness, we get a suitable meaning: my complaint is still ever froward (ever bids defiance, maintains its opposition), i.e., against such exhortations to penitence as those of Eliphaz (or in opposition to God, as Hahn, Olshausen, etc., explain). On the other hand we can make no use of the reading of the LXX.: (), nor yet of Ewalds conjecture derived from it, by reason of His hand is my complaint [so Copt. and Merx].My hand lies heavy on my groaning:i. e., I am driven to the continuous outbreak of my groaning, I must all the time force forth groans (not: my hand thrusts down my groaning, forces it back; Hirzel). Since this rendering yields a meaning that is entirely suitable, and suffers from no particular difficulty as to the language, it is unnecessary either with the Targ. [E. V.], to understand of the hand of God which strikes me (the suffix sensu obj.) or (with the LXX. and Pesh.) [Merx] to read . (According to E. V., Ges., Ber., Noyes, Schlottm., Ren., Rod., is comparative: the hand upon me is heavier than my groaning, which gives a suitable meaning, at least if we take in the sense of bitterness. The objection to it is, however, as stated by Delitzsch, that is an established phrase, and commonly used of the burden of the hand upon any one, Psa 32:4 (comp. Job 33:7; and the connection with , 1Sa 5:6, and , 1Sa 5:11).E.]. It remains to be said that the clause defining the time, , even today, belongs to both halves of the verse, and for the same reason it expresses the more general sense, even now, even always, (comp. Job 3:24). The supposition that the colloquy had lasted several days, and that in particular the present third course of the same had begun one day later than the one preceding is scarcely admissible on the strength of their expression, which is certainly not to be pressed too far, (against Ewald, 2d Ed., and Dillmann).
Job 23:3. Oh that I but knew how to find Him.The Perf. with the following Imperf. consec. () expresses the principal notion contained in Jobs wish: utinam scirem (locum ejus), et invenirem eum = utinam possim invenire eum! Comp. the similar construction in Job 32:22; also Gesen., 142, ( 139), 3, c. The rendering of Dillmann: Oh that I, having known (where He is to be found), might find Him, (in accordance with Ewald, 357 b) gives essentially the same sense. in the second member means by itself, a frame, stand, setting up; here specifically, seat, throne, i.e., the judgment seat of God, as the sequel shows.
Job 23:4. In regard to , causam instruere, comp. Job 13:18; in regard to (lit. objections, reproofs) in the specific sense of legal arguments, grounds of justification, see Psa 38:15 [14]; also above Job 13:3.
Second Strophe: Job 23:6-9. The doubt as to the possibility of such a protective interposition of God, begins again to appear. This (Job 23:6) takes first of all the form of a shrinking reflection on the crushing effect which Gods majesty and infinite fulness of power might easily exert upon him; a thought which has already emerged twice before (Job 9:34; Job 13:21), and which in this place Job, supported by the consciousness of his innocence, repudiates and tramples under foot. Would He in omnipotence then contend with me? Nay! He would only regard me: i. e., only give heed to me (, scil.; comp. Job 4:20; here in union with to express the cleaving of the Divine regard to him, comp. , Job 6:28): only grant me a hearing, and as the result thereof acquit me. [ nothing but; intensive; the very thing that He would do, hence the thing that He would assuredly do]. To render the Imperfect verbs and as expressive of a wish: shall He contend with me? i. e., shall I wish, that He would contend with me? (Hirzel, Ew., Dillm., etc.), is altogether too artificial, and not at all required by the connection. [The E. V., Bar., Carey, supply strength () after : God, so far from using His power to crush Job, would strengthen him to plead his cause. But the ellipsis of is already justified by Job 4:20, and the antithesis thus obtained between a and b is more direct and natural.E.].
Job 23:7. Then ( as in Job 35:12; Psa 14:5; Psa 66:6, and often in a temporal sense; then, when such a judicial interposition of God should take place) would a righteous man plead (lit., be pleading, , partic.) with Him:i. e., it would be shown that it is a righteous man who pleads with him; and I should forever escape my Judge; i. e., by virtue of this my uprightness. is, like Job 20:20, intensive of Kal.
Job 23:8-9. The joyful prospect is suddenly swept away by the thought that God is nowhere, in no quarter of the world to be found.Yet (, yet behold, in an adversative sense, as in Job 21:16) if I go eastward, He is not there, etc. (toward the front, = toward the east) and (toward the rear, = toward the west, comp. Job 18:20), refer to the eastern and western quarters of the heavens, even as the following left and right refer to the northern and southern.If He works northward, I behold (Him) not; if He turns southward I see it not. , toward the left is an adverbial local clause, qualifying , as also qualifying . The former verb expresses its customary meaning: to work, to be active, efficient, which suits here very well (comp. Job 28:26), so that every different rendering, as e. g., taking = , to take His way (Blumenfeld), or = to hide Himself (Umbreit), or = to incline Himself, to turn Himself (Ewald), seems uncalled for. On the other hand the common signification of to veil Himself, is less suitable in b [so E. V., Lee, Con., Ber., Rod. Elz,, etc.], than the signification bending, turning aside adopted by Saadia, Schultens, Ewald Delitzsch, etc., after the Arabic. If this latter definition deserves here the preference, there is he less probability that the passage contains any reference to the , (the chambers of the South, Job 9:9), or, generally speaking, to any celestial abode of God as set forth in heathen theologies or cosmogonies. Rather does he poet conceive of God as omnipresent, as much so as the poet of the 139th Psalm, in his similar description (Job 23:8-10). [Gesenius and Carey translate b: He veileth the South, etc., but less appropriately, the construction of being evidently the same with , which is unquestionably adverbial.E.]
Third Strophe: Job 23:10-13. The reason why God withdraws Himself: although He knows Jobs innocence, He nevertheless will not abandon His purpose, once formed, not to allow Himself to be found by Him. [He conceals Himself from him, lest He should be compelled to acknowledge the right of the sufferer, and to withdraw His chastening hand from him. Delitz.]
Job 23:10. For He knows well my accustomed, way. , lit. the way with me, i. e., the way which adheres to me, which is steadfastly pursued by me (comp. Psa 139:24; Ew., 287 c), or: the way of which I am conscious [which his conscience () approves ()], as Delitzsch explains, referring to Job 9:35; Job 15:9.If He should prove me (, an elliptical conditional clause; comp. Ewald, 357, b), I should come forth as gold, i. e., out of His crucible; a very strong and bold declaration of his consciousness of innocence, for which Job must hereafter (Job 42:6) implore pardon.
Job 23:11. My foot hath held firm to His step (, as elsewhere , Psa 17:5; Pro 5:5) [The Oriental foot has a power of grasp and tenacity, because not shackled with shoes from early childhood, of which we can form but little idea. Carey]: His way I have kept, and turned not aside. , Jussive Hiph. from , in the intransitive sense of deflectere, as in Psa 125:5; Isa 30:11.
Job 23:12. The commandment of His lipsI have not departed from it., intransitive, like in the verse preceding. In regard to the construction (antecedent placing of a nominative absolute) comp. Job 4:6. More than my (own) law I have observed the saying of His mouth; have accordingly set them for above all that I have, of my own will, desired or prescribed for myself. [Bernard explains the preposition here to mean: by reason of my rule, i. e., by reason of my having made it a rule. This however obscures the striking contrast between and E.]. With we may compare the law in the members warring against the Divine law, Rom 7:23. [E. V. takes , as in Gen 47:22; Pro 30:8, in the sense of ones allowance of food; Ewald also translates by Gebhr (that which as a distinguished rich man I have the right to require in my relations to other men, and my claims upon them). The consideration of Jobs greatness and power should be borne in mind with the rendering law. The law which Job had ever held subordinate to the Divine precepts was the will of a prince.E.]. to lay up, preserve, is here substantially equivalent with , comp. Psa 119:11; in view of which parallel passage it is not necessary with the LXX. instead of to read , .
Job 23:13. Nevertheless He remaineth (ever) the same, and who will turn Him viz., from His purpose; comp. Job 9:12; Job 11:10. , not: He remaineth by one thing (Hirzel, Del.) [Lee, Noyes, Carey], for this would have been expressed by the neuter form (comp. Job 9:22); but the is essenti (Gesen. 154 [ 151] 3, a), and the thought expressed is that of the unchangeableness, the constancy of God (not the oneness, or the absolute superiority of God, as the Vulg., Targ., Starke, who refers to Gal 3:20, Schultens, Ewald, Schlottmann, [Ges., Ber., Rod., Elz.] explain, but against the context. With b compare the well-known expression: He spake, and it was done, etc., Psa 33:9. [The unchangeable purpose of God of which Job here speaks is evidently the purpose to inflict suffering on him, a purpose to which He inflexibly adheres, notwithstanding He knows Jobs integrity, and finds through His crucible that the sufferer is pure gold.E.].
Fourth Strophe: Job 23:14-17. Truly ( as in Job 22:26), He will accomplish my destiny. with suffix of the object, means here that which has been decreed, ordained concerning me. And much of a like kind is with Himi. e., has been determined by Him, lies in His purpose, (comp. Job 9:35; Job 10:13; Job 15:9). The much of that kind spoken of refers not specifically to Jobs sufferings (Umbreit, Delitzsch, etc.), as rather to all that is analogous thereto, to all decrees of a like character regarding men in general.
Job 23:15. Therefore do I tremble (lit. I am terrified, troubled) before His face; if I consider it, I am afraid before Him. is an elliptical hypothetical antecedent, as is the case in Job 23:10 b. We are to supply as the object to be considered the unfathomable decree of God, by virtue of which he must suffer.
Job 23:16. And God hath made my heart faint [lit. soft] ( Hiph. from , Deu 20:3, etc.), and the Almighty has confounded me. The emphasis rests in the subjects and which are purposely placed first in both members. It is God Himself, who by His incomprehensibly harsh and stern treatment has plunged him in anguish and terror; his suffering considered in itself by no means exerts such a crushing influence upon him (see the vers. following).
Job 23:17. For I am not dumb before the darkness, nor yet before myself whom thick darkness has coveredi. e., the darkness of my calamity (comp. Job 22:11), and my own face and form darkened and disfigured by my sufferings (comp. Job 19:13 seq.) are not able to strike me dumb (with horror); only the thought of God can do this, who with His incomprehensible decree stands behind this my suffering! Observe the significant contrast between the of this ver. and the of Job 23:15 a; as well as moreover the antithetic relation, which obtains between this passage and the statement of Eliphaz in Job 22:11 that Job seemed not to mark at all the terrible darkness of his misery. Either of these retrospective references of the passage is lost sight of if, with most of the ancients (LXX., Vulg., Luth.] [E. V. Ges., Scott, Noyes, Ber., Ren., Rod., Elz.] we render: because I was not cut off (deleri, perire, as in Job 6:17) before the darkness came, and He has not covered the darkness from my face [i. e., has not covered me in the grave, so that I might never have faced this suffering]. The signification: to become dumb, to be brought to silence, is the only one that is suitable here; we should then have to think (with Delitzsch, etc.) of an inward destruction by terror and confusion.
3. Second Division: Job 24. An extended description of the many incomprehensible things in what God does as ruler of the universe, beginning with the many instances in which He permits the innocent and defenceless to be oppressed and persecuted by their powerful enemies: Job 24:1-12.
Fifth Strophe: Job 24:1-4. Why are times not reserved by the Almighty?i. e. times of reckoning with good and evil; judicial terms, at which He displays His retributive justice. In. regard to the use of , reserving [storing up] in the sense of appointing, fixing, comp. Job 15:20; Job 21:19. The question is of course so intended as to require no answer, or a negative one. So also in the second member: and do His friends (lit. His knowers [acquaintances], they who are His, who know Him, and He them, comp. Job 18:21; Psa 36:11 [10]) not see His days?The days of God here are His judgment days, the days in which He reveals Himself in judicial rigor against his enemies, and in beneficent mercy toward His holy ones (comp. Eze 30:3, also the expression, the days of the Son of Man in Luk 17:22). This verse also seems to contain a retrospective reference to the last discourse of Eliphaz, especially to Job 22:19; by the ancients, moreover, who were troubled more; particularly about the , terms, judicial periods, it was variously misunderstood, and erroneously translated. [The construction adopted by E. V., Con., etc.: Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know Him not. see His days? is a less natural and simple rendering of the original than, that given above. Conant objects that this, question is not pertinent here. The point of inquiry is not, why are such times of retribution not appointed by God; but why, if they are appointed by Him, as alleged, do not good men witness them? Job however does deny, by implication, that there is any retribution, or time reserved for it, with the Almighty. The phenomena of human life, he argues, indicate that God cares not how men sin, or suffer. The second member of the verse puts the thought of the first in a still more striking light. The indications of retributive justice in the administration of the world, are such that not even Gods familiars, who are in His secret, can discern the days whereon they occur.E.].
Job 24:2. Landmarks they remove [or, are removed; vb. impersonal] flocks, they plunder, and feed. From this point on begins the specific description of the many deeds of violence, oppression and persecution permitted by God. The vers. immediately following (3, 4) describe the wicked agents who commit such deeds, Job 24:5-8 the wretched ones who suffer from them, and thence on interchangeably, now the persecutors and now the persecuted, the verbs used being put in the 3d person plural Perfect. In respect to the wickedness of removing landmarks, ( = , from ) comp. Deu 19:14; Deu 27:17; Pro 22:28; Pro 23:10. In regard to the plundering and carrying off of herds, comp. Job 20:19. [They steal flocks, i. e., they are so bare-faced, that after they have stolen them, they pasture them openly. Delitzsch].
Job 24:3. , to drive away, as in Isa 20:4; , to distrain, to take as a pledge as in Exo 22:25; Deu 24:6; comp. below Job 24:9 (whereas on the other hand in Job 22:6 the word is used in a somewhat different sense). [The ass of the orphan, and the yoke-ox of the widow are here referred to as the most valuable possession, and principal dependence of those unfortunate ones.E.].
Job 24:4. The poor they thrust oat of the wayi. e., out of the way, in which they have the right to walk, into roadless regions (comp. in a similar sense in Amo 5:12). All together ( as in Job 3:18) the wretched of the land must hide themselves.So according to the Kri: ;, while the Kthibh would, according to Psa 76:10; Zep 2:3 designate the afflicted, the sufferers of the land, which seems less suitable here. The Pass. denotes what these unfortunate ones are compelled to do; comp. Job 30:7.
Sixth Strophe; Job 24:5-8. Description of the miserable condition into which the oppressed and persecuted are brought by those wicked ones (not of another class of evil-doers apart from those previously spoken of, as ancient exegesis for the most part assumed, and as latterly Rosenm., Umbr., Vaih. [Lee, Barnes, Carey, Scott, etc.] explain). As is evident from the more extended description in Job 30:1-8 of the unsettled, vagabond life of such unfortunates, the poet has here before his eyes the aborigines of the lands east of the Jordan, who were driven from their homes into the desert, possibly the remnant of the ancient Horites [cave-dwellers]; comp. what is said more in detail below on Job 30. Behold, wild asses in the wilderness (i. e. as wild asses; comp. Job 6:5; Job 11:12; Job 39:5 seq.), they go forth in their daily work (lit. work; comp. Psa 104:23), seeking after prey (, booty, prey, a living, as in Pro 31:15) [from in the primary signification decerpere describes that which in general forms their daily occupation as they roam about. The idea of waylaying is not to be connected with the expression. Del.]; the steppe [, the wide, open, desert plain] is to them (lit. to him, viz., to each one of them), [or to him as father of the company, Del., or possibly the sing. is used to avoid the concurrence of with immediately following: Hirzel] bread for their children( as in Job 1:19; Job 29:5) [the steppe, with its scant supply of roots and herbs, is to him food for the children; ho snatches it from it, it must furnish it to him (Del.) thus accounting for the use of ]. A striking description of the beggar, vagabond life of these troglodytes, the precursors of the gipsies, or South-African Bushmen of to-day. [Of the , onagri (Kulans), with which these are compared, Delitzsch says: Those beautiful animals, which, while young, are difficult to be caught; which in their love of freedom are an image of the Beduin, Gen 16:12; in their untractableness an image of that which cannot be bound, Job 11:12; and from their roaming about in herds in waste regions, are here an image of a gregarious vagrant, and freebooter kind of life. Del.]
Job 24:6. In the field they reap (so according to the Kri the Kthibh would be rendered by some such expression as they make for a harvest) the cattle-fodder [, as in Job 6:5, mixed fodder for the cattle, farrago]; lit. his cattle-fodder, i. e. that of the mentioned in b. [Most explain this to mean that these miserable hirelings seek to satisfy their hunger with the fodder grown the cattle. Delitzsch on the ground that does not signify to sweep together, but to reap in an orderly manner; and if they meant to steal why did they not seize the better portion of the produce? supposes that the rich evildoer hires them to cut the fodder for his cattle, but does not like to entrust the reaping of the better kinds of corn to them. This view, however, seems less natural than the former, and less in harmony with the parallelism. See below on b.E.]. And they glean the vineyard of the wicked. serotinos fructus colligere (Rosenm.), to glean the late-ripe fruit, i. e. stealing it. The meaning can scarcely be that this was done in the service of the rich evil-doer, in which case the verb racemari would rather have been used (against Delitzsch).
Job 24:7. Naked (, adverbial accusative, as in Job 24:10; comp. , Job 12:17; Job 12:19) they pass the night without clothing, lit. from the lack of, comp. Job 24:8 b. and Job 24:10.
Job 24:8. And shelterless (from lack of shelter) they clasp the rock., they embrace the rock, in that shivering they crouch beneath it as their shelter. Comp. the phrase, embracing the dunghill (mezabil), Lam 4:5.
