Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 23:10
But he knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
10. The reason of God’s thus hiding Himself and refusing to allow Himself to be approached is that He knows Job’s innocence, but is resolved to treat him as guilty and bring him to death ( Job 23:13).
But he knoweth the way that I take ] Rather, for He knoweth, &c.; lit. the way that is with me, i. e. the conduct I pursue, and the thoughts I cherish. Job refers in these words to his innocency ( Job 23:11-12).
when he hath tried me I shall ] Rather, if He tried me I should come forth as gold. God refuses to permit Job access to Him, or to plead his cause before Him, because He knows his innocence, and that if He tried him he would come forth as pure gold.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But he knoweth the way that I take – Margin, is with me. That is, I have the utmost confidence in him. Though I cannot see him, yet he sees me, and he knows my integrity; and whatever people may say, or however they may misunderstand my character, yet he is acquainted with me, and I have the fullest confidence that he will do me justice.
When he hath tried me – When he has subjected me to all the tests of character which he shall choose to apply.
I shall come forth as gold – As gold that is tried in the crucible, and that comes forth the more pure the intenser is the heat. The application of fire to it serves to separate every particle of impurity or alloy, and leaves only the pure metal. So it is with trials applied to the friend of God; and we may remark
(1) That all real piety will bear any test that may be applied to it, as gold will bear any degree of heat without being injured or destroyed.
(2) That the effect of all trials is to purify piety, and make it more bright and valuable, as is the effect of applying intense heat to gold.
(3) There is often much alloy in the piety of a Christian, as there is in gold, that needs to be removed by the fiery trial of affliction. Nothing else will remove it but trial, as nothing will be so effectual a purifier of gold as intense heat.
(4) A true Christian should not dread trial. It will not hurt him. He will be the more valuable for his trials, as gold is for the application of heat. There is no danger of destroying true piety. It will live in the flames, and will survive the raging heat that shall yet consume the world.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 23:10
But He knoweth the way that I take.
The good mans way
A Christian in trouble should seek comfort in himself. His chief comfort lies in his relation to God. Only sincerity Godward makes such a statement as this possible.
I. The good mans way.
1. It is the way He chooses for me.
2. It is the way of obedience to His will.
3. It is the way His Son trod.
4. It is the way of self-sacrifice for others.
II. Gods knowledge of the good mans way.
1. He knows it; for He knows all.
2. He knows it with a sympathetic interest.
3. He knows it when the path is darkest and roughest.
4. He knows whither it leads.
III. The outcome of a good mans trials.
1. God sees the discipline to be essential.
2. He fixes its limits.
3. He guarantees the beneficial result.
4. This will be precious and bright in its end. (I. E. Page.)
Whither goest thou
Job could not understand the way of God with him; he was greatly perplexed. But if Job knew not the way of the Lord, the Lord knew Jobs way. Because God knew his way, Job turned from the unjust judgments of his unfeeling friends, and appealed to the Lord God Himself.
I. Do you know your own way? So far as your life is left to your own management, there is a way which you voluntarily take, and willingly follow. Do you know what that way is? Do you know where you are going? Of course, says one, everybody knows where he is going. You are steaming across the deep sea of time into the main ocean of eternity: to what port are you steering? The main thing with the captain of a Cunarder will be the getting his vessel safely into the port for which it is bound. This design overrules everything else. To get into port is the thought of every watch, every glance at the chart, every observation of the stars. The captains heart is set upon the other side. His hope is safely to arrive at the desired haven, and he knows which is the haven of his choice. He would not expect to get there if he did not set his mind on it. What is it you are aiming at? Are you living for God? or are you so living that the result must be eternal banishment from His presence? If you answer that question, allow me to put another: Do you know how you are going? In what strength are you pursuing your journey? Is God with you? Has the Lord Jesus become your strength and your song? Are there any here who decline to answer my question? Will you not tell us whither you are going? Is anyone here compelled to say, I have chosen the evil road? The grace of God can come in, and lead you at once to reverse your course. But are you drifting? Do you say, I am not distinctly sailing for heaven, neither am I resolutely steering in the other direction. I do not quite know what to say of myself? But can you say, Yes, I am bound for the right port? It may be that your accents are trembling with a holy fear; but none the less I am glad to hear you say as much.
II. Secondly, is it a cohort to you that God knows your way? Solemnly, I believe that one of the best tests of human character is our relation to the great truth of Gods omniscience. It is quite certain that God does know the way that you take. The Hebrew may be read, He knoweth the way that is in me; from which I gather that the Lord not only knows our outward actions, but our inward feelings. He knows our likes and dislikes, our desires and our designs, our imaginations and tendencies. The Lord knows you approvingly if you follow that which is right. God knows your way, however falsely you may be represented by others. Those three men who had looked so askance upon Job, accused him of hypocrisy, and of having practised some secret evil; but Job could answer, The Lord knoweth the way that I take. Are you the victim of slander? The Lord knows the truth. The Lord knows the way that you take, though you could not yourself describe that way. Some gracious people are slow of speech, and they have great difficulty in saying anything about their soul affairs. Another great mercy is, that God knows the way we take when we hardly know it ourselves. There are times with the true children of God when they cannot see their way, nor even take their bearings. Once more, remember that at this very moment God knows your way. He knows not only the way you have taken and the way you will take, but the way you are now choosing for yourself.