Seventh Strophe: Job 24:9-12. Resuming the description of the tyrannical conduct of those men of power described in Job 24:2-4. They tear the orphan from the breast. here the same as , as also in Isa 60:16; Isa 66:11. Correctly therefore the LXX.: whereas to render in its customary signification of destruction, ruin (as e. g. by Ramban, etc.) [=from the shattered patrimony], yields no satisfactory meaning. The act of tearing away from the breast is conceived of as the violent deed of harsh creditors, who would satisfy their claims by bringing up the orphan children as slaves. And what the miserable one has on they take away as a pledge.A tenable meaning, and one that will agree well with Job 24:10 is obtained only by regarding as an elliptical expression for and what is on the miserable one, i. e. What he wears, his clothing (Ralbag, Gesen., Arnh., Vaih., Dillmann) [Rod., Bernard, Noyes]. With the thought may then be compared Mic 2:9; in respect to see above on Job 24:3. The other explanations which have been given are less suited to the connection, if not absolutely impossible, such as: they take a pledge above [beyond the ability of] the sufferer (Hirzel); they take for a pledge the suckling ( of the poor) (Kamphausen) [Elzas]; with the poor they deal basely, or knavishly (Umbr., Del.), which latter rendering however would make it seem strange that the verb has only a short while before been used twice (Job 24:3, and Job 22:6) in the sense of distraining. [To which add Dillmanns objection that this interpretation seems colorless, out of place in the series of graphic, concrete touches of which the description is composed. It may also be said of the explanation of E. V. Ewald, Schlott., Renan, Conant, etc., they impose a pledge on the sufferers, that it is less vivid than that adopted above. It must be admitted on the other hand that the assumption that = is somewhat doubtful.E.].
Job 24:10-12 again bring into the foreground as subject those who are maltreated by the proud oppressors. These are however no longer represented as the wretched inhabitants of steppes or caves, but as poor serfs on the estates of the rich, and are thus represented as being in inhabited cities and their vicinity. Naked they (the poor) slink about, without clothing.Comp. Job 24:7, and in respect to , to slink, see Job 30:28. And hungry they bear the sheavesi. e. for the rich, whose hired service they perform, who however allow them to go hungry in their service, and thus become guilty of the crying sin of the merces retenta laborum (Deu 25:4; 1Ti 5:18, etc.). [The English translators, misled probably by the Piel, , which they took to be transitive, have made the oppressors of the vers. preceding the subject of Job 24:10. however is always to walk about, to go to and fro (so also in Pro 8:20). Taking it in this sense here, the subject is naturally the poor; and in the second member is simply to bear, not to take away from.E.]
Job 24:11. Between their walls (hence under their strict supervision) they must press out the oil (, Hiph. denom., only here); they tread the wine-vats, and suffer thirst (while so engagedImperf. consec. comp. Ewald, 342, a). A further violation of the law that the mouth of the ox must not be muzzled.
Job 24:12. Out of the cities the dying groan.So according to the reading (Pesh., 1 Ms. of de Rossis, and some of the older editions), which word indeed elsewhere means the dead, but which here, as the parallel of the following (wounded, pierced to death, comp. Eze 26:15; Jer 51:22) may very well be taken to mean the dying, those who utter the groaning and rattling of the death struggle [see Green, 266, 2, a]. So correctly Umbreit, Ew., Hirz., Vaih., Stick., Heiligst., Dillmann [Schlott., Renan, Noyes. Others (Carey, Elzas, etc.) in the weaker sense: mortals.] The usual reading , men, yields a suitable rendering only by disregarding the masoretic accentuation, and connecting this as subj. with (so Jer., Symmachus, Theod.). In that case, however, it should be translated not by the colorless and indefinite term people [Leute] (Hahn, etc.) but by men [Mnnen, viri], warriors, and understood (with Del.) of the male population of a city, whom a conqueror would put to the sword. This however would remove the discourse too far out of the circle of thought in which it has hitherto removed. [According to the Masor. punctuations would be out of an inhabited, thickly populated city, a thought which has no place in the connection. Gesenius, followed by Conant, takes (II Lex.) in the sense of anguish: for anguish do the dying groan. But the second member: and the soul of the wounded cries out, brings up before us a scene of blood, involving the slaying of a multitude, for which we should have been unprepared without the mention of the city in the first member.E.]. Yet God regards not the folly!, lit. [insipidity], absurdity, insulsitas (Job 1:22), a contemptuous expression which seems very suitable here, serving as it does to describe tersely the violence of the wicked, mocking at the moral order of the universe, and still remaining unpunished. The punctuation , prayer, supplication (Pesh., some MSS.) [Con., Noyes, Good, Elzas], may also be properly passed by without consideration. In regard to the absolute use of (supply , comp. Job 22:22), he regards not, see Job 4:20; Isa 41:20; and especially Psa 50:23, where, precisely as here, the expression is construed with the accus. of the object. [The rendering of E. V.: yet God layeth (=imputeth) not folly to them, is not essentially different, but is less expressive. Oppression ravages the earth; in the wilderness, among rocks and caves, in fields and vineyards, in villages and cities, men suffer, groan, dieand all this chaotic folly, this dark anomaly, this mockery of the Divine orderGod heeds it not!E.]
4. Second Division: Second Half: Job 24:13-25. Continuation of the preceding description, in which special prominence is given to those evildoers who commit their crimes in secret, and escape for a long time the divine punishment, which surely awaits them.
Eighth Strophe: Job 24:13-17. Those (, emphatically contrasting the present objects of the description, as a new class of evil-doers, with those previously mentioned) are rebels against the light, or: are become rebels, etc.; for so may the clause with essential, comp. Job 23:13) be taken, unless we prefer to explain: are become among apostates from the light, i. e. have acquired the nature of such (Del., Dillm.) [in either case is not the mere copula, but expresses a process of becoming]. , apostates, revolters from the light, enemies of the light, are essentially the same, as children of the night (Rom 13:12; 1Th 5:5; Eph 5:8, etc.Will not know its ways; i. e. the ways of the light, for it is more natural to refer the suffix in , as well as in to than to God.
Job 24:14. At the dawn (, sub lucem, cum diluculo, toward the break of day, before it is yet broad daylight) the murderer riseth up. , one who makes a trade of murder, who kills to steal, like the English garotter; for the wealthy oppressor is no longer (down to Job 24:18) the subject of the discourse.[He slays the poor and needy: because of their defenceless condition; not of course for plunder, but to gratify his bloodthirsty disposition.]And in the night he acts like a thief, or: he becomes as the thief, i. e. in the depths of night, when there is no one to cross his path, he plies the trade of a petty, common thief, committing burglary, etc. for the Jussive instead of , comp. above Job 18:12; Job 20:23, etc. [poetic form]; and for , instead of , Job 23:9.
Job 24:15. And the adulterers eye watches (, observare, to be on the watch for, to lurk for) the twilight, i. e. the evening twilight, before the approach of which he does not ply his craft; comp. Pro 7:9. here crepusculum; see above on Job 3:9And puts a veil over the face: lit. and lays on a covering of the face, i. e., some kind of a veil;hardly a mask, of which oriental antiquity had no knowledge; comp. Delitzsch on the passage.
Job 24:16. They break in the dark into houses; lit. he, or one breaks in; the indefinite subj. of , is, as the plurals in the following members show, an entire band of thieves.They, who by day keep themselves shut up, know not the light, i. e. they have no fellowship with it, as children of night and of darkness. The rendering of the Targ. and of some of the Rabbis (approximately also of the Vulg.) [also of E. V.]: which houses) they had marked for themselves in the daytime, is opposed by the fact that signifies always obsignare, never designare; comp. Job 14:17; Job 37:7.
Job 24:17. For to them all deep darkness is morning; i. e. when the deepest darkness of the night (, comp. Job 3:5) begins, then they enter upon their days work [the drawing on of the night is to them what day-break is to others]a striking characteristic of the , in which these evil-doers engage. Umbreit and Hirzel [and so E. V. Ber., Con.] unsuitably take not , but as subject: the morning is to them at once deep darkness. Against this explanation it may be urged that means not at once, but as in Job 2:11; Job 9:32, etc., all together, all in a body.Because they know the terrors of deep darkness; i. e. are familiar with them, as other men are with the open day; comp. Job 24:16 e; Job 38:16. The sing, again makes its appearance here [ , lit. for he (or one) knows, etc.], because stress is laid on the fact that every member of this wicked band has this familiarity with the darkness of night. [According to the rendering of E. V., Hirzel, etc., here rejected, the meaning would be that morning or daylight would bring terror to these evil-doers, the fear i. e. of being detected and condemned. In the second member would then be antecedent, either general: when one can discern (Con.), or particular: if one know them (E. V.) and , the consequentterrors of death-shade! The other rendering, however, has on the whole the advantage of greater simplicity, and agreement with usage and the context.E.]
Ninth Strophe: Job 24:18-21. The judgment which will overtake the wicked who have been thus far described. This judgment Job describes here proleptically, for in Job 24:22-24 a he returns once again to their haughty, insolent conduct before the judgment comes, in order to bring out the thought that a long time usually elapses before it overtakes them. This strophe sets forth, in the first place, and this intentionally in strong language, which in the mouth of Job is quite surprising, that a grievous punishment and certain destruction infallibly awaits them; but that such destruction, for the most part, is long delayed, is maintained in the following strophe, which, however, in Job 24:24 again resumes the description of the destruction. The language does not permit us with the LXX., Vulg., Pesh., Eichh., Dathe, Umbr., Vaih, etc., to take these verses in an optative sense, as a description of the punishment, which ought to befal evil-doers: thus at the outset in Job 24:18 we have , not ; and so throughout every sign of the optative form of speech is wanting. It is possible, but the same is not indicated with sufficient clearness by the author, and for that reason is altogether too artificial, to take vers 1821 (with Ewald, Hirzel, Schlottm., v. Gerlach, Heiligstedt, Dillmann) as a description of the well-merited judgment inflicted on the wicked, ironically attributed by Job to his opponents, Jobs own opinion on the opposite side being in that case annexed to it in Job 24:22 seq. See against this opinion, as well as against the related opinion of Stickel, Bttcher, Hahn, etc., the remarks of Delitzsch [Job 2:33: (1) There is not the slightest trace observable in Job 24:18-21 that Job does not express his own view. (2) There is no such decided contrast between Job 24:18-21 and Job 24:22-25, for Job 24:19 and Job 24:24 both affirm substantially the same thing concerning the end of the evil-doer. In like manner it is not to be supposed with Stickel, Lw., Bttch., Welte and Hahn, that Job, outstripping the friends, as far as Job 24:21, describes how the evil-doer certainly often comes to a terrible end, and in Job 24:22 seq., how the very opposite of this, however, is often witnessed; so that this consequently furnishes no evidence in support of the exclusive assertion of the friends. Moreover, Job 24:24 compared with Job 24:19, where there is nothing to indicate a direct contrast, is opposed to it; and Job 24:22, which has no appearance of referring to a direct contrast with what has been previously said, is opposed to such an antithetical rendering of the two final strophes.]
Job 24:18. His course is swift on the face of the waters: i. e. lightly and swiftly is he born hence, as one who is swept away irresistibly by the flood; comp. Job 9:26; Hos 10:7. [Carey curiously conjectures that this ver. speaks of pirates!]Accursed is their portion in the land; or: a curse befals, etc. (Dillm.). [In German: Im Fluge ist er dahin auf Wassers Flche; verflucht wird ihr Grundstck im Lande; or according to Dillmann: Flucht trifft, etc., whereby, continues Zckler, the paronomasia between and is still more clearly expressed. This paronomasia it is impossible to reproduce in English without slightly paraphrasing the one term or the other. The above attempts to combine the verbal play with fidelity to the German original: his course is swift for im Fluge dahin, and accursed for verflucht.] Whether a divine curse, or a curse on the part of men, is intended, seems doubtful: still parallel passages, such as Job 5:3; Job 18:20, favor the latter view. The interchange of plur. and sing. occurs here as in Job 24:16.He enters no more on the way of the Vineyard; lit. he turns no more into the way to the vineyard (comp. 1Sa 13:18); i. e. there is an end of his frequent resorting to his favorite possession, and in general of his enjoyment of the same. Observe that from here on wealthy evil-doers again form the prominent subject of the description; in this differing from Job 24:13-17.
Job 24:19. Drought and heat carry off [ lit. bear away as plunder] the snow-water (comp. Job 6:16 seq.): so the underworld those who have sinned., a relative clause, which is at the same time the object of the verb in the first member, which extends its influence also to the second member. As to the sentiment, comp. Psa 49:13 [12] 21 [20]; also Job 24:18 a; not however Job 21:23, where rather the euthanasia [of the subject] is described, not his sudden end without deliverance.
Job 24:20. The womb forgets him, (whereas) the worms feed sweetly on him.The two short sentences which constitute this member stand in blunt contrast to each other. here sensu activo: to taste anything with pleasure, delectari aliquare (lit. to suckhence the meaning sweet). So then is iniquity broken like the tree(i. e. like a shattered, or felled tree; comp. Ecc 11:3; Dan 4:7 seq.; also above Job 19:10). Instead of the wicked man his injurious conduct (, comp. on Job 5:16) is here mentioned as having come to an end, while Job 24:21 again speaks in the concrete concerning the evil-doer himself, in order to point to his heinous bloodguiltiness as the cause of his punishment. [The fundamental thought of the strophe is this, that neither in life nor in death had he suffered the punishment of his evil-doing. The figure of the broken tree (broken in its full vigor) also corresponds to this thought; comp. on the other hand what Bildad says, Job 18:16 : his roots dry up beneath, and above his branch is lopped off (or: withered). The severity of his oppression is not manifest till after his death. Delitzsch].
Job 24:21. He who hath plundered (lit. fed upon, devoured, comp. Job 20:26) the barren, that beareth not (who has therefore no children to protect her), and hath done no good to the widowbut on the contrary has shown himself hard of heart towards her. On the form comp. Gesen. 70 [ 69], 2, Rem. [Green, 150, 2] [The Participial form introducing the characteristics of the class, and followed by finite verb according to Gesen. 131, Rem. 2].
Tenth Strophe: Job 24:22-25. And yet He preserveth long the men of might by His strengthi. e., but truly ( before is at once adversative and restrictive). He (God, comp. Job 24:23) often greatly prolongs the life of such mighty evil-doers (, comp. Isa 46:12) [the strong, who bid defiance not only to every danger, (Psa 76:6) but also to all divine influences and noble impulses. Delitzsch]. On as applied to the agency of God in prolonging life comp. Isa 13:22; Psa 36:11; Psa 85:6 [5]. Such an one rises up again, although despairing of lifewhen he had already despaired of continuing in life. [So far from using his power to crush the mighty villains of earth, God uses it to bring them triumphantly through those crises in which they themselves had given up all hopeE.] subordinate circumstantial clause, comp. Ewald, 341, a., Aramaizing plur. like , Job 4:2. [According to E. V. and most commentators the subject of Job 24:22 is still the wicked man, being taken to mean: to draw, drag as a captive; or to hold, bind; or to destroy. He subjugates the mighty, and puts all in terror for their very life. The interpretation given above however is more in accord with the proper meaning of , with Job 24:23 understood as having God for its subject; and is specially favored by the consideration that it gives more distinct expression to the thought, so important to Jobs argument here of the lengthening out of the life and prosperity of the evil-doer, and of the long delay of his punishment. The omission of the Divine Name is so characteristic of our book as to present no difficulty.E.].
Job 24:23. He grants him safety (lit. He (God) grants to him to be in safety; permits him to be at his ease [, adverbial, of the state or condition He grants him to be in]; so that he is sustained (, expressing the consequence of that divine grant of security), and His (Gods) eyes are upon their waysin order, namely, to keep them therein, and to bless and protect them; comp. , Job 10:3. [Gods eyes, says Job, follow the prosperous evil-doer with watchful interest, to see that he does not step out of the path of security and success! According to the other interpretation, which continues the evil-doer as the subject, the meaning is that the oppressor allows to those who are in his power only a transient respite, watching for every pretence or opportunity to injure them. See Scott. The full-toned suffix seems chosen for emphasis.E.].
Job 24:24. They rise higha little while only, and they are gone. , 3 Plur. Perf. from =, to raise oneself, to mount upward (Ew. 114 a; comp. Gesen. 67 [ 66] Rem. 1 [Green, 139, 1], with following for the consequent, forms a short sentence by itself, as in Psa 37:10. As to then he is no more, comp. Gen 5:24. The interchange of numbers as in Job 24:16 and Job 24:18. And they are bowed down (concerning [Aramaizing] Hoph. from , comp. Gesen. 67 [ 66], Rem. 1); like all they perish (i. e. like all others), and as the top of the ears [of grain: i. e. the grain-bearing head of the wheat-stalk] they wither., lit. they shrivel together (Niph. Reflex. from Kal; comp. Job 5:16) i. e., they perish. There is no reference to the componere artus of the dead [Ges. to gather oneself up, composing the body and limbs as in death, which here would mean to die in the course of nature, not by violence, or suddenly], nor to the housing, i. e. the burial of the dead (comp. Eze 29:5). The expression is rather a figure taken from vegetable life, like the following , they wither like the heads of grain; see on Job 42:2. [It may be claimed with reason that the connection here favors the definition, to be cut off, the oriental custom of reaping being to cut off the tops, leaving long stalks standing in the field.] It is not altogether in the sense of euthanasia, therefore, of an easy, painless death, as described in Job 21:23, that the present passage is to be understood (against Ewald, Dillmann, etc., also Del.). It rather resumes the description in Job 24:18 seq., although in less forcible language, and in such a way as to set forth a natural death, such as all die, rather than that caused by a divine judgment, such as often falls upon the wicked.
Job 24:25. And should it not be so ( as in Job 9:24) who will convict me of falsehood, and make my speech of no effect?The phrase (instead of which Symm., Vulg., Pesh. read ) is precisely the same with , or our: bring to nought, comp. Ewald, 286, g; 321, b. The whole question is a triumphant expression of the superiority which Job vividly felt himself to possess over his opponents, especially in the views derived from experience which he had just urged respecting the incomprehensible dealings of God with the destinies of men.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The significance of the present discourse of Job lies essentially in its descriptive treatment of ethical and anthropological themes, some passages even describing matters of interest in the history of civilization (Job 24:5 seq.), whereas the speculative and theological element becomes subordinate. The latter is restricted almost exclusively to the first and shorter Division, which is occupied with the mystery of Jobs own destiny of suffering, just as the second Division is occupied with the obverse side of this mystery, the prosperity and impunity of the wicked. That which the first Division says touching the inexplicableness of his sufferings is substantially only a repetition of the wish, already several times uttered, that God by His personal intervention might decide the controversy, and confirm his innocence, combined with a statement of the reasons why this wish could not be realized. On the first of these reasons, to wit: that on account of the overwhelming majesty pertaining to the appearance of God, the Unapproachable and Almighty One, it would be impossible for him to put in his answer before Him (Job 23:6) he does not dwell this time as on two former occasions (Job 9:34; Job 13:21); he merely touches it with suggestive brevity. His consciousness of innocence is too strong to allow him to give way long to this thought; thanks to the incessant assaults and accusations of the friends, it has become consolidated and strengthened to such a degree that in Job 19. (as indeed had been the case before here and there, especially in Job 16:17; Job 17:9) it even found utterance in decided exaggeration, and drove him to extreme assertions touching his absolute blamelessness and immaculateness, for which he must hereafter implore pardon. Among these assertions we find the following: that he would come forth out of Gods trial of him like gold, that he would never swerve from His ways, that he had always observed the words of His mouth more than his own law (Job 23:10-12). All the more emphatic however is the stress which he lays on the other reasons why that wish seems to him incapable of realization. God, he thinks, purposely withdraws Himself from him. It is deliberately and with good reason that He keeps Himself at a distance and hidden from him, it being now His settled purpose to make him drain his cup of suffering to the dregs (Job 23:13 seq.). [Jobs suspicion against God is as dreadful as it is childish. This is a profoundly tragic stroke. It is not to be understood as the sarcasm of defiance; on the contrary, as one of the childish thoughts into which melancholy bordering on madness falls. From the bright height of faith to which Job soars in Job 19:25 seq., he is here again drawn down into the most terrible depth of conflict, in which, like a blind man, he gropes after God, and because he cannot find Him thinks that He flees before him lest He should be overcome by him. The God of the present Job accounts his enemy; and the God of the future to whom his faith clings, who will and must vindicate him so soon as He only allows Himself to be found and seenthis God is not to be found. Delitzsch.]. It is not the invisible essence of God in general, not that He cannot be discovered by those who seek Him on earth east or west, north or south (Job 19:8-9)it is not the pure spirituality and the divine omnipresence, which extinguishes his hope in Gods interposition to vindicate and to redeem him. The thought of that divine unsearchableness, which he beautifully describes in a way that reminds us of Psa 139:7-9, as well as of Zophars first discourse (Job 11:8-9), could have had nothing terrible or cheerless for him. Just as little (as he expressly declares in the closing verse of the First Part, Job 23:17) would the contemplation of his woful physical condition, and the tragical calamities of his outward life have sufficed to plunge him into the fear of death and dumb despair. That which fills him with dismay and terror, that which makes his heart faint, and removes the prospect of his deliverance to the indefinite future, is that same predestinatianism, that same dread of a mysterious, inexorable, and as regards himself malign decree of God, which had already extorted repeatedly from him a cry of lamentation, and which had formed the dark back-ground which so often emerges behind his meditations thus far (comp. Job 6:9 seq.; Job 7:12 seq.; Job 9:22 sqq.; Job 10:13 seq.; Job 13:15 seq.; Job 16:12 sq.; Job 19:6 seq.). No comforting, brightening, alleviating thought, no joyous soaring of hope in Gods compassion, bringing help however late, is to be seen anywhere in this discourse, as was the case e. g. in Job 17. and 19. On the contrary the Second Division of the discourse lays out before us a much wider circle of phenomena and sentiments at variance with a righteous and merciful activity on the part of God. The experience which he had, or believed that he had, of Gods treatment of him as unsympathetic and harsh, as being a mere exhibition of divine power, without the slightest trace of justice or fatherly kindnessthis experience he utters in the general proposition: that God had appointed no times of judgment, would let His friends see no days on this earth in which He would exercise righteous retribution (Job 24:1). This proposition he expands into an eloquent description of the manifold injustice, which men of the most diverse classes inflict on one another, while the wrongs of the outraged and oppressed weaker party are never redressed or avenged (Job 24:2 seq). Toward the end of this picture, which is true in a sense, although one-sided in its tendency, he changes his tone somewhat to be sure, and by strongly emphasizing the certainty that a rigid judgment of God will at the last terminate the course of the wicked (Job 24:18-21; Job 24:24), qualifies the preceding accusation against the divine justice. Even this however is by no means a surrender to the doctrine of a retribution in this life, as taught by the friends. The chief emphasis even in this passage rests rather on the long delay ( Job 24:22 a) in interposing for such punishment, on the long duration of their impunity from punishment, or even on the not uncommon prolongation of this state down to their natural death, to which they are subject in common with all men (Job 24:24; see on the ver.). Job here certainly concedes something to his opponents, essentially however not much more than he had conceded already in Job 21. where ( Job 21:17 seq.; Job 21:23 seq.) without denying the fact of the final punishment of the ungodly, he had represented it as much more commonly the case that they were spared any judicial inflictions down to the end of their life. The triumphant exclamation with which he ends his speech: who will convict me of falsehood? is intended simply to confirm this fact of experience, in accordance with which this impunitas hominum sceleratorum is the general rule, whereas their justa punitio is the exception, at least in this world.
2. Job however does concede somewhat more here than there; he at least dwells longer on the punishment of the ungodly, as a fact which is not altogether unheard of in the course of human destinywhether the passage in which he describes it be only a free quotation of the language of his opponents, as the later commentators in part exclaim (see on Job 24:18 seq.), of the expression of his own conviction. And this indicates clearly enough progress for the better in his temper of mind and mode of thought, a progress which is still further indicated by the fact that in the preceding description of God as restraining Himself in the infliction of punishment a calm tone of objective description has a decided predominance, and nothing more is to be discerned of his former passionate, at times even blasphemous complaints touching the tyrannical harshness and cruel vindictiveness of the Almighty in persecuting him with poisoned arrows, sword-thrusts, and merciless scourgings. The terrible fatalistic phantom of a God exercising only His power, and not also His justice and love, which had formerly tortured him, has unmistakably assumed a milder form, of a less threatening aspect than heretofore. In consequence of this, as well as by virtue of the calm dignity which enables him to meet with complete serenity the violent assaults and detractions of Eliphaz, and to avoid all controversy of a bttter personal character, his superiority over his opponents becomes ever more apparent, his statements and arguments drive with ever greater directness at the only possible solution of the controversy, and even where he is one-sided, as particularly in his description, in many respects impressive, of the course of the wicked, and of the needy ones whom they persecute (Job 24:2-17), his discussion has great value, and a fascinating power which is all the stronger by virtue of the comparatively calm objective tone of the treatment. It is in these indications of the growing purity and clearness of the sufferers spiritual frame, that the practical and homiletic lessons of the present section can be most advantageously studied.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Job 23:3 seq.Oecolampadius (on Job 23:7): This word disputing or reproving expresses confidence rather than impatience or an unfavorable estimate of God. But if we blame this in Job, we must also blame what John and others say; if our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And wherefore does Christ command us to lift up our heads at His coming? Zeyss: Faith and a good conscience are the two chief jewels of a Christian (1Ti 1:5). Happy he who has kept these. When oppressed he can appear with confidence before God.
Job 23:8 seq. Brentius: Although God fills all things, and is all in all, we cannot approach Him, nor find Him without a Mediator; whether we seek Him before or behind, to the right hand or to the left, He is always afar off, we never lay hold upon Him. For even if we should attempt to approach Him without a mediator, we are deterred from having access to Him in part by the darkness in which He dwells, in part by His power and majesty, in part by His justice.
Job 23:13 seq. Zeyss: As God is one in His nature, so also is He unchangeable in His will (Num 23:19; 1Sa 15:29). Let us therefore submit ourselves in humility and obedience to His good and holy will! The cross which He lays upon us is always less than our sins deserve; His chastisements are tempered with mercy; Psa 103:10.v. Gerlach (on Job 23:17): In the consciousness of the treatment which he receives from the incomprehensible God, who has irrevocably determined every mans destiny, Job is penetrated by the profoundest terror before this God. It is not his calamity in itself, not even his own experience of the extremity to which this calamity has brought him from which he shrinks. What a deep glance is here given us into the heart of a sorely tried servant of God, who in his complaints and struggles, spite of all suffering, thinks only of God, and fears nothing so much as that the fellowship of his God having been withdrawn from him, his God should become a terror to him.
Job 24:2 seq. Wohlfarth: How should the contemplation of the unnumbered sins, with which Gods fair earth is stained, affect us? Job was led thereby into temptation to doubt Gods justice. Let it not be so with us, who, enlightened by Christ, should see therein rather: (a) a melancholy proof of the continual inclination of our nature to evil, and of the slothfulness of our spirit to strive against the same; (b) a touching evidence of the long-suffering and patience of God; (c) an earnest warning to be on our guard against every temptation; (d) an emphatic reminder of the day of judgment, which will recompense every man according to his works.
Job 24:17. Starke: As works of the light are accompanied by a joyful conscience and good courage, so on the other hand with works of darkness there is nothing but fear, anguish and terror. For even the abandoned are not without an inward punishment in the conscience.V. Gerlach: For sinners, who shun the light, the light of day itself is darkness, since through their departure from the eternal light of God, they bear about with them night in their souls (comp. Mat 6:23; Joh 11:10), and thus they feel its terrors even in the midst of the brightness of the day.
Job 24:23 seq. Starke: Be not secure, if a sin passes unpunished; it is not on that account forgotten by God. The happier the ungodly are for a time, the more dangerous is their condition, and the more severely will they be punished at last.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Job is again, in this chapter, described, as making still further his defense. From the decision of Man, he appeals to God; and opens his mouth in an earnest cry to God, for permission to approach him. He still insists upon it, the issue of this sharp trial shall be to his joy.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Then Job answered and said, (2) Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. (3) Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! (4) I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. (5) I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. (6) Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
If we read these words of Job with an eye to the gospel, (and after what we have reviewed of Job’s strong faith, in his kinsman Redeemer, chap. 19:25-27. we surely may safely do it;) they contain the sweet and gracious breathings of a pious soul, after fellowship with GOD in CHRIST. And I beg the Reader to observe yet further with me, how ardent that faith in CHRIST was, when the suffering Believer took confidence, that GOD would put strength in him, and not put forth that strength against him. For, Reader! what is GOD’S strength, as it concerns a poor awakened sinner, but JESUS, and his salvation? That beautiful passage, in the Prophet, fully confirms it: Let him take hold of my strength (saith JEHOVAH) to make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. Isa 27:5 .-What is the strength of JEHOVAH but CHRIST? Hence GOD commands Zion to put it on, Isa 2:1 . And, in reference to former manifestations of it, GOD himself, by the Prophet, calls upon his strength, to awake, as the arm of the LORD. Isa 51:9 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 23:3
‘I remember one day in the early springtide,’ Tolstoy writes in his Confessions, ‘I was listening to the sounds of a forest, and thinking only of one thing, a thing of which I had thought for two years on end I was again seeking for a God…. I remembered that I had lived only when I believed in a God. As it was before, so was it now; I had but to know God, in order to live; I had but to forget Him, to cease believing in Him, and I died. What was the meaning of this despair and renewal? I do not live when I lose faith in the existence of a God; long ago I should have killed myself, had I not had a dim hope of finding Him. I only live in reality when I feel and seek Him. “What more then do I seek?” a voice seemed to cry within me. “This is He, He without whom there is no life. To know God and to live are one. God is life. Live to seek God and life will not be without Him.” Whereupon, stronger than ever life rose up in me, and the light that shone then has never left me. Thus was I saved from suicide…. The state of mind in which I was then may be compared to this. It was as if I had suddenly found myself sitting in a boat which had been pushed off from a shore unknown to me, as if I had been shown the direction of the opposite shore, furnished with oars, and left alone. I ply the oars as best I can. I row on, but the further I go the stronger becomes the current that sweeps me out of my course, and the oftener I meet with other navigators also carried away by the stream. From all sides these cheerful and triumphant mariners, as they row or sail down the stream, call to me that this is the one course. I believe them and drift down with them, carried so far that I can hear the roar of the rapids in which I am bound to perish. Already I see boats wrecked there. Then I come to myself. Before me I see nothing but destruction. I am hurrying towards it. What, then, am I to do? On looking behind me, I see a countless number of boats not drifting but battling with the current, and then I remember all about the shore, the ocean, the true course; all at once I start to row hard up the stream, towards the shore.
‘The shore is God, the course and current, tradition, the oars, the free-will given me to make for the shore and seek union with the Deity. And thus it was that the vital force revived within me, and once more I began to live.’ It is the infinite for which we hunger, and we ride gladly upon every little wave that promises to bear us towards it.
Havelock Ellis.
Were the soul separate from the body, and with one glance of thought should start beyond the bounds of creation, should it for millions of years continue its progress through infinite space with the same activity, it would still find itself within the embrace of its Creator, and encompassed round with the immensity of the Godhead. Whilst we are in the body He is not less present with us, because He is concealed from us. ‘Oh that I knew where I might find Him!’ (says Job). ‘Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the left hand where He worketh, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him.’ In short, reason as well as revelation assures us, that He cannot be absent from us, notwithstanding He is undiscovered by us.
Addison in The Spectator (No. 566).
I know not how it is, but the more the realities of heaven are clothed with obscurity the more they delight and attract; and nothing so much heightens longing as such tender refusal.
St. Bernard.
Quoting this passage in his Religious Aspect of Philosophy (pp. 218 f.), Prof. Royce comments: ‘The moral insight cares not for individual rewards…. Job seeks, in his consciousness of moral integrity, for outer support in the midst of his sufferings. Now, whatever he may think about rewards, they are not only rewards that he seeks. He wants a vindicator, a righteous, all-knowing judge, to arise, that can bear witness how upright he has been; such a vindicator he wants to see face to face, that he may call upon him as a beholder of what has actually happened…. The knowledge such as a Job sought, the knowledge that there is in the universe some consciousness which sees and knows all reality, including ourselves, for which therefore all the good and evil of our lives is plain fact this knowledge would be a religious support to the moral consciousness.’
‘Why is God so far from us’ is the agonizing question which has depressed so many hearts, so long as we know there were hearts, has puzzled so many intellects, since intellects began to puzzle themselves. But the moral part of God’s character could not be shown to us with sensible, conspicuous evidence; it could not be shown to us as Fleet Street is shown to us, without impairing the first pre-requisite of disinterestedness, and the primary condition of man’s virtue. And if the moral aspect of God’s character must of necessity be somewhat hidden from us, other aspects of it must equally be hidden.
Bagehot on The Ignorance of Man.
All here seems so permanent, so still, so secure, and yet we are spinning and whirling through space to some unhuman goal. What are the thoughts of the mighty unresting Heart, to whose vastness and agelessness the whole mass of these flying and glowing suns are but as a handful of dust that a boy flings upon the air? How has He set me here, a tiny moving atom, yet more sure of my own minute identity than 1 am of all the vast panorama of things which lies outside of me? Has He indeed a tender and a patient thought of me, the frail creature whom He has moulded and made? I do not doubt it; I look up among the star-sown spaces, and the old aspiration rises in my heart, ‘Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even into His presence!’ How would I go, like a tired and sorrowful child to his father’s knee, to be comforted and encouraged, in perfect trust and love, to be raised in His arms, to be held to His heart! He would but look in my face, and I should understand without a question, without a word!
A. C. Benson, From a College Window, pp. 325, 326.
Compare Butler’s Thirteenth Sermon.
References. XXIII. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2272. Ibid. vol. xlv. No. 2615. XXIII. 3, 4. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 231. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 700.
Job 23:4
The Book of Job and the Prometheus of schylus may be placed side by side as the two protests of the ancient world against Divine oppression the one the protest of monotheism, the other of polytheism…. Just as Prometheus at the outset maintains silence one of those eloquent schylean silences so too Job held his peace ‘seven days and seven nights’; and then, like Prometheus, reviews his own life, proudly proclaiming his own innocence.
S. H. Butcher.
References. XXIII. 6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 108. XXIII. 8-10. Ibid. vol. xlvii. No. 2732.
The Gospel of the Left Hand
Job 23:9
There is great insight in that idea. It is no mere casual remark. Why did the Spirit of the Lord inspire Job to make that impressive allusion? Surely it was to tell us, to our great and endless comfort, that there is a gospel of the left hand. On the unfortunate side of things we may expect to find the operation of God. Job is describing his unsuccessful quest of God. ‘Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him. On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him. He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him.’
It means much that Job so emphatically asserts that God works on the left hand of things. ‘I go on the left hand,’ says the troubled patriarch. We all do, and we often do. But we shall find that God doth work there. This is the gospel of the left hand, and we greatly need it. It is easy to find a gospel of the right hand. But much of life is spent on the left hand, and a gospel of the left hand is precious as rubies.
I. God Works on the Undesired Side of Things.
‘The left hand’ has always and everywhere typified what is undesired. ‘The left’ is the term by which the Opposition is described in the Parliaments of the Continent of Europe; and I have not observed that statesmen and politicians are eager to be numbered among ‘the left’.
In temporal matters we often discover the operation of our loving God where all is adverse. Sinister experiences prove to be Divine experiences. When we are where we deprecate being we behold the handiwork of God. When health fails, when business deteriorates, when friends cast us asunder, when sorrow darkens our home, when causes languish which we dearly love on the left hand God doth work. What a grateful gospel this! How sanguine it should make us! Here is a fountain of sanest optimism. We need not dread being driven to the left hand of life, if there we meet our redeeming God. The undesired is desirable if there the Father worketh.