III. Thirdly, do you meet with trials in the way? Out of the many here present, not one has been quite free from sorrow. I think I hear one saying, Sir, I have had more trouble since I have been a Christian than I ever had before. These troubles are no token that you are in the wrong way. Job was in the right way, and the Lord knew it; and yet He suffered Job to be very fiercely tried. Consider that there are trials in all ways. Even the road to destruction, broad as it is, has not a path in it which avoids trial. Then, remember, the very brightest of the saints have been afflicted. We have, in the Bible, records of the lives of believers. Trials are no evidence of being without God, since trials come from God. Job says, When He hath tried me. He sees God in his afflictions. The devil actually wrought the trouble; but the Lord not only permitted it, but He had a design in it. Besides, according to the text, these trials are tests: When He hath tried me. The trials that came to Job were made to be proofs that the patriarch was real and sincere. Once more upon this point: if you have met with troubles, remember they will come to an end. The holy man in our text says, When He hath tried me. As much as to say, He will not always be doing it; there will come a time when He will have done trying me.
IV. Fourthly, have you confidence in God as to these storms? Can you say, in the language of the text, When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold? If you are really trusting in Jesus, if He is everything to you, you may say this confidently; for you will find it true to the letter. This confidence is grounded on the Lords knowledge of us. He knoweth the way that I take: therefore, when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. This confidence must be sustained by sincerity. If a man is not sure that he is sincere, he cannot have confidence in God. If you are a bit of gold and know it, the fire and you are friends. Once more he says, I shall come forth as gold. But how does that come forth? It comes forth proved. It has been assayed, and is now warranted pure. So shall you be. After the trial you will be able to say, Now! know that I fear God; now I know that God is with me, sustaining me; now! see that He has helped me, and I am sure that I am His. How does gold come forth? It comes forth purified. O child of God, you may decrease in bulk, but not in bullion! You may lose importance, but not innocence. You may not talk so big; but there shall be really more to talk of. And what a gain it is to lose dross! What gain to lose pride! What gain to lose self-sufficiency! Once more, how does gold come forth from the furnace? It comes forth ready for use. Now the goldsmith may take it, and make what he pleases of it. It has been through the fire, and the dross has been got away from it, and it is fit for his use. So, if you are on the way to heaven, and you meet with difficulties, they will bring you preparation for higher service; you will be a better and more useful man; you will be a woman whom God can more fully use to comfort others of a sorrowful spirit. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Sustaining consciousness of the soul in sorrow
I. That the great God was fully cognisant of His individual trial. He knoweth the way that I take. Wherever I am, at home or abroad, in solitude or society, He knoweth, etc. He knows the way I take–the way my thoughts take, my feelings take, my purposes take. But what support is there in the knowledge of this fact?
1. Gods knowledge of the individual sufferer is associated with the profoundest love. As a father pitieth his children, etc.
2. His knowledge is associated with an almighty capacity to help. The other sustaining fact of which he was conscious was–
II. That the great God was mercifully using his trials as discipline. When He hath tried me. Why does He try by affliction?
1. Not that He has any pleasure in our suffering. He doth not afflict willingly, etc. Nor–
2. That He may discover what is in our hearts. He knows all about us.
But He does it–
1. In order to humble us on account of our sins.
2. In order that we may feel our dependence on Him.
3. In order that we may commit ourselves entirely into His keeping.
III. That the great God would turn his painful discipline to his advantage. I shall come forth as gold, etc. Tribulation worketh patience, etc. But how does affliction benefit?
1. It serves to raise our appreciation of the Bible.
2. It serves to develop the powers of the mind. Davids afflictions brought out some of the most brilliant of his psalms.
3. It serves to develop the spiritual life.
4. It serves to detach us from the world. It gradually breaks down the materialism in which the soul is caged, and lets it flee into the open air and light of spiritual realms. (Homilist.)
When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.—
Confidence in God under affliction
The very life of religion is communion with God. Everything short of this is mere formality or superstition. Observe–
I. Jobs dignified appeal to the Divine knowledge. Charged with being disingenuous and deceitful, Job meekly but firmly refers to Him who tries the heart and the reins. He knoweth the way that I take. This expression implies–
1. Consciousness of integrity. The way he took was the way of truth, in opposition to error, deceit, and falsehood; the way of holiness, in opposition to sin; the way of faith, in opposition to self-dependence.
2. A persuasion of Divine superintendency. He knoweth. Job speaks of it as a fixed and settled principle in the Divine economy, that He knows, because He superintends, all the ways of His people.
3. Entire satisfaction with the Divine judgment. In the estimate which men form of our character, they may be misled by ignorance, or warped by prejudice. But with Him this is impossible.
II. Jobs enlightened view of the Divine conduct. When He hath tried me. This refers either to that scrutiny which he so much desired, or to the affliction with which he was so painfully exercised. Apply this trial–
1. To your faith. So the apostle applies it. To believe that God designs mercy while He inflicts punishment, and to rest satisfied that He will fulfil His covenant, when He seems to be annulling it, is indeed a trial of faith.
2. To your love. That this should be strong and glowing, when your peace is undisturbed, is not surprising. The more painful and protracted the affliction, the more strong and decided the trial.
3. To your resignation. For the exercise of this feeling, affliction is absolutely necessary. It implies a state of things opposed to our wishes. Resignation is the yielding of a will subordinated to the will of God.
4. To the grace of patience. Patience waits for deliverance, and refers the time, the manner, and the degree, to Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. For patience the name of Job has become proverbial.
III. Jobs cheerful expectation of the Divine goodness. I shall come forth as gold proved, purified, and declared. Learn, from this subject–
1. The special design of all the diversified afflictions with which the people of God are exercised. Is it not a design of which you must cordially approve?
2. Your special duty in affliction. To commit your way, and, in the exercise of faith and resignation and patience, to refer your cause to Him.
3. What should be your special concern if delivered from affliction? To ascertain if the result correspond with the design. (Essex Remembrancer.)
The crucible of experience
The greatness of the Book of Job, that which won for it from Carlyle the eulogium that it is the finest thing ever written with pen, consists in the clear light it throws upon human trial and its issues. It is a unique manual upon faith, not in a proposition, but in life itself, because life is in the hands of God and represents
Machinery just meant
To give thy soul its bent,
Try thee, and turn thee forth sufficiently impressed,
as Browning, with his glorious optimism, has said. It teaches us a faith as deep as life, and makes man a sovereign in the world by inspiring him with an indescribable trust in the order of things. To those who seriously study the drama of Job, nothing becomes more clear than the fact that it would be complete without its ending. Job might have died under his affliction. He might have succumbed after hearing the testimony embodied in my text. He would have passed to his rest a greater, stronger man than he was before his trials came upon him. He would have completed his career, bequeathing a healthier influence to posterity, leaving a more valuable legacy in the world, than he would have bestowed apart from trial. The Bible, with its high and healthy idea of manhood, recognises this fact, and sets it forth with great clearness. When dealing with the goods we come to possess and enjoy, it frequently reminds us that we brought nothing into the world, and will take nothing from it, except character; that the only legacy we can leave, determining its use according to our desires, is the legacy we leave through character. How true this is! We may be born to affluence only to live in idleness. We may amass wealth by toil, but we cannot control its uses among those who come after us. We have no determining influence in the matter. But it is different with the influence we radiate through character. The thoughts we think, the testimony we bear, the influences we exert, give us a hold upon life–a sovereignty therein that death cannot loosen. Browning, with fine spiritual insight, has called the world our university, and has thus signified that from stage to stage of our life we go towards the graduation of the soul. It is a Christian idea enforced by genius. In learning it we achieve the victory of spirit. Our soft and luxuriously materialistic age builds on happiness without that highest good of men and women. In any kind of adversity it cries out, where is God? and voices the cry of the fool. But the world is our university. Christ was crowned on the Cross, and we are all crowned as we share and accept the Cross. It is the condition of triumph. It is only when we are tried that we come forth as gold. Trial plays a large and beneficent part in life. It comes to us all very early.