And this is equally true in spiritual things. Our soul is too often on the left hand. But even there God works. He is ready to pardon. Mercy is His supreme delight. And our grateful song shall presently arise, ‘He restoreth my soul’.
II. God Works on the Awkward Side of Things. ‘The left hand’ is the popular parable of the awkward. It is a dictionary’s definition of the word ‘awkward’ that it is ‘not dexterous’. A child knows that dexterity is right-handedness. So the right hand speaks of what is graceful, facile, and the left hand of that which is awkward. How strange the persistent ill-repute of the left hand! The ‘left-handed man’ is the awkward, clumsy, resourceless man. Many of our current phrases illustrate this idea of the left hand as the symbol of the awkward.
We are ever apt to be called to the awkward experiences of life. Many of us are, perhaps, at this moment, most awkwardly situated. Our location is ‘on the left hand’. But God is located there too! It is ‘where He doth work’. Life’s awkward spheres would be unendurable but for this. The redemption of the left hand is the active presence of Jehovah.
III. God Works on the Neglected Side of Things. The left hand is the abiding symbol of the inauspicious. Who goes to the left hand if he can help it? It is a region shunned of all. No sphere is so unpopular. Avoid it, pass it by, is the general counsel; and it is a counsel thoroughly well acted upon.
But on the left hand ‘He doth work’. He loves to cultivate a neglected land. No man’s land is His Paradise of Delights. Whom man forsakes the pitiful God assists. Where others are wanting, and when others are wanting, He is sweetly in evidence. The country that is not watered with the foot the Lord waters out of His chambers.
IV. On the Unsuccessful Side of Things God Works. From the beginning believers in ‘luck’ have deplored and denounced the left hand. They have always described it as unlucky. When the Roman augur found his birds appearing on the left hand they were unlucky omens to him. The left hand is, and always has been, the sign of the unsuccessful.
Instinctively we feel we need a God who will work in the latitudes of the unsuccessful. And such a God is the God of the Bible. Many are ready to help the successful, till the familiar proverb is substantially justified that ‘Nothing succeeds like success’. But God intervenes in behalf of those who fail. He cares for the beaten-in-life. He works for the disconsolate.
V. God Works on the Unhopeful Side of Things. The left hand is the region where hope is abandoned. It is the country unillumined by the kindly light of anticipation. But where human hope is wanting God is not wanting. Job knew, if ever man did, what it was to be on the left hand, but he declares, ‘He knoweth the way that I take. When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold.’ On the left hand he discovered the effectual working of God.
VI. God Works on the Undiscerning Side of Things. The left hand has always been regarded as figurative of what is dull, stupid, unapprehensive. Job complained: ‘I go… on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him.’ Many, when they go on the left hand, cannot behold God and His working. But He works where undiscerned. Like Job, we may not see Him or His operations, but when we are on the left hand we are in the privileged area of His ministrations. He is near many who do not behold Him. Many are saved who do not know that they are saved. God works in the interests of multitudes who cannot behold Him. O soul, opaque and dejected, know that God is working where thou dwellest. Our vision may be dim, but His work is glorious.
Dinsdale T. Young, The Gospel of the Left Hand, p. 3.
Job 23:9
A World without a contingency or an agony could have no hero and no saint, and enable no Son of Man to discover that he is a Son of God. But for the suspended plot that is folded in every life, history is a dead chronicle of what was known before as well as after…. There is no Epic of the certainties; and no lyric without the surprise of sorrow and the sigh of fear.
Martineau.
References. XXIII. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2098. XXIII. 11,12. Ibid. vol. xxvi. No. 1526. XXIII. 13. Ibid. vol. vii. No. 406. XXIV. Ibid. vol. xlvii. No. 2732.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Job’s Review of the Controversy
Job 23
With the exception of a short interruption by Bildad, the Shuhite, the great conference is at an end. In the twenty-third and through several succeeding chapters, Job conducts a very striking and instructive colloquy. The three comforters have practically said all they have to say, and they have left Job very much as they found him. They have eloquently expressed all that they knew of the way and purpose of God. And we must not hold them guilty of ignorance; they were true up to the time in which they lived; they did the best they could for their friend. It is easy to go back from the end of the book to the beginning, and to chastise them with rods; but this is not, from a literary point of view, fair or just. If they had wilfully kept back anything, then we might have charged them with selfishness and with injustice to the spirit of truth and the ministry of sympathy; but having made their speeches, one by one, and word by word, we are hardly going too far in saying that they had evidently told all they knew. There is a good deal in seeing a witness, in hearing the tone of his voice, in observing how he conducts himself under examination and cross-examination. This, of course, is a condition we cannot now enjoy: but all the words are here, singular words they are, full of colour, full of life, ardent, resolute, fearless; there is no sign about them of anything being wantonly or purposely withheld. It is sad to see men turn away who came to do us good, and who have failed in their purpose. Watch them retiring! They would have healed Job if they could, but they did not know the cure for this malady, it was wholly unfamiliar; maxim, and nostrum, and moral law, and well-ascertained precept, went for nothing in the fierceness of this unknown distress. It seemed as if they were throwing pieces of paper into a furnace: the paper was written all over with good words, but the fire crinkled and cindered it. The men had not instruments adapted to their work. Who could empty the Atlantic with a thimble? Their hands were too short; they could not reach the reality of the case. Many short-handed comforters there be; men of little strength, little knowledge; men of letters; men of information but not of inspiration; men who know only what they have been told, who have never by some marvellous spirit of strength forced themselves to new positions along the line of human wisdom. But a very good thing has been done: Job has been driven back upon himself. He has said, No: these men have not touched the reality of the case yet: they have had surgical instruments enough, liniment enough, nostrums enough, but they did not know what disease they were treating; so their wisdom became folly, and their energy wasted itself in well-meant exertions. It is something when a man is driven back upon himself to think religiously. Herein is a happy effect of an imperfect sermon: the hearer can always profit himself by delivering a better, silently if he can. Herein is the advantage of reading books that were written under the impression that they would solve everything and have ended by solving nothing. Could the preacher but drive the hearer back into his own consciousness, into the sanctuary of his own thought, into the mystery of his own being, and get him to ask great questions, there would be some hope of the Christian ministry even yet. Job said in effect: You have not touched me: you have made a false diagnosis of my disease; you have been like doctors who have been treating asthma as if it were a case of rheumatism; you have been wrong in all your inferences regarding my state; in a sense I could contemn you and sneer at you: miserable comforters are ye all: the moment you showed anything like coarseness and impertinence I felt angry with you; only when your voices fell into soft and tender tones did I say, These men mean well, I had better hear them; but they do not know my case, and therefore I must look elsewhere for help. It is in that “elsewhere” that we find our subject.
Job looks round for God, as a man might look round for an old acquaintance, an old but long-gone friend. Memory has a great ministry to discharge in life: old times come back, and whisper to us, correct us or bless us, as the case may be; old hymns and psalms that now in our higher culture we despise and quote with suggestive emphasis, even these sometimes come singing round the corner, as if they would attract our attention without being rude or violent; sometimes in the aching heart there comes up a longing to get back to the old altar, the old sanctuary, the old pastor; after listening to all new doctors the heart says, Where is your old friend? where the quarter whence light first dawned? recall yourself: think out the whole case. So Job would seem now to say, Oh that I knew where I might find him! I would go round the earth to discover him; I would fly through all the stars if I could have but one brief interview with him; I would count no labour hard if I might see him as I once did. We are not always benefited by a literally correct experience, a literally correct interpretation even. Sometimes God has used other means for our illumination and release, and upbuilding in holy mysteries. So Job might have strange ideas of God, and yet those ideas might do him good. It is not our place to laugh even at idolatry. There is no easier method of provoking an unchristian laugh, or evoking an unchristian plaudit, than by railing against the gods of the heathen. Job’s ideas of God are not ours, but they were his; and for a man to live out his own ideal of religion is the beginning of the right life: only let a man with his heart-hand seize some truth, hold on by some conviction, and support the same by an obedient spirit, a beneficent life, a most charitable temper, a high and prayerful desire to know all God’s will, and how grey and dim soever the dawn, the noontide shall be without a cloud, and the afternoon shall be one long quiet glory. Hold on by what you do know, and do not be laughed out of initial and incipient convictions by men who are so wise that they have become fools.
Job says, Now I bethink me, God is considerate and forbearing:
“Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me” ( Job 23:6 ).
It is something to know so much. Job says, Bad as I am, I might be worse; after all I am alive; poor, desolated, impoverished, dispossessed of nearly everything I could once handle and claim as my own, yet still I live, and life is greater than anything life can ever have: so I am not engaged in a battle against Omnipotence; were I to fight Almightiness, why I should be crushed in one moment: the very fact that I am spared shows that although it may be God who is against me, he is not rude in his almightiness, he is not: thundering upon me with his great strength; he has atmosphered himself, and is looking in upon me by a gracious accommodation of himself to my littleness. Let this stand as a great and gracious lesson in human training, that however great the affliction, it is evident that God does not plead against us with his whole strength; if he did so, he who touches the mountains and they smoke has but to lay one finger upon us nay, the shadow of a finger and we should wither away. So, then, I will bless God; I will begin to reckon thus, that after all that has gone the most has been left me; I can still inquire for God, I can still even humbly pray; I can grope, though I cannot see; I can put out my hands in the great darkness, and feel something: I am not utterly cast away. Despisest thou the riches of his goodness? Shall not the riches of his goodness lead thee to repentance? Hast thou forgotten all the instances of forbearance? Is not his very stroke of affliction dealt reluctantly? Does he not let the lifted thunder drop? Here is a side of the divine manifestation which may be considered by the simplest minds; here is a process of spiritual reckoning which the very youngest understandings may conduct. Say to yourself Yes, there is a good deal left: the sun still warms the earth, the earth is still willing to bring forth fruit, the air is full of life: I know there are a dozen graves dug all around me, but see how the flowers grow upon them every one: did some angel plant them? whence came they? Life is greater than death. The life that was in Christ abolished death, covered it with ineffable contempt, and utterly set it aside, and its place is taken up by life and immortality, on which are shining for ever the whole glory of heaven. Job will yet recover. He will certainly pray; perhaps he will sing; who can tell? He begins well: he says he is not fighting Omnipotence, Omnipotence is not fighting him, and the very fact of forbearance involves the fact of mercy.
Will he grow from this point? will he advance? He will. We shall see that he distinctly advances in his argument:
“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold” ( Job 23:10 ).
When a man says that, he has come forth; the miracle is done. Why wait for the completed miracle of the universe? It is finished in every grass-blade, in every fowl that flies in the open firmament, in every breath that is in our nostrils. Having given us life, he will never see us die, but by our own rashness; he will not be guilty of manslaughter: the gift of life pledges him in that direction. Hear the patriarch had he lived now he could not have been wiser “He knoweth the way that I take” the dark, sinuous way; not one straight mile in it; sometimes uphill, so that my very strength gives way, and I would almost return to the starting-point, and then suddenly down a deep and threatening declivity, the end of which no eye can see; and then off into stony places, and across broad wildernesses; and then up to the very lips in cold, cold rivers: but he watches all the way; the light and the darkness are both alike unto him; he knoweth my downsitting and mine uprising, my going out and my coming in; he watches me as if I were an only child: blessed be his name for ever: when he hath tried me, tested me, pierced me through and through, thrown me into the fire, watched the burning in all its effect upon me when he has got out the last speck of dross, he will put me into his crown; I shall be for the King’s use through eternal day. Who says that Job has fallen, taken the wrong view, lapsed into infidelity? He is now hiding himself in rocks; he is now standing in the very sanctuary of God: see how he pulls himself together! God is forbearing, because he is not issuing against me all his strength: God knows the way that I take, and he is trying me: he knows there is some gold in me: who would try dross, knowing it to be dross only? The very fact of the trial means that there is something to be tried, and something worth saving, and something that God can turn to high uses. Is this an ancient lesson? Are there men who can jeer at this as something spoken three thousand years ago, or five thousand years ago to some poor sorrowing old sheik in the Eastern land? Why, this is the very speech we need. We are being tried. Every man is undergoing a process of investigation, scrutiny, trial, education, drill, evolution, development, call it what you please, there is the substantial truth: nor have we yet found than any one great fact in all the evangelical theology has to be changed in view of the lights that are now shining from real or artificial heavens. We are being chastened, mellowed, really and vitally tried. Is it not so? Look at experience. Let the apostle state it in his Greek way: “No chastening” or trial, or affliction, or temptation, or sorrow “for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward ” there is the unknown sphere, the unending time, the ineffable sanctuary of real issues and abiding realities. We are singing a hymn, and that is the refrain; a poet has not yet arisen to put it into form, to yoke it to fit letters, but the hymn is in us, and singing in us, and singing around us, and the refrain is “nevertheless, afterward.” How well it comes in! How happily it terminates each verse! “Nevertheless, afterward.” We, rise from the bed of affliction saying so; we come back from life’s daily battle in the marketplace saying so; we close the letter that has crushed our last hopes saying so; we return from the black churchyard, the pit of bodily death, hardly saying so articulately, but saying so in the heart, so that friends can understand the motion of our lips, saying, Being interpreted, that motion is, “Nevertheless, afterward.” The whole creation is saying this, whilst groaning and travailing in pain; it is sustained in its agony by the “nevertheless, afterward” of an eternal promise.
Does Job advance? He strikes again upon the right chord:
“Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?” ( Job 26:14 ).
In other words, These are the lower endings of his ways: this is the ladder-foot; it rests upon the earth, but where is its head? In other words; These are whisperings of his ways, the silences of his going, the mere appearances and throbbings of a mysterious motion: but the fulness of God, in all his meaning, and love, and strength, and redemption, who can tell? That must always be so. There must always be an unknown quantity in God, and we must always be moved by a desire to know that unknown element and force; yet we rejoice that we cannot know God in all the fulness of his being. We know him sympathetically: we know him, as it were, intuitively. If he will not come to us, we will carve a marble slab, and write upon it a Bible of our own. We must have him. If things did not take shape, we should be able to dismiss the idea of God more readily; but events form themselves: there is a building behind us. Our life is not a gathering up of unrelated ideas and circumstances, a mere association created by proximity; life is coherent, symmetric, a palace-like structure, strange in architecture, wonderful in elevation. We see it now! For a long time we thought that one day had no relation to another; that one event was altogether independent of another; we have now discovered the law of sequence, the law of attachment shall I say? the law of chain-making; call it by any name you please, only the result of your naming must be that God’s purpose in life takes shape, form, and appeals by its very symmetry and completeness to our highest consciousness, and calls for the confirmation, not of genius, which is rare, but of experience, which is universal. We are dwelling in the lower parts of things, seeing but their beginnings, hearing but their whisperings; we shall be wise when we know that we are ignorant; we shall begin to be great when we know that we are nothing. If any man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself, and nobody else: and self-deception is the profoundest humiliation of mankind. We shall grow in knowledge when we grow in reverence, when we stand before a sunrise or a sunset and fail to see the glory because our tears blind us. Reverence, veneration, sense of infinity, will help any man to grow, to become strong and wise and healthy.
We shall yet see Job released from his captivity. He says that his character is good though his life is troubled. That pains him very much:
“My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live” ( Job 27:6 ).
“If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” Job has lived for us this mystery, namely, that a man may have a perfect integrity (using the term in its human sense) and yet have an afflicted life. We need some men to do things for us. It is not in the power of any one of us to sweep the whole circumference of human experience. We live in one another, and for one another, and we have typical, emblematical men to whom we point, saying, This man has proved it; that man is the evidence of it. Solomon has returned from his voluptuous journey; he sits down in disappointment, in shame, and says, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” We are, therefore, entitled to look at the examples of wicked men, the examples of good men, and to draw inferences bearing upon the whole system of things from what they have seen and been and done. It is something to know that we have maintained our integrity, and yet may have been seized by great temptations, and be subjected to intolerable trials. Such is the mystery of human life “so abject, so august”; so like a tragedy; sometimes fraying itself down into comical associations and relations: still, a wondrous life; its very pain signifying its dignity, its very ambition testifying to its immortality.
So Job lived in a universe that was large, secure, well-governed, and a universe that would consummate itself in goodness. Job has said to us so far in his colloquy for we have confined ourselves to one point The universe is a roomy place, and is not measured by any one man’s estate; it is larger than any one man has yet reckoned, and is well-built; its pillars are firm. There is a spirit of righteousness running through all the universe, a spirit of judgment, a spirit of pure criticism that cannot be deceived, and that will not rest until all things fall into massive harmony, or stand up in speckless beauty and purity. Job thus became more and more contented with the world, and being contented with that, it was easy to descend into the little details of his own life. Why not reason so? The argument fortiori may begin at one of two opposite points; we may reason upward from the little and the known to the unknown, and be pressed with all logical strength to conclusions that seem to baffle us; or we may come from the other end and say, The sky is so secure that probably the roof built over my head by God, which I cannot see, is quite as secure: the laws of nature, so called, whatever they may be, are firm, beneficent, inexorable, and yet not wanting in a kind of weird compassionateness: it may be, therefore, that there are other laws, within those of nature gracious, tender, redeeming, dealing with sin, and dealing with every mystery that makes life sad. So the very heavens may help us, and the strong earth may minister to our spiritual security. It is something to live in a society about whose security we have no doubt. It is something to know that there is a court of law in which justice will be done, whoever falls. This is the comfort of every citizen. Once let there be a doubt about this, and citizenship is fraught with peril and distrust. But in a well-ordered community there is this central feeling: justice will be done; whatever the controversy is, it will be settled in the long run fairly and equitably; criticism will be brought to bear, and learning, and righteousness, and all that dignifies human life, and the issue in this commonwealth will be justice to rich and poor, to strong and helpless. It is surely something to know this about a mere social state. Amplify and spiritualise the argument, and it becomes this: all things are done in righteousness: God sitteth upon the throne: nothing escapes His attention: all things work together for good to them that love God: there is a spirit of redemption in the universe, as well as a spirit of righteousness. The Judge of the whole earth will do right. Time is not reckoned by today, or tomorrow, or the third day: God keeps the time, and when he says, “It is finished,” we shall answer, “It is well.”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
VII
THE THIRD ROUND OF SPEECHES
Job 22-26.
Eliphaz’s third speech consists of three parts: Job 22:1-4 ; Job 22:5-20 ; Job 22:21-30 .
The subject of part one (Job 22:1-4 ) is: God’s dealings with men not for selfish interests, And the main points are:
1. A man who is wise may be profitable to himself, but not to God.
2. Man’s happiness cannot add to God’s happiness, because that resides in himself.
3. Man’s piety does not provoke affliction from God, for he does not fear man nor is he jealous of man. The subject of part two (Job 22:5-20 ) and the status of the case in general, are expressed thus:
Your wickedness is the cause of your suffering. For the first time Eliphaz now leaves insinuations, intimations, and generalities, and, in response to Job’s repeated challenge comes to specifications, which he cannot know to be true and cannot’ prove. This is the difficult part of all prosecutions, viz: to specify and to prove) as the Latin proverb expresses it: Hie labor, hoc opus est. The breakdown of Eliphaz on this point prepares the way for Job’s speedy triumph. Bildad dares not follow on the same line; all the wind is taken out of his sails; he relapses into vague generalities and with lame brevity repeats himself. Zophar who has the closing speech of the prosecution, is so completely whipped, that he makes no rejoinder. It is a tame windup of a great discussion, confessing advertising defeat.
The specifications of Eliphaz’s charges against Job are:
l. Thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought (Job 22:6 a). (For the heinousness of this offense see later legislation, viz: Exo 22:26 ; Deu 24:6 ; Deu 24:17 ; and the reference in Eze 18:16 .)
2. Thou hast stripped the naked of their clothing (Job 22:6 b).
3. Thou hast withheld water and bread from the famishing, and all this when thou hadst the earth and wast honorable in it (Job 22:7-8 ).
4. Thou hast refused the pleadings of necessitous widows and robbed helpless orphans [See Job’s final pathetic and eloquent reply in Job 31 , where he sums up the case and closes the defense], therefore snares, fear, and darkness have come upon thee like a flood of waters (Job 22:9-11 ).
5. These were presumptuous and blasphemous sins because you argued that God could not see you, denying his omniscience (Job 22:12-14 ).
6. You have imitated the antediluvians who, ungrateful for divine mercies, bade God depart and denied his power and who therefore were swallowed up by the flood becoming an object lesson to future ages and a joy to the righteous (Job 22:15-20 ). (Cf. 2Pe 2:4-15 and Jud 1:6-16 .)
The passage, Job 22:21-30 , consists of an exhortation and a promise. The items of the exhortation, and the implication of each are as follows:
1. Acquaint thyself with God (Job 22:21 ), which implies Job’s ignorance of him.
2. Accept his law and treasure it up in thy heart (Job 22:22 ), which implies Job’s enmity against God.
3. Repent and reform (Job 22:23 ), which implies wickedness in Job.
4. Cease worshiping gold and let God be the object of thy worship (Job 22:24 ), implying that he was covetous.
The items of the promise are:
1. God, not gold, shall be thy treasure and delight and his worship thy joy (Job 22:25-26 ).
2. Thy prayers will be heard and thy vows accepted (Job 22:27 ).
3. Thy purposes will be accomplished and thy way illumined (Job 22:28 ).
4. Thou shall hope for uplifting when cast down and thy humility will secure divine interposition (Job 22:29 ).
5. Thou shall even deliver guilty men through thy righteousness (Job 22:30 ). [Cf. Gen 18:25-32 ; ten righteous men would have saved Sodom; but compare Eze 14:14 ; Eze 14:20 and Jer 15:1 ; see also Job’s reply in Job 31 .] The items of Job’s reply as it applies to his particular case (Job 23:1-24:12 ) are:
1. Even yet my complaint is accounted rebellion by men though my hand represses my groaning (Job 23:2 ).
2. “Oh that I could now get the case before God himself he would deliver me forever, but I cannot find him, though he finds me” (Job 3:10 a).
3. When he has fully tried me, as gold is tested by fire, I shall be vindicated, for my life has been righteous (Job 23:10-12 ). [This is nearly up to Rom 8:28 ,]
4. But his mind, in continuing my present trouble though I am innocent, is immutable by prayers and his purpose to accomplish in me what he desires is inflexible (Job 23:13-14 ).
5. This terrifies me, because I am in the dark and unheard (Job 23:15-17 ).
6. Why are there not judgment days in time, so that those that know him may meet him? (Job 24:1 ).
7. Especially when there are wicked people who do all the things with which I am falsely charged, whom he regards not
The items of broad generalization in this reply are as follows Here Job passes from his particular case to a broad generalization of providential dealings and finds the same inexplicable problems]:
1. There are men who remove land marks, i.e., land stealers (Job 24:2 ). (Cf. Deu 19:14 ; Deu 27:17 ; and Hos 5:10 ; also Henry George vs. Land Ownership in severally and limitations of severally ownership when it becomes a monopoly), so that it shuts out the people from having a home. (See Isa 5:8 .)
2. There are those who openly rob the widow and orphan and turn the poor away so that they have to herd as wild asses and live on the gleanings from nature (Job 24:3-8 ).
3. There are those who pluck the fatherless from the mother’s breast for slaves and exact the clothing of the poor for a pledge, so that though laboring in the harvest they are hungry, and though treading the wine press they are thirsty (Job 24:9-11 ).
4. In the city men groan, the wounded cry out in vain for help and God regardeth not the folly (Job 24:12 ).
5. These are rebels against light, yet it is true that certain classes are punished: (1) the murderer; (2) the thief; (3) the adulterer (Job 24:13-17 ).
6. The grave gets all of them, though God spares the mighty for a while and if it is not so, let some one prove me a liar and my speech worth nothing (Job 24:18-25 ).
In Bildad’s reply to Job (Job 25 ) he ignores Job’s facts; repeats a platitude, How should man, impure and feeble, born of a woman, a mere worm, be clean before the Almighty in whose sight the moon and stars fade?
Job’s reply to Bildad is found in Job 26:1-4 , thus:
1. Thou hast neither helped nor saved the weak.
2. Thou hast not counseled them that have no wisdom.
3. Thou hast not even done justice to what is known.
4. To whom have you spoken, and who inspired you?
Job excels Bildad in speaking of God’s power (Job 26:5-14 ), the items of which are:
1. The dead tremble beneath the waters and the inhabitants thereof before him.
2. Hell and destruction are naked to his sight. [Cf. “Lord of the Dead,” Mat 22:32 and other like passages.]
3. The northern sky is over space and the suspended earth hangeth on nothing.
4. The clouds hold water and are not rent by it; his own throne is hidden by the cloud spread upon it.
5. A boundary is fixed to the waters and a horizon to man’s vision, even unto the confines of darkness.
6. The mountains shake and the pillars tremble, yet he quells the raging storm.
7. These are but the outskirts and whispers of his ways and we understand his whisper better than we understand his thunder.
Two things are worthy of note here, viz:
1. Job was a martyr, vicarious, he suffered for others.
2. Job’s sufferings were a forecast of the suffering Messiah as Abraham was of the suffering Father. So far, we have found:
1. That good men often suffer strange calamities while evil men often prosper.
2. That the sufferings of the righteous come from intelligence, power, and malice, and so, too, the prosperity of the wicked comes from supernatural power as well.
3. That man cannot solve the problem without a revelation, and the suffering good man needs a daysman, and an advocate.
4. That before one can comprehend God, God must become a man, or be incarnated.
5. That there must be a future, since even and exact Justice is not meted out here.
6. That there is a final judgment, at which all will be rewarded for what they do.
7. That there must be a resurrection and there must be a kinsman redeemer.
Many things were not understood at that time, such as the following:
1. That Satan’s power was only permitted, he being under the absolute control of God.
2. That suffering was often disciplinary and, as such, was compensated.
3. That therefore the children of God should glory in them, as in the New Testament light of revelation Paul understood all this and gloried in his tribulation.
4. That the wicked were allowed rope for free development and that they were spared for repentance. Peter in the New Testament gives us this light.
5. That there is a future retribution; that there are a heaven and a hell.
6. That this world is the Devil’s sphere of operation as it relates to God’s people.
QUESTIONS
1. Of what does Eliphaz’s third speech consist?
2. What the subject of part one (Job 22:1-4 ) and its main points?
3. What the subject of part two (Job 22:5-20 ) & in general, what the status of case?
4. What the specifications of Eliphaz’s charge against Job?
5. Of what does Job 22:21-30 consist?
6. What the items of the exhortation, and what the implication of each?
7. What the items of the promise?
8. What the items of Job’s reply as it applies to his particular case (Job 23:1-17 )?
9. What the items of broad generalization in this reply?
10. What was Bildad’s reply to Job (Job 25 )?
11. What Job’s reply to Bildad?
12. In what does Job excel Bildad (Job 26:5-14 ) and what the items?
13. What two things are worthy of note here?
14. So far, what have we found?
15. What was not understood at that time?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 23:1 Then Job answered and said,
Ver. 1. Then Job answered and said ] viz. In defence of his own integrity, against Eliphaz’s calumnies in the foregoing chapter. To make apology to every one that shall traduce us, Plato holdeth to be both base and bootless, P (Plat.). But when such a weighty man as Eliphaz shall lay load upon so innocent a man as Job, Quis tulerit? something would be said in way of answer.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 23
Job answers in the next chapter (23) and that is all we can look at tonight. “Even today is my complaint bitter; my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him!” Ah! there was a pious heart, although he felt and smarted under his terrible sufferings. He was so pre-occupied that he could not find Him yet. He did, however, before long. “That I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.” Now that is what he desired. He was not afraid of what God would say. He was sure to be good because He loved, and because of what Job knew him to be. “Will he plead against me with his power?” That is what they thought. “No,” said he; nothing of the sort; “but he would put [strength] in me.” “Strength” goes a little too far. It is rather, “he would give heed unto me.” “There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.” I knew it would be all right if I could only get a hearing. If I could come close to Him, then He would listen.
“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him; on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him; but he knoweth the way that I take.” There, you see, was a heart always turned towards the centre of attraction, always to God. He might waver under the affliction – just as you knew the needle may be very unsteady for a little; but leave it to rest, and it always turns to the pole. “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.” He was perfectly conscious of a good conscience. Yet he had nothing at all, and that was what he had to learn. God had to show him; because it was not a question merely of an outward blemish that anyone would notice. This is what people think very proper.
I have been at dying beds of real Christians, and I am sorry to say, the principal thing that I have heard from them has been, “I look back upon my long life of following the Lord Jesus.” If Job had said, “I look back upon the tender mercy and the forbearance of God and His continual support when I never deserved it” – ah! that would have been all right. I ought perhaps to add that those whom I have heard speak in that way never had heard the gospel in the way which you all are familiar with. Still, I do not doubt that they were Christians, but misled by bad teaching. “My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” “But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.” Job allowed His entire supremacy; he allowed His sovereignty in the fullest degree. “For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me; and many such things are with him. Therefore am I troubled at his presence.” He was troubled that there was something between God and him; something with which God had a question, but what – he did not understand yet. “When I consider, I am afraid of him. For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me; because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
answered = replied [a third time]. See note on Job 4:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 23
And so Job answers him and he says, Every day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning ( Job 23:1-2 ).
Really, what’s happened to me is even worse than I’m complaining. I’m not even really complaining a full measure for what I’m really feeling.
But oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his throne! ( Job 23:3 )
You tell me to find God and be at peace, but if I only knew where I could find Him.
Deep within the heart of every man there is a desire for God. There is a search for God. There is a quest for God. Dr. Henry Drummond in his book, Natural and Supernatural, said, “There is a within the very protoplasm of man those little tentacles that are reaching up for Father God.”
“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him” is the cry on so many hearts. People who are seeking and searching for God. But so many times in our search for God, we’re searching in the wrong places. Even as Job here in verse Job 23:8-9 says,
I go before me, I go forward, he’s not there; backward, I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he’s working, I cannot behold him: he hides himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him ( Job 23:8-9 ):
“Oh, that I wish I could find God.” He says in verse Job 23:6 , “He wouldn’t plead against me like you guys are. He would help me; He would strengthen me if I could just find him, I know that. But I look all around, I go forward, I go backward, go to the right and the left. I know He’s there but I can’t see Him. I can’t see Him. I don’t behold Him. I can’t find God.”
He’s looking in the material things. Seeking to find God in a material form. You will never discover God or find God in the material forms. “God is a Spirit. They that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” ( Joh 4:24 ). And God is seeking such to worship Him.
Eliphaz earlier had said to Job, “Who by searching can find out God to perfection?” ( Job 11:7 ) You can’t. God does not exist at the end of an intellectual quest. It is interesting that so many people seek to apprehend God intellectually and it becomes a real stumbling block. But if you had to be some intellectual genius in order to find God, look at how many of us poor people would be eliminated. But because God loves all men, even a child can discover Him. While these brilliant professors and intellects go on saying, “Well, I’m an agnostic,” a little child walks in the consciousness of God, singing of Him, talking of Him. “And out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God has perfected praise” ( Mat 21:16 ) “As Jesus took a child and set him in the midst of them and said, ‘Unless you become as a little child, you can’t enter the kingdom of heaven'” ( Mat 18:2-3 ). You see, that’s a put down to our intellects. We like to think that through our intellect we can solve all problems; we can’t. The enigma of God can never be solved through the intellect of man. God is discovered in the heart of a child, in the area of faith, but it’s spiritual dimension. You’ve got to leave the material and take the step of faith into the spiritual dimension to really apprehend God. And in the understanding of God, your intellect has very little value, because God wants all men to understand Him. So He puts it down to our level where we can understand and know Him and walk with Him. How beautiful it is. So Job’s cry, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, but I look all around.” Job, look up. Look up.
Why is it that we’re always looking around for God rather than looking up for God? It’s because man has always sought to bring God down to his own level. They call, or they have what they call the anthropomorphic concept of God. That is, viewing God as a man. And this is extremely common because most of the time a man’s god is really a projection of himself.
Now you didn’t know that you are as much in love with yourself as you really are. You hear a person say, “Oh, I hate myself.” That’s never true. They’re just trying to draw attention to themselves. “I’m so terrible. I’m so awful.” They just want you to say, “Oh, no you’re not. You’re wonderful.” But we are very, very much in love with ourselves. You’ve heard the saying that the longer people live together, the more they look alike. You know what the psychologist’s answer to that is? Actually, you’re so much in love with yourself that when you are picking a mate that you usually find someone who looks like you and you marry them. And that’s why the saying, “Oh, they’ve been living together so long, they even look alike.” Well, you know, you just had foresight back a ways and you picked someone that looked like you.
If we would take a wide-angle photo of the congregation here tonight as you’re sitting here and we’d have the thing blown up and put on the screen up here, who’s the first one you would look for? Now, man then projects himself to immensity. “This is what I would be if I were God. This is what I would do if I were God. This is where I would live if I were God. This is how I would respond if I were God.” And so his god becomes a projection of himself. He projects himself to sort of immensity and then he worships that. A projection of himself.
I oftentimes have people say, “I don’t know why God allowed this to happen to me.” What they are saying is, “If I were God, I surely wouldn’t have made this mistake. If I were running things, I could have done it much wiser than that. I would have had a better plan. If only I were governing the universe, what a different world this would be.” Well, that has to be the height of something.
“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him.” Not in the intellect, not through the intellectual quest, not through the enlargement of yourself. God is found in Jesus Christ. “He that hath seen Me,” Jesus said, “hath seen the Father” ( Joh 14:9 ). “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Me” ( Joh 14:6 ). “Oh that I knew where I might find Him.” Jesus said, “Come unto Me.” And those who do have found God. From the little children to the college professor, we all have to come the same way. Setting aside our own intellectual genius and kneeling at the cross and saying, “Oh Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” And I find God.
Now Job, after speaking, “I cannot find Him.” Here Job is capable of coming out with those classic statements. In the midst of his depression and agony and all, he just comes out with these jewels and then he jumps right back into the pit. It’s like he comes out on the mountain for a moment and just bursts forth in glory and then jumps right back down in the hole. And so all of a sudden he comes out of the mountain and he said,
But he knoweth the way that I take ( Job 23:10 ):
I can’t find Him, I can’t see Him, but He knows the way that I take.
and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold ( Job 23:10 ).
Deep down underneath there is a strong faith that is keeping this man. Now he’s having great difficulties because he can’t understand his problem, but down underneath the faith is routed. The guy is unshakable, because down deep, deep, deep inside there are certain basic things: I know that God knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me I am going to come forth like gold. God has a purpose. I’m going to come out of it. I’m going to come out of it purified.
Perhaps Peter was thinking of Job when he wrote, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which are to try you as though some strange thing has happened unto you” ( 1Pe 4:12 ). Knowing that the trial of your faith is more precious than gold though it perisheth when it is tried in the fire” ( 1Pe 1:7 ). Peter speaks of the refining process of God whereby the impurities are removed. And so Job is looking at all of this as really just a work of the removal of the impurities and, “When I come forth, I’m going to be like gold. I’m going to be refined by this process of God in my life.”
My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and have not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food ( Job 23:11-12 ).
Now this is interesting because it indicates that, number one, way back at this time there was the written Word of God. Even in the time of Job who was perhaps a contemporary to Moses or lived earlier maybe. But even at that time, they had words that were esteemed to be the Word of God. “I esteemed His Word more than my necessary food.”