1. It comes into the life of the young man and the woman just entering the world when their education is completed and their responsibility has begun. Up to the day of their departure from home their parents have fended for them, they have been nourished and protected and helped. They have received all the care bestowed upon them as a matter of course. And when they steer clear of the dear old home, the day which dawns upon them seems bleak and unpropitious. The mothers tenderness is left, the fathers advice is eliminated; they enter a world of strangers. They realise that they must depend upon themselves. Clouds gather upon the sky of their imagination, although these may be dispersed by worth. And just because that fact is true, those launched may realise that their new day is making them. Before it has long dawned they may have proved upon the pulses of their experience that they have begun to think, that they know what prudence is, not by reading about it, but by developing the virtue; by trial they know what life is, not by dreaming about it, but by endeavouring it. That experience involves trial, yet it is that which is amply justified in its issue. It gives an air of decision to us. It calls our manhood and womanhood into a new dignity. But darker days follow, which must also be measured according to the standard of a worthy faith. There are, for instance, those days when the old home is broken up, when those at its head are called into the unseen, and a desolation is made around us; when they constitute a fellowship our imagination cannot picture, but our hearts must ever affirm. It is an indescribable loss to have to sacrifice the reverend members of a true home. And yet we are not to be pitied. In such conditions God opens up a new opportunity for us. He teaches us initiative. All the seriousness, all the wisdom, all the tenderness in our natures are evolved. We become ministers to men and women, not by choice, but by necessity. When this experience is granted to men and women, their thoughtful contemporaries remark that while God is making a desolation about them He is at the same time endowing them with grandeur of character. And again the words are verified, He knoweth the way that I shall take; when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. The trials to which I have alluded are entirely good. It is good that we should have to go out into the world and learn responsibility by fighting for ourselves. It is good that one generation should pass and another inherit the problems of its representatives. The forms of trial which I have noticed so far are altogether good; but there are other forms. Many have to battle with adversity; some have to bear the burden of sickness; others have to experience ingratitude, and yet the issue of these forms of trial is still good rather than evil. We may say so without any shallow optimism. There is benefit in adversity, in whatever form it may reach us. Shakespeare, with his clear insight and large outlook, has said, Sweet are the uses of adversity. And Seneca has spoken words that deserve to be written in gold on this point: No man knows his own strength or valour but by being put to the proof. The pilot is tried in a storm, the soldier in a battle, the rich man knows not how to behave himself in poverty. He that has lived only in popularity and applause knows not how he would bear infamy and reproach. Calamity is the occasion of virtue, and a spur to a great mind. Very many times a calamity turns to our advantage, and great ruins have made way to great glories. Prudence and religion are above accidents, and draw good out of everything. Affliction keeps a man in use and makes him strong, patient and hardy. God loves us with a masculine love and turns us loose to injuries and indignities. He takes delight to see a good and brave man wrestling with evil fortune, and yet keeping himself upon his legs when the whole world is in disorder about him. No man can be happy that does not stand firm against all contingencies, and say to himself in all extremities, I should have been content if it might have been so and so, but since it is otherwise determined, God will provide better. How wise and strong these words of the Stoic are. It is a stern world in which we live, even although it is kind. The price of free rational life is suffering up to man; and even in humanity itself, through lower to higher natures; while the justification of suffering is progress. What made you a Skald? says a king in one of Ibsens plays, to a poet. Sorrow, sire, the Skald answered. Adversity only baffles us for the moment, and when we struggle with it, we find that we have been baffled to fight better. All the best men and women of whom we read in former generations, and all the best men and women we know in our own generation, have battled bravely with life, and have gained character in the struggle, have proved, upon the pulses of their experience, the wisdom of Shakespeares words, that the uses of adversity are sweet. They have no quarrel with life. But there is another form of trial, that which comes to us through sickness, when it seems laid like a kind of fetter upon the mind. Our generation is resonant with the echoes of cheap pessimisms, and perhaps nothing is regarded as justifying these more than human suffering. Why does it exist in the world at all? Where is God? What is the good of life? So we read, so we hear. But the significant thing is that the people who so speak and write are not the sufferers themselves–not even when they have the gift of genius, with its great capacity for suffering. They show to us invariably, how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong. Who illustrated this fact better than the late Louis Stevenson, in his brave fight with encroaching death? He of all men had good reason to affirm that this is of all the worst possible world. Yet of this very tendency he writes in one of his inimitable essays: We are accustomed, in these days, to a great deal of puling over the circumstances in which we are placed. The great refinement of many poetical gentlemen has rendered them practically unfit for the jostling and ugliness of life, and they record their unfitness at a considerable length. Young gentlemen, with three or four hundred a year of private means, look down from a pinnacle of doleful experience, on all the grown and hearty men who have dared to say a good word for life. Stevenson suggests that the pessimists of our day are not the children of sorrow, but rather epicures of their own emotions, who prate of a sorrow which they have not known. Sorrow is silent. Sorrow is a fast of Gods own appointing, and when men and women really enter upon it, they can say with Christ, Thy will be done. They know that God is trying them in order that He may turn them forth as gold. There is the