How much value do you put on the Word of God? You see, there is the natural man, there is the spiritual man. Those that are born again are both, and that’s where the rub comes in. The spirit is lusting against the flesh, the flesh against the spirit; these two are contrary. A warfare going on. Now, I see to it that my natural man is fed regularly and fed well. Now, I will admit that I do put some junk in him, but basically I seek to watch my diet. And that is not diet in the sense…that is, the food that I eat. I don’t limit it, but I just watch. I like the whole grain breads. I like a balanced meal, things of this nature. I want to make sure that I put the proper fuel in this system so that it’ll keep running well.
Now, though I am extremely careful of how I feed my natural man, it’s amazing how careless I am in feeding the spiritual man. And it’s amazing how much junk food people cram down the spiritual man. Diets that really cannot be healthy, but bring spiritual anemia. But not Job. He said, “I consider Thy Word more than my necessary food.” It’s more important for me to feed on the Word of God than it is to feed on steak and potatoes. It would be important if each of us had that same attitude towards the spiritual food in the spiritual man, that we would be interested in feeding the spiritual man. Now there is only one thing that really feeds the spiritual man, and that is this Word of God. This is food to the spiritual man. You need to feed on it. And Job said, “I’ve esteemed Your Word more than my necessary food.” But now he jumps back down into his despair.
But he is in one mind, who can turn him? what his soul desires, that he does. For he performs the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider these things, I am afraid of him. For God has made my heart soft, and the Almighty troubles me: Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face ( Job 23:13-17 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Always remember, dear friends, that one of the great lessons of the Book of Job is this, that we may never judge a mans character by his condition. The best of men may have the most of suffering and of poverty, while the worst of men may prosper in everything. Do not imagine, because a man suddenly becomes very poor or a great sufferer, that therefore he must be a great sinner; otherwise, you will often condemn the innocent, and you will, at the same time, be guilty of flattering the wicked. Jobs friends had cruelly told him that he must be a hypocrite, or else he would not have lost his property, and have been smitten with such a remarkable sickness; so he appeals to God against their unrighteous judgment.
Job 23:1-2. Then Job answered and said, Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Although my groaning is heavy, yet it is not so burdensome as my griefs might warrant.
Job 23:3. Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
To his judgment-seat, that I might plead my cause, and vindicate my character even there.
Job 23:4-6. I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. Will he plead against me with his great power?
Being the great God, will he silence me by a display of his omnipotence? Oh, no! he is too just to do that.
Job 23:6. No; but he would put strength in me.
He would help me to argue my case; he would deal fairly with me; he would not be like you so-called friends of mine, who sit there, and exult over my weakness and my griefs, and torture me with your cruel words.
Job 23:7-10. There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take:
If I cannot find him, or see him, he can see me, and he knows all about me.
Job 23:10. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
This is beautiful faith on the part of Job. It is very easy for us to read these lines, and to say, No doubt, tried men do come out of the furnace purified like gold; but it is quite another thing to be ourselves in the crucible, and to read such a passage as this by the light of the fire, and then to be able to say, We know it is true, for we are proving its truth even now. This is the kind of chapter that many a broken heart has to read by itself alone. Many a weeping eye has scanned these words of Job, and truly blessed has that troubled one been who has been able to chime in with the sweet music of this verse: He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:11. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
It is a great thing to be able to say that, as Job truly could, for we have the witness of the Spirit of God that Job was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. It was not self-righteousness that made him speak as he did; he had the right to say it, and he did say it.
Job 23:12-13. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him?
His mind is made up to chasten me; he means to afflict me again and again; so what can I do but yield to his will?
Job 23:13. And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
There is, on Jobs part, a reverential bowing before the supreme power an acknowledgment of Gods right to do with him as he wills.
Job 23:14. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
More arrows to pierce me, more sorrows to grieve me.
Job 23:15-17. Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him. For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me: Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
He wished that he had died before those evil days had come upon him; and that is the way that a good man, an undoubted saint of God, is sometimes driven to speak. There are, perhaps, some who will say, Then we dont want to be children of God if that is how they are tried. Ah! but that was only the sorrow of an hour. See where Job is now; think of what he was even a few days after he made this mournful complaint, when God had turned his sighing into singing, and his mourning into morning light. In the next chapter, Job speaks of those who were the reverse of himself, wicked and ungodly men, who nevertheless prospered in this life.
This exposition consisted of readings from Job 23, 24.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Job 23:1-9
Job 23
Job 23:1-9
JOB’S EIGHTH SPEECH:
JOB’S YEARNING FOR ACCESS TO GOD;
OH THAT I KNEW WHERE I MIGHT FIND HIM!
“Then Job answered and said,
Even today is my complaint rebellious:
My stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Oh that I knew where I might find him!
That I might come even to his seat.
I would set my cause in order before him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which he would answer me,
And understand what he would say unto me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
Nay, but he would give heed unto me.
There the upright might reason with him;
So should I be delivered forever from my judge.
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there;
And backward, but I cannot perceive him;
On the left hand, when he doth work, but I cannot behold him;
He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.”
This speech of Job is different from all the others in that it has no word at all directly addressed to his friends, being rather a monologue, or soliloquy, on the amazing riddle of God’s treatment of Job. This speech is recorded in two chapters; and Job 24 follows the same pattern, except that it embraces the riddle of God’s treatment of men generally.
In neither of these chapters did Job make any direct reference to what Eliphaz had said; but he did stress two main things, namely, (1) his innocence and integrity, and (2) his desire to commune with God which was prevented by his inability to find Him. These things, of course, were in refutation of what Eliphaz had said.
Job’s plight was pitiful; and the deep questionings of his soul evoke sympathy and concern in all who meditate upon them. The great fact here is that Job lived at a time long before the enlightenment that came with the Advent of Messiah. The Dayspring from On High had not yet illuminated the darkness that enveloped the pre-Christian world.
“Even today is my complaint rebellious” (Job 23:2). “Job’s friends considered his questionings regarding the government of the world, and his protestations of innocence as rebellion against God; and in these words, Job declares that he will continue to be a rebel in their eyes.” This passage positively does not mean that, “Job’s attitude has drifted into open rebellion.” Such an erroneous interpretation is flatly contradicted by what Job said in Job 23:10-11.
“Oh that I knew where I might find him” (Job 23:3). For Christians, the answer to this question is our Saviour. Jesus said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Joh 14:9); but for Job there was a profound uncertainty and perplexity concerning the Father and his government of mankind.
Furthermore, we do not mean to infer that all of the doubts and uncertainties have been removed even for Christians. “We now see through a glass darkly” and we know “only in part.” (1Co 13:12). The mystery of God has not been finished yet (Rev 10:7); and all of us should be careful to avoid the cocksure arrogant conceit of Eliphaz who pretended to know all the answers. We do not know all the answers; and it is imperative to remember that it is only the false teacher who pretends that he does.
The restlessness in Job’s heart as he sought to find a more perfect knowledge of God is a God-endowed element of human life. As Augustine stated it, “O God, our hearts were made for thee, and never shall they rest until they rest in Thee.”
That intense and perpetual yearning of the human heart after God is most beautifully expressed in these nine verses.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 23:1-2. Stroke . . . heavier . . . groaning. Job had been accused of complaining unjustly. He affirms that he had underestimated his afflictions.
Job 23:3-5. The friends have charged that Job would not face God with his problems. He maintained an opposite attitude and wished that he might be permitted to come into nearness with Him to plead his cause.
Job 23:6. Job believed that God would be more considerate of him than his friends.
Job 23:7. There means the seat of the Lord referred to in Job 23:3. Job believed he would stand some chance in the presence of God.
Job 23:8-9. God was invisible to the human eye and hence was not taking the part of Job in any outward manifestation.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In answer to Eliphaz, ob took no notice of the terrible charges made against him. That is postponed to a later speech. Rather, he discussed Eliphai conception of his view of God as being absent from the affairs of men, and boldly affirmed his own consciousness of the great problem.
As to his own case, he admitted that his complaint was accounted rebellious because his stroke was heavier than his groaning. He sighed after God, and principally for His judgment seat. He would fain stand before Him to plead his cause, but he could not find Him, though he went forward and backward. He was conscious of God’s presence, but he could not see Him. Suddenly there flames into the midst of the complaint the most remarkable evidence of the tenacity of his faith. His conclusion concerning God was not as Eliphaz had insinuated. He was aware that God knew the way he was taking. He even affirmed his confidence that he would “come forth,” and insisted that he had been loyal to God. Then again faith merged into fearful trembling. Whatever God was doing, he could not persuade Him to desist. He knew God’s presence, but it troubled him. He was afraid of Him, because He had not appeared to deliver him.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
He Knoweth the Way That I Take
Job 23:1-17
This chapter is threaded by a sublime faith. Job admitted that his complaint seemed rebellious, but Gods hand had been heavy on him. From the misunderstandings of his friends, he longs for the calm, holy presence of God Himself.
It seemed as if nothing would content the sufferer but a personal audience with the Almighty. He felt that he could plead his cause there without fear. He was sure that his Almighty Judge would not contend against him with His great power, but would listen to him. Yet it seemed impossible to find Him. Job did not realize that he was already in Gods audience-room. We are made nigh through Jesus Christ. God hides Himself, because mortal eyes could not bear the burning glory of His presence. But though we fail to see Him, we are never for a moment out of His view. He knows the way that we take. Speak to Him, weary, suffering soul; the Lord is at hand!
It was not a mere self-righteous boast that the sufferer made in Job 23:7; Job 23:11-12. David also used similar words of himself, Psa 18:20-23. We are always sinners, needing the precious blood; but we may be very thankful if we have been kept from the great transgression. Yet the perfect man is still troubled in the divine presence, and his heart becomes faint, Job 23:15-16, unless he can claim something more than creature or natural goodness. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Job 23:3
We have here:
I. The search for God. Of all the many things men seek, surely this is the noblest-the search for God. “Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” There speaks a man eager in the highest of all pursuits. Yours, too, is the capacity to seek for God. Have you, amid your many quests, ever wished to find Him? or is it true that you do not even wish or want to find God?
II. The search for God unavailing. Here, in the Bible, the very book which professes to tell us about God, and in the words of a writer as earnest and devout as this, we find this exclamation of despair about finding God, this exceeding bitter cry: “Oh that I knew where I might find Him!” It seems to be Job’s chief trouble that he cannot penetrate the clouds and darkness which surround his Maker. What a high, sublime desire for a troubled man to cherish! “Oh that I might come even to God’s seat!” Imagine the prayer granted. Should we like it to be granted to us, to rest there?
III. The search for God rewarded. The Bible has more for us on this subject than this cry of Job’s. There is a progress in its many pages, the product of many ages and of successive revelations. It is one of the chief revelations of the New Testament that the deep, unquenchable, and before unsatisfied craving of frail, suffering, sinful men to find their Maker, and to find Him their Friend, is met in Jesus Christ.
T. M. Herbert, Sketches of Sermons, p. 298.
Job 23:3
I. God comes only into the heart that wants Him. All that God says-though He be clothed with omnipotence and have at His girdle the keys of all worlds-is, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” God does not force His way into the human heart. Except a man desire with his whole heart and strength to find God, no promise is given in the living word that God will be found.
II. This desire on our part is in answer to the desire of God. We love God because He first loved us. If we desire God, it is because He hath first desired us. His love comes up from unbeginning time, and goes on to unending eternity. There is nothing in our hearts that is good, and true, and tender that is not inspired by God the Holy Ghost.
III. We must seek God as men who know there is no other help for us. If there be the least distraction of feeling or affection on our part as to this point, we cannot find God. If we would really and truly find God, we must go to Him as men who have lost all right of standing up before Him. No man is allowed to stand before God on equal terms. We must desire God with a true heart, with an unmixed love, and then He will come to us and be our God.
IV. No man can find but God unto perfection. We must not suppose that we have concluded our studies of the Divine nature. In proportion as we are really religious we shall be the first to resent the suggestion that we have done more than but begin our studies of the Divine person, the Divine law, and the Divine grace.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 37.
References: Job 23:3, Job 23:4.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 700; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 231. Job 23:6.-Ibid., vol. iii., No. 108. Job 23:8, Job 23:9.-J. Burton, Christian Life and Truth, p. 344. Job 23:8, Job 23:10.-J. W. Burgon, Ninety-one Short Sermons, No. 56. Job 23:11, Job 23:12.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1526. Job 23:13.-Ibid., vol. vii., No. 406. Job 23:16, Job 23:17.-Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 436. Job 23-S. Cox, Ibid., 1st series, vol. viii., p. 161; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 304. Job 24:1.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 94. Job 24:13.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 130.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTERS 23-24 Jobs Reply
1. O that I knew where I may find Him (Job 23:1-8)
2. Trusting yet doubting (Job 23:10-17)
3. Hath God failed? (Job 24:1-12)
4. Jobs further testimony as to the wicked (Job 24:13-25)
Job 23:1-9. Job here does not disprove at once the false charges of Eliphaz. He can afford to wait till later, till their mouths are completely silenced. Then he speaks the final word. He acknowledgeth that he is still rebellious. His hand which is upon him is heavier than all his groanings. Then that outburst which reveals the longing of his tried and tempest-tossed soul–Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might even come to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. Then in blinded self-righteousness he speaks a bold word: I would know the words He would answer to me, and understand what He would say to me. He is so sure of it all that he declares He would give heed to me. How different it was when the Lord did speak and Jobs lips are sealed, only to open in expression of deepest self-abhorrence. Yet even in the words he speaks here, still in the dark as to the reason of his suffering, he demonstrates that he is not the defiant wicked man, but one who longs for God.
Job 23:10-17. Trusting yet doubting expresseth the sentiment of what he says next. Trust is expressed in the beautiful utterance, But He knoweth the way that I take; when He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. Yet it is self-vindication which speaks next, not in Gods presence, but to clear himself before his friends. My foot held fast to His steps. Doubt follows for he still considers God, not his friend, but his enemy.
Job 24:1-12. The rendering of the opening verse is difficult to make. It has been paraphrased in this wise: Since, then, events from the Almighty are not hid, why do not they who love Him know His ways? This perhaps expresseth the true meaning of his thought. He shows what so often happens on the earth and which seemingly indicates a failure of God in His righteous government. Why is it all? And never before in the history of the race has Jobs charge of the failure of God been so prominent as in our evil days.
From city and from houses groans ascend;
With shrieks those being murdered cry for help
Yet God regards not this enormity.
Job 24:13-25. He describes the paths of the wicked again and yet they seem to escape the retribution in this life which they so well deserve. They even have security. And Job still is haunted by the thought that in these facts there is found an evidence that God is favorable to them. Death surely comes to them yet a little while and they are gone but what comes after death he does not mention. Then boldly he raiseth himself up and says, And if it be not so now, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech of no account? What an assertion that all he declared is infallibly true!
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
island
i.e. coast.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Job Challenged by Satan
Job 1:1 -Job 23:1-17
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We begin today a series of studies on one of the most interesting characters of the Bible. He is Job, the man of patience.
We remember the comment which the Holy Ghost made concerning Job, and which is recorded for us in the fifth chapter of James.
“Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
Job was probably a contemporary of Abraham. One thing which we think worthy of mention is this fact:-In the old days, far back before Christ, and even before the days of national Israel and her Prophets, God had good and great men upon the earth; men who trusted Him and served Him.
According to the Word of God, the heathen world of today is dwelling in darkness and superstition, simply because the world of old in its wisdom, knew not God. It was for this cause that God gave them over to a reprobate mind.
Returning to Job as a theme for study, we assure the readers that they will find, before we have completed our consideration, that there is much of faith, much of spiritual wisdom, and even much of prophetic vision bound up in the marvelous Book that relates the story of Job.
The answer to many questions, which puzzle minds today, will be found in the Book of Job.
The demands of God as He calls upon Job to stand up like a man, reveal visions of God in His creative power and inherent glory which are hardly surpassed in the Bible.
Let none deceive themselves by imagining that the Book of Job is an ancient story which crept into the Bible. The Book of Job portrays with historical accuracy a God-given record of a man who lived in the land of Uz.
His testings at the hand of Satan were real. The speeches of his three friends, who became more accusers than helpers, are real. Job’s responses, where the sunshine and glory of undaunted faith is mixed with the darkness and despair of temporary doubt, are real.
There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. Let us begin our study of this man asking the Lord to illumine our minds to the message which He has for us.
I. JOB’S MORAL AND SPIRITUAL INTEGRITY (Job 1:1)
1. Job was perfect and upright. This is saying a good deal, but God said it. Let us not think for one moment that Job was sinless. He was not that, but God said of him “that there is none like him in the earth” (Job 23:8).
Other men beside Job have been spoken of as perfect and upright. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist (Luk 1:5-6), was one of these. Here is the record concerning Zacharias and his wife, “They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.”
Some people would have us to believe that all young men and young women in our day are corrupt. We do not accept this for a moment. Because we are living in a world dominated by sin does not mean that God does not have His true and tried ones, who are unsmirched by the filth of the flesh.
The unsaved may, like Cornelius, be full of prayers and of alms deeds. However, it is in the realm of the redeemed and of those empowered by the Holy Ghost, that we find large numbers of men who are living with a conscience void of offence toward God and men.
2. Spiritually Job feared God. Job’s “fear of God,” was the reason that he was perfect and upright. We know that the fruit of the Spirit includes all the beauties of moral perfection and uprightness.
The extent to which Job feared God, and followed Him, will be brought out as we proceed in our studies. Suffice it now to say that Job’s fear encompassed a wide margin of spiritual vision and faith.
II. JOB’S FAMILY LIFE (Job 1:2; Job 1:4-5)
Job was the father of seven sons, and of three daughters. Family life may have its temptations and testings, but there is nothing in the life of father or mother that makes it impossible to live acceptable to God.
We read concerning Enoch that he walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, for three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. Mark you, that it was during the period of Enoch’s family life that he walked with God.
A godly home is the nearest place to Heaven of anything we know. Job had such a home.