trial of ingratitude. That seems hardest of all to bear. To do good and call forth evil instead of responsive sympathy. To love, but yet in vain: that nearly breaks the heart. So we say. But is it really so? Does it not really make the heart? The late Principal Caird, in his lectures on the fundamental ideas of Christianity, finds in the distinctive Christian doctrines sanction for the thought that in the nature of God there is a capacity of condescending love, of boundless pity and forgiveness, yea, with reverence be it said, of pain and sorrow and sacrifice for the salvation of finite souls; a capacity which has been and could only be revealed and realised through the sorrow and sin of the world. It is profoundly true, mans need is Gods opportunity. And it is true in human as in Divine relations. Those who bare vexed us most, those who have tried us in the hardest sense., have often enabled us to realise ourselves in a way we could not have done had they not crossed our path. And these testimonies are verified in the action of our Lord and His great apostle. It was when the agony of Gethsemane and the bitterness of the Cross were drawing near, when He knew that men had rejected Him, that our Lord said His Father loved Him because He laid down His life. It was of Israel, from which he was an outcast on account of his apostleship, and by whose representatives he was persecuted daily, that Paul said, I could wish that myself were accursed for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites. Under the influence of these testimonies, and in the light of these facts, we learn that even the ingratitude which wounds love, makes man, and enables him to bear witness to that deepest and grandest element in his experience which Shelley recognised when he called him the Pilgrim of Eternity. And that also is growth. Under such experiences man is still tried, that he may come forth as gold. How much we owe to men who have been tried in life, and who have proved worthy under their tests! The lords of literature have been in the crucible of experience. Dantes immortal work is the epic of the Middle Ages, and is full of winged words and seminal thoughts which stimulate our spirits, and fructify in us still. It grew out of the experience of a man of sad, lone spirit, the son of mental pain. The lords of literature have been tried that they might come forth as gold. But these immortals are not the only beings who have been refined and perfected in the crucible of experience. We can find those who have benefited in this way in every walk of life. The picture of the radiant young man or woman full of unspoiled powers, and surrounded by unused opportunities is fascinating. But it pales before the picture of the man or woman fashioned more grandly in the stress of life; and sometimes when, in awful cases, ministrant men and women are needed, people who can say the right word to the anguished and give them peace, or who can lift the suffering out of pain, you shall note that they are those with faces lined with sufferings which are past, and full of peace that has been conquered. These are the final argument, that in the crucible of experience we are tried that we may come forth as gold. They stand round Christ, the Head of our humanity, and augment that river of life which, having its origin in His transcendent sacrifice, streams through our religion, our philosophy, our literature, and our life, and brings the healing of the nations. As we consider them, as the light of their witness falls across our path, faith in life is generated in our hearts. Thus in the power of God we rival nature. The heavens declare Gods glory, and the firmament showeth forth His handiwork from season to season. The stars shine in winter and summer, before and after the storm. So they provoke the men and women who tell their number, and who weigh them, to behave. That is the role of the lords of life, and Christ came, and abides among us, that we might assume it and triumph therein. Life should not impoverish but enrich us. Through all its vicissitudes there should be abounding and abiding glory in the firmament of our experience. (F. A. Russell.)
Gods deeper good
During the week that has passed since our service of last Sunday morning, more than one friend of mine has spoken to me about the teaching which was given from this pulpit. One of them half jocularly addressed me in this fashion: Did I truly understand you to say that you could wish for your friends adversity rather than prosperity? Because, if so, I cannot say that that is what I should wish for you, or, indeed, for any of human kind; and were I endowed with omnipotence I certainly should not employ what you call Gods evil as an experience for the righteous. My friends statement contains a good deal of what is common or popular feeling in respect to that insoluble subject, the mystery of evil; but as his particular statement contains so much that the ordinary right living man feels to be a just statement of his perplexity in regard to Gods dealings with him, I must return to that subject this morning. To begin with, I must say that my general statement that for my friends I could wish adversity rather than prosperity ought, perhaps, to be differently phrased. Then I am sure there would be no difference of opinion between me and anyone present. I would rather state it thus,–For my friend I could rather wish the fruit of adversity when adversity achieves its highest in the human soul. Let me put to you a rhetorical question, the answer to which will be in your mind and heart as I put it. Suppose you had to live your life over again, there is not one of you who would wish to live through just the same set of experiences as you have already had. You could wish that the dark days and the times of deep sorrow might not come again, but I am perfectly sure that you would wish you might have the results of those experiences, without the history. Then I think we are agreed to say that the best we could wish for our friend is that which we actually know from experience comes only hand in hand with adversity, that adversity succeeds in achieving the highest, though we might not wish for him the pain of the adversity itself. If I were endowed with omnipotence, my friend, your pathway would always be fair; and yet if adversity were the necessary price to pay, and if I knew it must be paid for making you the noble man you are, then I would let adversity come upon you with all its might. But the objection of my friend strikes deeper. It amounts to this–Gods ways are inexplicable. It is the righteous and not simply the guilty that have to suffer as the world is now organised. We could understand His dealing if the inevitable sequence of wrong-doing were pain, but we fail to understand it when the righteous man suffers equally and indiscriminately with the guilty. Moreover, is it not often that Gods sternness causes moral harm rather than moral good? I understand the feeling that is behind an utterance of that kind. It means this–If I were God I would make the world differently. There, I think, I have stated our friends real meaning with perfect frankness. Now, allow me to say that when we talk about evil as an intruder, we are, in nine cases out of ten, obscuring the issue which is really present to our mind. Good has not yet come. Evil is relative, negative, primitive. Our experience of what is evil is our conception of an absent good, and the fact that we can see a thing is evil is in some way a promise of a coming good. Let us leave it there. Your generous impulse to say if you had the power evil would be excluded from the world, is really some sort of prophecy of what God intends to do. Now, there has never been given a good and sufficient answer to this urgent question of the human heart. It is the old, old theme, the theme from the Book of Job from which I have taken my text this morning. But I venture to think, though no complete answer has ever come, the answer is that submission to the will of God introduces us to a harmonious experience. Observe the theme of the book from whence our wondrous text is taken. Job, the central character, appears as a righteous man who is yet a sufferer; but he is not a sufferer for any worthy cause for which a man might be glad to suffer, nor apparently is he a sufferer giving any striking testimony on behalf of a noble cause. Many such testimonies have been given, and have robbed martyrdom of its agony. But Job is made a sufferer without seeing why, and is it any wonder that he feels that his suffering cannot be a punishment for his offences? He asserts his own righteousness, not in any arrogant fashion, and not as though God had no fault to find with him. He says, This sternness in Gods dealing with me cannot be the fruit of my own wrongly lived life. His friends defend God and say that Job is being righteously chastised; and the writer of the book, one of the oldest books in the Bible, has it before him to show that the righteous man, though afflicted, is more righteous than those who defend Gods judgments upon him. Jobs reply and its wonderful insight are expressed in the words of the text, He knoweth the way that I take, what does human judgment matter to me? He knoweth the way that I have been living, uprightly, in the fear of God, dealing honourably with men. Then Job says that he had lived righteously, and his pain was in no sense his own desert. He knoweth the way that I am taking with my life; when He hath tried me, my innocence shall shine out. I am not sure whether we are entitled to read into the text that Jobs faith rose to a higher altitude there and affirmed that as the outcome of what God hath done I shall be a better man, a deeper nature, nobler, stronger, wiser. Perhaps he did not mean that, but it is at least open to that interpretation to my that he did. When He hath tried me, not only will my innocence shine out as gold and show that God is not punishing me, but rather fashioning me; not only will mine innocence shine out, but my nobleness will be beaten out and gained and won. Now we will never get any nearer to the solution of the problem of what we have called Gods evil, and which I now call Gods deeper good, than that. Here I pause to read to you an experience, the experience of a young man, it is true, but not, I venture to think, a crude one. Humanity at its highest, I mean its highest point of spiritual knowledge, has never got higher than this, which is from Mr. John Morleys Life of Gladstone, and the passage from which I quote is one of Arthur Hallams letters written to his friend Mr. Gladstone when both were at Oxford. Mr. Morley, commenting on it lower down, says that of course it is a young mans way of looking at an old problem, but you will admit that he got very near the solution of the problem. The great truth which, when we are rightly impressed with it, will liberate mankind, is, that no man has a right to isolate himself, because every man is a particle of a marvellous whole; that when he suffers, since it is for the good of that whole, he, the particle, has no right to complain, and in the long run, that which is the good of all will abundantly manifest itself to be the good of each. Other belief consists not with theism. This is its centre. Let me quote to this purpose the words of my favourite poet. It will do us good to hear his voice, though but for a moment. Then he quotes from Wordsworths Excursion the lines well known probably to everyone as well as to myself–
One adequate support
For the calamities of mortal life
Exists–one only: an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, howeer
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power,
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good.
I know not whether Mr. Morley could himself subscribe to that, but from words of his own, used later in the book, I almost feel that he could. He is speaking of Mr. Gladstones view, I think, of the work of Napoleon, and comparing it with that of worthier servants of destiny. He says, Our work is to use the part given us to use, to use the parts that go to make up the life, and to use them with a feeling of the whole. Now that is the point that I wish to emphasise most expressly in your hearing. We do not live for ourselves. I am quite of those who think that if Gods only purpose in the disciplining of mankind were to produce noble character we might be fairly entitled to say to Him, Then you might have produced it in some other way. God could. It is not beyond His power. God could make a noble man without sending him through the furnace. But if it be true that we are only a little corner in the life of the universe, living not our own, but the life of the whole, and if it be true that we are living, not simply for ourselves but for God, it adds a dignity to our conception of our destiny. And, though I preach confidently in this way an optimism, I trust I do not preach it superficially or crudely. I do not preach an optimism because I ignore the dangers and the possibilities of a pessimism, nor because I possess no acquaintance with the darker side of life, but the optimism of the Christ is mine. Did Jesus ever act or speak as though He would ignore the seamy side of existence? We lesser beings, following feebly and haltingly in the steps of Jesus Christ, must try to see with His eyes even from our Calvary when it comes, and it is not Calvary all the time, and to believe, nay to be sure that in our Fathers hands are all our ways. God will care for the least as for the greatest. We are not only instruments in His hands, every one of us is also an end. I would add to this one or two reflections with which I close.