In Deuteronomy we are taught that the father shall teach all of God’s statutes to his children. He shall talk of them when he sits in his house, and when he walks by the way. He shall bind them for a sign upon his hands, and they shall be as frontlets between his eyes. He shall write them upon the posts of his house, and upon his gates.
Along this line it is interesting to note that when Job’s sons feasted in their houses, and called in their sisters to the feast, that Job afterward sent for his sons and sanctified them. He rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. Thus did Job continually.
Would that we had more fathers today who kept up the family altar, more who watched diligently over their children, bringing them up in the nurture and fear of the Lord.
III. JOB’S WEALTH (Job 1:3)
Job was the greatest of all the men of the east. His substance was seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household.
Job was rich. In another chapter we read something of his spirit of philanthropy, and of his love to the poor. He delivered the poor when they cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. He caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. He was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. He was a father to the needy.
The curse of riches is displayed by Christ in the parable of the rich man who had much goods laid up for many days, and who said unto his soul, “Eat, drink, and be merry.” To this rich man God said, “Thou fool” Then He said, “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
The rich young ruler is another example of riches kept to one’s hurt. Jesus loved the man, even though he was rich, but the rich man was unwilling to leave all and follow Christ, for he was wedded to his wealth.
With Job it was altogether different. In a succeeding study, we will learn that Job counted God more than money, and he could say, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
IV. SATAN, THE ACCUSER OF THE SAINTS (Job 1:6-10)
There came a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said unto Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth?” Satan quickly replied, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” Hast not Thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Then Satan said to God, “Put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.”
1. We have before us a loose devil, going about seeking whom he may devour. Satan is not chained as some would aver. He is the Prince of the power of the air. He is seeking to entangle every possible child of God, and to lead them into sin and disobedience.
2. Satan’s complaint. When the Lord asked Satan if he had observed Job, Satan complained that God had put an hedge about Job so that he couldn’t touch him; and, in addition, God had blessed the work of his hands. This admission on the part of Satan is very comforting to believers. Our security does not lie in our perseverance, but in His preservation. God may allow Satan sometimes to “sift us as wheat,” as He did Peter; however, no matter what testing is permitted, God will prepare a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. If the Lord had not said unto us, “I will be thy shield and thy strong tower,” we know not what might have befallen us. Thank God, we are held in the hand of omnipotency.
3. Satan’s insinuations. Satan insinuated that Job’s obeisance to God was not genuine. He said that Job, in his heart, had no trust in Jehovah, that he was serving Him alone for what he could get out of it.
V. SATAN REQUESTING THE PRIVILEGE OF TESTING JOB (Job 1:11-12)
1. The challenge made. Satan said to God, “Put forth Thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.” The challenge had been made; Satan demanded that God should try out Job.
During the dark days which followed, if Job had only known of this challenge on the part of Satan, and the reason why he was being put to the test, it would have made it a thousand times easier for him to suffer.
On the other hand, if God had told Job the objective, and had smiled upon him as he suffered, it would have upset the whole purpose of the test.
The trial of Job’s faith brought God honor, because it proved that Satan was a liar and a false accuser, and that Job did, in reality, serve God because he loved Him, and not because of what he profited thereby.
2. The challenge accepted. “And the Lord said unto Satan, behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand.”
Many Christians have felt, at times, that God had forgotten them; and, perhaps, that He had set Himself against them. This could not be. God loves His own with an everlasting love, and every man, when he is tested of God, is tested for his good, and not for his harm. Satan’s purpose in this temptation and trial was the utter undoing of Job. God’s purpose was Job’s ultimate enlargement.
VI. THE COMPLETENESS OF SATAN’S WRATH (Job 1:13-19)
1. The scope of Satan’s power. There are many who underestimate the ability and strength of the devil. Michael, an archangel, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, and yet, there are many men, women and children who possess nothing of Michael’s power and authority, who dare to jest about Satan. They call him the “Old Nick,” or the “Old Scratch,” and speak as though they had victory over him in some imagined personal combat.
It is with such an one that we have to deal, so if we would go forth to battle, we must be clothed with the whole armour of God that we may withstand in the evil day.
2. Satan’s power at work. With God’s permission obtained, Satan stretched forth his hand. In order to make his devilish work forceful and more trying to Job, he arranged matters so there would not be a long-drawn series of temptings, but one great stroke in which all of Job’s substance would be swept from him.
(1) While Job’s sons and daughters were feasting, a messenger came to Job, saying, that all his oxen and asses had been captured by the Sabeans, and the attending servants slain with the sword.
(2) While the messenger was yet speaking, a second one arrived, saying that all of Job’s sheep had been burned, and his servants consumed with them.
(3) While the second messenger was speaking, a third came saying that the Chaldeans had fallen upon the camels, and had carried them away, slaying all the servants.
(4) While the third messenger spoke, a fourth arrived saying that all of his sons and daughters had been smitten and slain by a great wind from the wilderness.
No one need doubt, as this fourfold wreckage comes before them, the thoroughness of Satan’s malicious maneuverings.
VII. JOB’S FIDELITY AND FAITHFULNESS VINDICATED (Job 1:21-22)
With everything swept away, and with Job in absolute darkness as to why God had permitted such a disaster, yet Job did not sin, nor charge God foolishly. The mighty man of the East said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither; the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord.”
Job did not alone refuse to complain, but he even blessed the Name of the Lord. With everything gone, he said both Amen and Hallelujah.
All will agree that Job possessed a very high standard of Christian integrity. All will agree that Satan’s words concerning Job were no more than a mere slander.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Dr. Howard Taylor tells of his yearning for holiness of life and power in service:
“All the time I felt assured there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out. He was rich, truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I, weak. I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question. As gradually the light was dawning on me, I saw that faith was the only requisite, was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and make it my own. But I had not this faith. I strove for it, but it would not come; tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Saviour, my helplessness and guilt seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His Word, but rather make Him a liar! Unbelief was, I felt, the damning sin of the world, yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I have never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote (I quote from memory):
“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
As I read, I saw it all! “If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, “I will never leave you.” Ah, there is rest, I thought. I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more, for has He not promised to abide with me-never to leave me, never to fail me? And, dearie, He never will!”
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Job 23:1. Then Job answered Job, being exceedingly grieved by the freedom which Eliphaz had taken with him in his last speech, charging him directly with the most enormous sins, (see the 15th and following verses,) turns and appeals to God, according to his custom, and earnestly begs he would hear the matter fully, and determine between him and his friends. The passage from this to the end of the 10th verse is peculiarly fine, and well worthy of the readers deep attention. In it Job fully answers the charge of Eliphaz concerning his denial or disbelief of the Divine Providence; and observes, that this was so far from being the case, that there was nothing he so much lamented as that he was excluded from Gods presence, and not permitted to draw near and make his defence before him; having the testimony of his own conscience respecting his integrity, and not doubting but he should make his cause good. He then shows, that his cause was far from being singular, for that many other dispensations of Gods providence were equally difficult to be accounted for, at least by human understanding; and that it was this which filled him with greater apprehensions. He expresses his desire that God, in the course of his providence, would make a more visible distinction between the righteous and the wicked in this world, that good men might not fall into such mistakes in censuring suffering innocence. He concludes with showing what, according to their principles, ought to be the general course of providence with regard to wicked men, which, however, it was notorious was not the case: and since it was not, it was plain that he had proved his point, and the falsity of their maxim was apparent: and their censuring him merely for his sufferings was a behaviour by no means justifiable. Heath.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 23:3. Oh that I knew where I might find him. Job sighs for the favours conferred on certain patriarchs, whom God had met. The living oracle was with Noah after the flood; it was with Abraham in the years of his pilgrimage; it was established with Israel, as described in Exo 28:30.
Job 23:8. Behold, I go forwardand backward. The Hebrew, as the Chaldaic, represents Job as going east and west, north and south, in search of God. The Jews would allow the oracle no existence except in Jewry.
Job 23:10. I shall come forth as gold. The allusion is to the art of founders. The gold ores, after washings and pulverizations, are put into the crucible, with salts, and boiled a proper time in the furnace. Then the pure gold is found at the bottom, covered with a beautiful yellow glass. A good mans graces are also refined in the fire of affliction.
Job 23:12. The words of his mouth, delivered to Noah, and to others. The holy scriptures are justified by the voice of all antiquity, in their high claims to divine authority.
Job 23:14. He performeth the thing that is appointed for me. Nam tradit jus meum, for he deals with me in equity, and the abundance of such things are with himself.Schultens. This author gives us ten other versions of this text.
REFLECTIONS.
Oh illustrious Job, ever rising after a thousand strokes of depression! Having no ear on earth to listen to the mournings of his grief, he sighs for the glorious high throne which has been the sanctuary of holy men from the beginning. Oh there, there he would plead with his living Redeemer. Then he would fill his mouth with arguments, confident that the arm of Omnipotence would become weak, in pleading against a worm. Nay more; he was confident that the Lord would inspire his prayer, and furnish him with arguments which he might urge with sublime effect. Sweet is the fruit of pleading with heaven, instead of wrangling with misguided men.
Job in this conflict felt a vast refinement, and a divine augmentation of every active and passive grace which operated in his heart; that after the fiery furnace, he should come forth refined as gold. He felt a tender heart, hallowed by the flames of love. He justified God in all his privations and afflictions, as having done to him what was wise and good. The tempest had raged without, but warmth and peace dwelt within. He therefore rested in the assurance, that God would soon bring his salvation near, and open his righteousness like the light of the sun.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 23:1-7. Job still rebels, though he does his best to repress his complaints (Job 23:2). Translate as mg.
Job 23:6 f. shows the gain Job has got. Job 23:8-12. He is still in quest of God, but now is convinced that if he could find Him, God would treat him reasonably (contrast Job 9:14-16). Gods inscrutableness (Job 23:8 f.) now causes him no fear (Job 23:10). Trial will but be the touchstone that will reveal his innocence (Job 23:10-12). Read in Job 23:12 b, with LXX and Vulgate, for more than my necessary food, in my bosom.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
HE LONGS TO LAY HIS CASE BEFORE GOD
(vv.1-9)
What Eliphaz has said to Job was hardly worth an answer, so that Job practically ignores this and lays before his friends the actual distresses that occupied his mind and heart. They had had no answer for this before, and when he is finished they still have no answer. In spite of all that his friends have said, he tells them, “Even today my complaint is bitter” (v.2). Their much talk had not changed anything for him. He continued to groan in anguish, and says, “Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat. I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments” (vv.3-4). He wanted God, but felt God had withdrawn from him and would not answer his prayers. How little did he realise that God knew perfectly what Job was feeling and what he was thinking. He did not have to give Job a public audience to air his complaints. In fact, when finally God dealt directly with Job, Job had no arguments to present to Him at all. His first response to God was, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth” (Job 40:3-4).
But he indicates in verse 5 that if he was just allowed to present his case to God, then he would have an answer that he could understand, for he was sure that God was righteous, in contrast to his friends, and that God would rather take note of him as one who was righteous, not wicked (v.6). Did Job think he needed to argue his case with God, to persuade God that, because he was comparatively righteous, there was no reason for God allowing him to suffer as he did.
He speaks of the upright reasoning with God (v.7). But an upright man should realise he should never dare to reason with God as though he could persuade God to change his mind. However, Job thinks that by this means he would be delivered forever from having to endure what he feels as God’s judgment, which was not actually judgment, but discipline. Thank God we know today that our arguments or reasonings have nothing to do with being delivered from judgment, but only the value of the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus accomplish this wonderful result, when one receives Him simply by faith.
Job feels he has tried everything to find where he may meet with God. He had gone forward and backward and to his right hand and his left, but was left completely frustrated. He could not find God. Actually, God was not far from him, and God was seeking Job’s deepest blessing. Job would not find it by his seeking, but by honest submission to God’s hand.
JOB DEFENDS HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS
(vv.10-12)
This section shows the reason that Job found himself unable to find God. Job’s own righteousness was the hindrance. He insists that God knew the way that Job took and that God’s test of Job would prove him to “come forth as gold” (v.16). In comparison to others this was no doubt true. His foot had held fast to God’s guiding steps: he had kept God’s way – contrary to what his friends had said about him. Not only had he not departed from God’s commandments, but he had positively treasured God’s words more than his necessary food. Because he was the most righteous man on earth, he had too much confidence in his righteousness, and it was necessary for God to take from him the pride that his righteousness had occasioned in him.
Job now had to learn the lesson that his own righteousnesses were to God only “filthy rags,” just as Paul had to deeply learn this lesson. Paul writes of reasons he had previously had for confidence in the flesh, ending with, “concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Php 3:4-6), “but,” he adds, “what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ” (v.7). He would no longer put any confidence in all his virtues. Job later learned this too (Job 42:5-6).
AFRAID OF GOD
(vv.13-17)
“But He is unique, and who can make Him change?” (v.13). Certainly God is unique, but Job thought His uniqueness was limited to awe inspiring majesty, and did not understand God’s unique love and grace. Job says that God does whatever His soul desires, but he thought God’s desires had no reference to the actual need of His creatures. How totally wrong was this conception! It is true enough that God performs whatever may be appointed for people (v.14), but His appointments are not intended to inspire terror in the heart of a believer, as this did with Job. Indeed, why did he seek God’s presence if he was “terrified at His presence?” (v.15). But this is one of the inconsistencies of one who focuses on his troubles rather than on the grace of God.
Job thought it was God who made his heart weak, and that it was God Himself who terrified Job. Why? Because God did not cut him off in death before he had to face the darkness and deep darkness that had now overtaken him (vv.16-17).
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
2. Job’s third reply to Eliphaz chs. 23-24
Job temporarily ignored Eliphaz’s groundless charges of sin and proceeded to reflect on the problem of God’s injustice.
"The first part of this speech is superb. The option placed before Job by Eliphaz has clarified his thinking. He has come to quite different conclusions, and he expresses them in a soliloquy, for he does not appear to be addressing either Eliphaz or God." [Note: Andersen, p. 207.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Job’s longing 23:1-7
Job admitted that he had rebelled against God to the extent that he had complained about his condition (Job 23:2 a). "His hand" (Job 23:2 b) is "My hand" in the Hebrew text. Job had not given up his desire to present his case before God before he died (cf. Job 9:14-16).
"It is obvious that Job rests his hope for a favorable decision on the Judge’s just character." [Note: Hartley, p. 339.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XX.
WHERE IS ELOAH?
Job 23:1-17; Job 24:1-25
Job SPEAKS
THE obscure couplet with which Job begins appears to involve some reference to his whole condition alike of body and mind.
“Again today, my plaint, my rebellion!
The hand upon me is heavier than my groanings.”
I must speak of my trouble and you will count it rebellion. Yet, if I moan and sigh, my pain and weariness are more than excuse. The crisis of faith is with him, a protracted misery, and hope hangs trembling in the balance. The false accusations of Eliphaz are in his mind; but they provoke only a feeling of weary discontent. What men say does not trouble him much. He is troubled because of that which God refuses to do or say. Many indeed are the afflictions of the righteous. But every case like his own obscures the providence of God. Job does not entirely deny the contention of his friends that unless suffering comes as a punishment of sin there is no reason for it. Hence, even though he maintains with strong conviction that the good are often poor and afflicted while the wicked prosper, yet he does not thereby clear up the matter. He must admit to himself that he is condemned by the events of life. And against the testimony of outward circumstance he makes appeal in the audience chamber of the King.
Has the Most High forgotten to be righteous for a time? When the generous and true are brought into sore straits, is the great Friend of truth neglecting His task as Governor of the world? That would indeed plunge life into profound darkness. And it seems to be even so. Job seeks deliverance from this mystery which has emerged in his own experience. He would lay his cause before Him who alone can explain.
“Oh that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come even to His seat!
I would order my cause before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which He would answer me
And understand what He would say unto me.”
Present to Jobs mind here is the thought that he is under condemnation, and along with this the conviction that his trial is not over. It is natural that his mind should hover between these ideas, holding strongly to the hope that judgment, if already passed, will be revised whet the facts are fully known. Now this course of thought is altogether in the darkness. But what are the principles unknown to Job, through ignorance of which he has to languish in doubt? Partly, as we long ago saw the explanation lies in the use of trial and affliction as the means of deepening spiritual life. They give gravity and therewith the possibility of power to our existence. Even yet Job had not realised that one always kept in the primrose path, untouched by the keen air of “misfortune” although he had, to begin, a pious disposition and a blameless record, would be worth little: the end to God or to mankind. And the necessity for the discipline of affliction and disappointment, even as it explains the smaller troubles, explains also the greatest. Let ill be heaped on ill, disaster on disaster, disease on bereavement, misery on sorrow, while stage by stage the life goes down into deeper circles of gloom and pain, it may acquire, it will acquire, if faith and faithfulness towards God remain, massiveness, strength, and dignity for the highest spiritual service. But there is another principle, not yet considered, which enters into the problem and still more lightens up the valley of experience which to Job appeared so dark. The poem touches the fringe of this principle again and again, but never states it. The author says that men were born to trouble. He made Job suffer more because he had his integrity to maintain than if he had been guilty of transgressions by acknowledging which he might have pacified his friends: The burden lay heavily upon Job because he was a conscientious man, a true man, and could not accept any make believe in religion. But just where another step would have carried him into the light of blessed acquiescence in the will of God the power failed, he could not advance. Perhaps the genuineness and simplicity of his character would have been impaired if he had thought of it. and we like him better because he did not. The truth, however, is that Job was suffering for others, that he was, by the grace of God, a martyr, and so far forth in the spirit and position of that suffering Servant of Jehovah of whom we read in the prophecies of Isaiah.