1. The first is that if you could see things as they really are, there would be no trouble, nor care, nor fear left in your experience. It is just because you cannot see that these things seem to dominate your life. Faith is eminently reasonable in that it lifts the soul to an altitude whence it can take a calm and wide view of existence as a whole. Faith is an approximation to seeing things as they are. Life to many of us seems like a dream. In a dream we take a distorted view of realities which in our waking life do enter into our experience, but not as we dream them. It is the limitation that makes the mystery, the limitation in greatest part it is which is the failure.
2. Then I would say also this–pain is not an end in itself. That is the mistake of asceticism. When it is misapprehended it crushes men and does them harm. Pain is simply a means to an end, and its culmination must be joy if God is just. Pain is not the end, it is only the beginning, it is the creaking of the door as it is opened into heaven. We are helping God, do not let us forget that for a moment, and our consciousness of helping Him begets a harmony here and now. We are not left unto ourselves all the time. Some of our best service is done by suffering. But lest I leave you with a morbid impression in your mind, I would remind you of this, that struggle and discipline and battle and defeat sometimes do not take interest from life at all, they add zest to it. We ought to be thankful that God gives us the opportunity of playing the hero, of being a man; and we feel somehow–although we cannot make it clear in syllogistic fashion, for there is something higher than logic–day by day, in the small things as well as in the great things of life, we feel somehow that the universe is rightly organised, and victory is made possible in Godlike fashion for the children of God. Now, before I close I want to make you feel that what I am saying is real–I know it is, but I never could demonstrate this, and never will be able to do it. When we get down to the deeper good we find it is always purchased, as the highest Christian experience is and always has been, by the willing acceptance of the Cross. Let every man say as he thinks of Gods dealings with him today, He knoweth the way that I take, and mean to take. I cannot see, yet I will be true. He knoweth all the time. He shall find me pure gold. I will be true to the best He has shown me, I will not fail my Heavenly Friend. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. And He will not destroy, for the Lord is mindful of His own. (R. J. Campbell, M. A.)
On affliction
1. The best saints have in them a mixture of dross.
2. Trials, and sometimes fiery trials, are necessary to separate the dross from the gold. God has various methods of trying mankind.
3. The prospect of being benefited and brightened by affliction, reconciles believers to the severest of trials. Tribulation worketh patience. Patience worketh experience. Experience worketh hope. It may be that we are so often afflicted, because we have so much dross, that requires the fire, and many times a fierce fire, to separate it from the metal. (S. Lavington.)
The purification of the mind by troubles and trials
The afflictions of life, though often grievous enough in themselves, become much more so by that state of doubt and perplexity into which the mind of the sufferer is brought by them. He is tempted to despair, as thinking God has forsaken him; or to impiety, as imagining there can be no God who governs the world in wisdom and righteousness. In such a case, a wrong notion of human life is at the bottom of those desponding and murmuring thoughts, which arise in our hearts, on finding ourselves encompassed and oppressed by a larger share than ordinary of its cares and troubles. We look not forward as we ought to do. This life is no more than a preparation for another. There is no need to prove that this life is a state of trial. In general, we sink under temptation, because we do not sufficiently accustom ourselves to expect, and are therefore unprepared to encounter it. With this idea–that the present life is a state of trial–firmly impressed upon our minds, we should then stand armed for the fight, and by Divine assistance be enabled to overcome. Of the temptations or trials to which we are subject, some proceed from without, and others from within. The world endeavours at one time to seduce, at another to terrify us from the performance of our duty. Another source of trouble and uneasiness is that produced by the cross tempers, untoward dispositions, and other failings of those about us. Other trials have their origin from within, from the frame, or constitution either of body or mind. Either sickness or melancholy. Time would fail to enumerate all the different temptations that arise in our minds. They are as many and as various as our different passions and propensities, each of which will, at times, strive for the mastery, and all of which are to be kept, with a strong and steady hand, in due subordination and obedience. (J. Horne.)
Saints compared to gold
I. Gold is generally found buried in the earth, mixed with sand or other material, and therefore requires to be dug out and separated from those materials. So Christians have been taken out from the elements of this world. They have been hewn from natures quarry by the hammer of Gods Word and made separate (Eph 2:1, etc.).
II. Gold, though regarded as a pure metal, has yet some dross in it. At the same time, there is not any metal more free from dross and rust than gold. Christians, though holy and precious to God, are not without sin; there is some dross of corruption in the best of them.
III. Gold is refined in the fire, by which it is rendered pure, solid, and strong. Christians are put into the fire, or furnace of affliction, to purge and to refine them from their dross (Zec 13:9; 1Pe 4:12-13; 1Pe 1:7).