The righteous sufferers, the martyrs, what are they? Always the vanguard of humanity. Where they go and the prints of their bleeding feet are left, there is the way of improvement, of civilisation, of religion. The most successful man, preacher or journalist or statesman, is popularly supposed to be leading the world in the right path. Where the crowd goes shouting after him, is that not the way to advance? Do not believe it. Look for a teacher, a journalist, a statesman who is not so successful as he might be, because he will, at all hazards, be true. The Christian world does not yet know the best in life, thought, and morality for the best. He who sacrifices position and esteem to righteousness, he who will not bow down to the great idol at the sound of sackbut and psaltery, observe where that man is going, try to understand what he has in his mind. Those who under defeat or neglect remain steadfast in faith have the secrets we need to know. To the ranks even of the afflicted and broken the author of Job turned for an example of witness bearing to high ideas and the faith in God which brings salvation. But he wrought in the shadow, and his hero is unconscious of his high calling. Had Job seen the principles of Divine providence which made him a helper of human faith, we should not now hear him cry for an opportunity of pleading his cause before God.
“Would He contend with me in His mighty power?
Nay, but He would give heed to me.
Then an upright man would reason with Him;
So should I get free forever from my Judge.”
It is in a sense startling to hear this confident expectation of acquittal at the bar of God. The common notion is that the only part possible to man in his natural state is to fear the judgment to come and dread the hour that shall bring him to the Divine tribunal. From the ordinary point of view the language of Job here is dangerous, if not profane. He longs to meet the Judge; he believes that he could so state his case that the Judge would listen and be convinced. The Almighty would not contend with him any longer as his powerful antagonist, but would pronounce him innocent and set him at liberty forever. Can mortal man vindicate himself before the bar of the Most High? Is not every one condemned by the law of nature and of conscience, much more by Him who knoweth all things? And yet this man who believes he would be acquitted by the great King has already been declared “perfect and upright, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.” Take the declaration of the Almighty Himself in the opening scenes of the book, and Job is found what he claims to be. Under the influence of that Divine grace which the sincere and upright may enjoy he has been a faithful servant and has earned the approbation of his Judge. It is by faith he is made righteous. Religion and love of the Divine law have been his guides; he has followed them; and what one has done may not others do? Our book is concerned not so much with the corruption of human nature, as with the vindication of the grace of God given to human nature. Corrupt and vile as humanity often is, imperfect and spiritually ignorant as it always is, the writer of this book is not engaged with that view. He directs attention to the virtuous and honourable elements and shows Gods new creation in which He may take delight.
We shall indeed find that after the Almighty has spoken out of the storm, Job says, “I repudiate my words and repent in dust and ashes.” So he appears to come at last to the confession which, from one point of view, he ought to have made at the first. But those words of penitence imply no acknowledgment of iniquity after all. They are confession of ignorant judgment. Job admits with sorrow that he has ventured too far in his attempt to understand the ways of the Almighty, that he has spoken without knowledge of the universal providence he had vainly sought to fathom.
The authors intention plainly is to justify Job in his desire for the opportunity of pleading his cause, that is, to justify the claim of the human reason to comprehend. It is not an offence to him that much of the Divine working is profoundly difficult to interpret. He acknowledges in humility that God is greater than man, that there are secrets with the Almighty which the human mind cannot penetrate. But so far as suffering and sorrow are appointed to a man and enter into his life, he is considered to have the right of inquiry regarding them, an inherent claim on God to explain them. This may be held the error of the author which he himself has to confess when he comes to the Divine interlocution. There he seems to allow the majesty of the Omnipotent to silence the questions of human reason. But this is really a confession that his own knowledge does not suffice, that he shares the ignorance of Job as well as his cry for light. The universe is vaster than he or any of the Old Testament age could even imagine. The destinies of man form part of a Divine order extending through the immeasurable spaces and the developments of eternal ages.
Once more Job perceives or seems to perceive that access to the presence of the Judge is denied. The sense of condemnation shuts him in like prison walls and he finds no way to the audience chamber. The bright sun moves calmly from east to west; the gleaming stars, the cold moon in their turn glide silently over the vault of heaven. Is not God on high? Yet man sees no form, hears no sound.
“Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet;
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”
But Job is not able to conceive a spiritual presence without shape or voice.
“Behold, I go forward, but He is not there;
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him:
On the left hand where He doth work, but I behold Him not:
He hideth Himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him.”
Nature, thou hast taught this man by thy light and thy darkness, thy glorious sun and thy storms, the clear shining after rain, the sprouting corn and the clusters of the vine, by the power of mans will and the daring love and justice of mans heart. In all thou hast been a revealer. But thou hidest whom thou dost reveal. To cover in thought the multiplicity of, thy energies in earth and sky and sea, in fowl and brute and man, in storm and sunshine, in reason, in imagination, in will and love and hope; -to attach these one by one to the idea of a Being almighty, infinite, eternal, and so to conceive this God of the universe-it is, we may say, a superhuman task. Job breaks down in the effort to realise the great God. I took behind me, into the past. There are the footprints of Eloah when He passed by. In the silence an echo of His step may be heard; but God is not there. On the right hand, away beyond the hills that shut in the horizon, on the left hand where the ways leads to Damascus and the distant north-not there can I see His form; nor out yonder where day breaks in the east. And when I travel forward in imagination, I who said that my Redeemer shall stand upon the earth, when I strive to conceive His form, still, in utter human incapacity, I fail. “Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself.”
And yet, Jobs conviction of his own uprightness, is it not Gods witness to his spirit? Can he not be content with that? To have such a testimony is to have the very verdict he desire. Well does Boethius, a writer of the old world though he belonged to the Christian age, press beyond Job where he writes:
“He is always Almighty, because He always wills good and never any evil. He is always equally gracious. By His Divine power He is everywhere present. The Eternal and Almighty always sits on the throne of His power. Thence He is able to see all, and renders to every one with justice, according to his works. Therefore it is. not in vain that we have hope in God; for He changes not as we do. But pray ye to Him humbly, for He is very bountiful and very merciful. Hate and fly from evil as ye best may. Love virtues and follow them. Ye have great need that ye always do well, for ye always in the presence of the Eternal and Almighty God do all that ye do. He beholds it all, and He will recompense it all.”
Amiel, on the other hand, would fain apply to Job a reflection which has occurred to himself in one of the moods that come to a man disappointed, impatient of his own limitations. In his journal, under date January 29th, 1866, he writes:
“It is but our secret self-love which is set upon this favour from on high; such may be our desire, but such is not the will of God. We are to be exercised, humbled, tried and tormented to the end. It is our patience which is the touchstone of our virtue. To bear with life even when illusion and hope are gone; to accept this position of perpetual war, while at the same time loving only peace; to stay patiently in the world, even when it repels us as a place of low company and seems to us a mere arena of bad passions; to remain faithful to ones own faith without breaking with the followers of false gods; to make no attempt to escape from the human hospital, long-suffering and patient as Job upon his dunghill; -this is duty.”
An evil mood prompts Amiel to write thus. A thousand times rather would one hear him crying like Job on the great Judge and Redeemer and complaining that the Goal hides Himself. It is not in bare self-love or self-pity Job seeks acquittal at the bar of God; but in the defence of conscience, the spiritual treasure of mankind and our very life. No doubt his own personal justification bulks largely with Job, for he has strong individuality. He will not be overborne. He stands at bay against his three friends and the unseen adversary. But he loves integrity, the virtue, first; and for himself he cares as the representative of that which the Spirit of God gives to faithful men. He may cry, therefore, he may defend himself, he may complain; and God will not cast him off.
“For He knoweth the way that I take;
If He tried me, I should come forth as gold.
My foot hath held fast to His steps,
His way have I kept, and not turned aside.
I have not gone back from the commandments of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my needful food.”
Bravely, not in mere vaunt he speaks, and it is good to hear him still able to make such a claim. Why do we not also hold fast to the garment of our Divine Friend? Why do we not realise and exhibit the resolute godliness that anticipates judgment: “If He tried me, I should come forth as gold”? The psalmists of Israel stood thus on their faith; and not in vain, surely, has Christ called us to be like our Father who is in heaven.
But again from brave affirmation Job falls back exhausted.
Oh thou Hereafter! on whose shore I stand-
Waiting each toppling moment to engulf me.
What am I? Say thou Present! say thou Past!
Ye three wise children of Eternity-
A life?-A death?-and an immortal?-All?
Is this the threefold mystery of man?
The lower, darker Trinity of earth?
It is vain to ask.
Nought answers me-not God.
The air grows thick and dark.
The sky comes down.
The sun draws round him streaky clouds-like God
Gleaning up wrath.
Hope hath leapt off my heart,
Like a false sibyl, fear-smote, from her seat,
And overturned it.
So, as Bailey makes his Festus speak, might Job have spoken here. For now it seems to him that to call on God is fruitless. Eloah is of one mind. His will is steadfast, immovable. Death is in the cup and death will come. On this God has determined. Nor is it in Jobs case alone so sore a doom is performed by the Almighty. Many such things are with Him. The waves of trouble roll up from the deep dark sea and go over the head of the sufferer. He lies faint and desolate once more. The light fades, and with a deep sigh because he ever came to life he shuts his lips.
Natural religion ends always with a sigh. The sense of God found in the order of the universe, the dim vision of God which comes in conscience, moral life and duty, in fear and hope and love, in the longing for justice and truth-these avail much; but they leave us at the end desiring something they cannot give. The Unknown God whom men ignorantly worshipped had to be revealed by the life and truth and power of the Man Christ Jesus. Not without this revelation, which is above and beyond nature, can our eager quest end in satisfying knowledge. In Christ alone the righteousness that justifies, the love that compassionates, the wisdom that enlightens are brought into the range of our experience and communicated through reason to faith.
In chapter 24 there is a development of the reasoning contained in Jobs reply to Zophar in the second colloquy, and there is also a closer examination of the nature and results of evildoing than has yet been attempted. In the course of his acute and careful discrimination Job allows something to his friends side of the argument, but all the more emphasises the series of vivid touches by which the prosperous tyrant is represented. He modifies to some extent his opinion previously expressed that all goes well with the wicked. He finds that certain classes of miscreants do come to confusion, and he separates these from the others, at the same time separating himself beyond question from the oppressor on this side and the murderer and adulterer on that. Accepting the limits of discussion chosen by the friends he exhausts the matter between himself and them. By the distinctions now made and the choice offered, Job arrests personal accusation, and of that we hear no more.
Continuing the idea of a Divine assize which has governed his thought throughout this reply, Job asks why it should not be held openly from time to time in the worlds history.
“Why are times not set by the Almighty?
And why do not they who know Him see His days?”
Emerson says the world is full of judgment days; Job thinks it is not, but ought to be. Passing from his own desire to have access to the bar of God and plead there, he now thinks of an open court, a public vindication of Gods rule. The Great Assize is never proclaimed. Ages go by; the Righteous One never appears. All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. Men struggling, sinning, suffering, doubt or deny the existence of a moral Ruler. They ask, Who ever saw this God? If He exists, He is so separate from the world by His own choice that there is no need to consider Him. In pride or in sorrow men raise the question. But no God means no justice, no truth, no penetration of the real by the ideal; and thought cannot rest there.
With great vigour and large knowledge of the world the writer makes Job point out the facts of human violence and crime, of human condonation and punishment. Look at the oppressors and those who cringe under them, the despots never brought to justice, but on the contrary growing in power through the fear and misery of their serfs. Already we have seen how perilous it is to speak falsely for God. Now we see, on the other hand, that whoever speaks truly of the facts of human experience prepares the way for a true knowledge of God. Those who have been looking in vain for indications of Divine justice and grace are to learn that not in deliverance from the poverty and trouble of this world but in some other way they must realise Gods redemption. The writer of the book is seeking after that kingdom which is not meat and drink nor long life and happiness, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Observe first, says Job, the base and cruel men who remove landmarks and claim as their own a neighbours heritage, who drive into their pastures flocks that are not theirs, who even take away the one ass of the fatherless and the one ox the widow has for ploughing her scanty fields, who thus with a high hand overbear all the defenceless people within their reach. Zophar had charged Job with similar crimes, and no direct reply was given to the accusation. Now, speaking strongly of the iniquity of such deeds, Job makes his accusers feel their injustice towards him. There are men who do such things. I have seen them, wondered at them, been amazed that they were not struck down by the hand of God. My distress is that I cannot understand how to reconcile their immunity from punishment with my faith in Him whom I have served and trusted as my Friend.
The next picture, from the fifth to the eighth verse (Job 24:5-8) , shows in contrast to the tyrants pride and cruelty the lot of those who suffer at his hands. Deprived of their land and their flocks, herding together in common danger and misery like wild asses, they have to seek for their food such roots and wild fruits as can be found here and there in the wilderness. Half enslaved now by the man who took away their land they are driven to the task of harvesting his fodder and gathering the gleanings of his grapes. Naked they lie in the field, huddling together for warmth, and out among the hills they are wet with the impetuous rams, crouching in vain under the ledges of the rock for shelter.
Worse things too are done, greater sufferings than these have to be endured. Men there are who pluck the fatherless child from the mothers breast, claiming the poor little life as a pledge. Miserable debtors, faint with hunger, have to carry the oppressors sheaves of corn. They have to grind at the oil presses, and with never a cluster to slake their thirst tread the grapes in the hot sun. Nor is it only in the country cruelties are practised. Perhaps in Egypt the writer has seen what he makes Job describe, the misery of city life. In the city the dying groan uncared for, and the soul of the wounded crieth out. Universal are the scenes of social iniquity. The world is full of injustice. And to Job the sting of it all is that “God regardeth not the wrong.”
Men talk nowadays as if the penury and distress prevalent in our large towns proved the churches to be unworthy of their name and place. It may be so. If this can be proved, let it be proved; and if the institution called The Church cannot justify its existence and its Christianity where it should do so by freeing the poor from oppression and securing their rights to the weak, then let it go to the wall. But here is Job carrying the accusation a stage farther, carrying it, with what may appear blasphemous audacity, to the throne of God. He has no church to blame, for there is no church. Or, he himself represents what church there is. And as a witness for God, what does he find to be his portion? Behold him, where many a servant of Divine righteousness has been in past times and is now, down in the depths, poorest of the poor, bereaved, diseased, scorned, misunderstood, hopeless. Why is there suffering? Why are there many in our cities outcasts of society, such as society is? Jobs case is a partial explanation; and here the church is not to blame. Pariahs of society, we say. If society consists to any great extent of oppressors who are enjoying wealth unjustly gained, one is not so sure that there is any need to pity those who are excluded from society. Am I trying to make out that it may be well there are oppressors, because oppression is not the worst thing for a brave soul? No: I am only using the logic of the Book of Job in justifying Divine providence. The church is criticised and by many in these days condemned as worthless because it is not banishing poverty. Perhaps it might be more in the way of duty and more likely to succeed if it sought to banish excessive wealth. Are we of the twentieth Christian century to hold still by the error of Eliphaz and the rest of Jobs friends? Are we to imagine that those whom the gospel blesses it must of necessity enrich, so that in their turn they may be tempted to act the Pharisee? Let us be sure God knows how to govern His world. Let us not doubt His justice because many are very poor who have been guilty of no crimes and many very rich who have been distinguished by no virtues. It is our mistake to think that all would be well if no bitter cries were heard in the midnight streets and every one were secured against penury. While the church is partly to blame for the state of things, the salvation of society will not be found in any earthly socialism. On that side lies a slough as deep as the other from which it professes to save. The large Divine justice and humanity which the world needs are those which Christ alone has taught, Christ to whom property was only something to deal with on the way to spiritual good, -humility, holiness, love, and faith.
The emphatic “These” with which Job 24:13 begins must be taken as referring to the murderer and adulterer immediately to be described. Quite distinct from the strong oppressors who maintain themselves in high position are these cowardly miscreants who “rebel against the light” (Job 24:13), who “in the dark dig through houses” and “know not the light” (Job 24:16), to whom “the morning is as the shadow of death,” whose “portion is cursed in the earth.” The passage contains Jobs admission that there are vile transgressors of human and Divine law whose unrighteousness is broken as a tree (Job 24:20). Without giving up his main contention as to high-handed wickedness prospering in the world he can admit this; nay, asserting it, he strengthens his position against the arguments of his friends. The murderer who rising towards daybreak waylays and kills the poor and needy for the sake of their scanty belongings, the adulterer who waits for the twilight, disguising his face, and the thief who in the dark digs through the clay wall of a house these do find the punishment of their treacherous and disgusting crimes in this life. The coward who is guilty of such sin is loathed even by the mother who bore him and has to skulk in by ways, familiar with the terrors of the shadow of death, daring, not to turn in the way of the vineyards to enjoy their fruit. The description of these reprobates ends with the twenty-first verse, and then there is a return to the “mighty” and the Divine support they appear to enjoy.
The interpretation of Job 24:18-21 which makes them “either actually in part the work of a popular hand, or a parody after the popular manner by Job himself,” has no sufficient ground. To affirm that the passage is introduced ironically and that Job 24:22 resumes the real history of the murderer, the adulterer, and the thief is to neglect the distinction between those “who rebel against the light” and the mighty who live in the eye of God. The natural interpretation is that which makes the whole a serious argument against the creed of the friends. In their eagerness to convict Job they have failed to distinguish between men whose base crimes bring them under social reprobation and the proud oppressors who prosper through very arrogance. Regarding these the fact still holds that apparently they are under the protection of Heaven.
Yet He sustaineth the mighty by His power,
They rise up though they despaired of life.
He giveth them to be safe, and they are unheld,
And His eyes are upon their ways.
They rise high: in a moment they are not;
They are brought low, like all others gathered in.
And cut off as the tops of corn.
If not-who then will make me a liar,
And to nothing bring my speech?
Is the daring right-defying evildoer wasted by disease, preyed upon by terror? Not so. When he appears to have been crushed, suddenly he starts up again in new vigour, and when he dies, it is not prematurely but in the ripeness of full age. With this reaffirmation of the mystery of Gods dealings Job challenges his friends. They have his final judgment. The victory he gains is that of one who will be true at all hazards. Perhaps in the background of his thought is the vision of a redemption not only of his own life but of all those broken by the injustice and cruelty of this earth.