IV. Gold is precious. It is esteemed the most valuable on earth. Hence things of very great value are in the Scriptures represented by gold. Christians are a precious people, the excellent ones in all the earth. God esteems them as His portion.
V. Gold is very pliant. You may bend and work it as you please. So are Christians. God having infused His grace into their hearts, they have hearts of flesh; and God, by putting them into the fire, makes them more resigned and teachable, while others rebel and repine.
VI. Gold, though it be frequently put in the furnace, loses nothing but the dross. The fire purifies it and cannot destroy its precious nature. However fierce and raging the flames, gold retains its excellency. So the people of God endure the trial. They are not burned up or consumed in the furnace of affliction, though heated sevenfold.
VII. Gold is often formed into vessels for the pleasure, honour, and use of princes. So God forms His people for most excellent service–vessels of honour to hold the treasure of the Gospel, to communicate it to others (2Co 4:7), and are stewards of the Gospel.
VIII. To obtain gold, men endure much fatigue, losses, sacrifices, etc. So Jesus Christ endured great pain and loss for His people. He laid down His life for them.
IX. Gold is useful. It is that by which we obtain what is essential for life, etc. So Christians are useful–in their families, neighbourhood, to the world at large. They seek the salvation of sinners and the glory of God. The purposes of God, in reference to the diffusion of His glory in the world, will not be affected without them. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. But he knoweth the way that I take] He approves of my conduct; my ways please him. He tries me: but, like gold, I shall lose nothing in the fire; I shall come forth more pure and luminous. If that which is reputed to be gold is exposed to the action of a strong fire, if it be genuine, it will lose nothing of its quality, nor of its weight. If it went into the fire gold, it will come out gold; the strongest fire will neither alter nor destroy it. So Job: he went into this furnace of affliction an innocent, righteous man; he came out the same. His character lost nothing of its value, nothing of its lustre.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But, though I cannot see him, yet my comfort is, that he seeth me and my heart, and all my actions. Or, for, as this particle commonly signifies. So this verse contains a reason why he so vehemently desired that he might plead his cause with or before God.
He knoweth the way that I take; he cannot be deceived nor blinded, either by the artifices of bold accusers or advocates, or by his own misapprehensions or passions, but he exactly knows the way that is with me, i.e. the disposition of my heart, and the whole course or manner of my life.
When he hath tried me; if he would examine me thoroughly, which above all things I desire.
I shall come forth as gold; which cometh out of the furnace pure from all dross. It would appear upon a fair hearing that I am free, though not from all sin, as he had confessed before, yet from that hypocrisy and those gross enormities wherewith my friends charge me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Butcorrecting himself forthe wish that his cause should be known before God. The omniscientOne already knoweth the way in me (my inwardprinciples: His outward way or course of acts is mentioned inJob 23:11. So in me,Job 4:21); though for someinscrutable cause He as yet hides Himself (Job 23:8;Job 23:9).
whenlet Him only buttry my cause, I shall, &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But he knoweth the way that I take,…. This he seems to say in a way of solace to himself, comforting and contenting himself, that though he could not find God, nor knew where he was, or what way he took, nor the reasons of his ways and dispensations with the children of men, and with himself, yet God knew where he was, and what way he took; by which he means either the way he took, being directed to it for his acceptance with God, his justification before him, and eternal salvation; which was his living Redeemer, he looked unto by faith for righteousness and eternal life: or rather the way and manner of life he took to, the course of his conversation, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, in the paths of piety and truth, of righteousness and holiness; and this God knew not barely by his omniscience, as he knows all the ways of men, good and bad; his eyes are upon them, lie compasses them, and is thoroughly acquainted with them; but by way of approbation, he approved of it, and was well pleased with it, it being so agreeable to his revealed will, so pure and holy; thus the Lord knows the way of the righteous, Ps 1:6;
[when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold; as pure as gold, as free from dross as that, appear quite innocent of the charges brought against him, and shine in his integrity. He was as valuable and precious as gold, as all God’s people are in his esteem, however reckoned of by others; they are precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold; not that they have any intrinsic, worth in themselves, they are in no wise the better than others by nature; but through the grace of God bestowed on them, which is as gold tried in the fire; and through the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, which is gold of Ophir, and clothing of wrought gold; and, on account of both, they are like a mass of gold, and are the chosen of God, and precious: this gold he tries, the Lord trieth the righteous; and which he does by afflictive providences; he puts them into the furnace of affliction, which is the fiery trial to try them; and hereby their graces are tried, their faith, hope, love, patience, c. their principles and doctrines they embrace, whether they are gold, silver, and precious stones, or whether wood, hay, and stubble the fire tries every man’s work, of what sort it is, and whether they will abide by them and their profession also, whether they will adhere to it; and by this means he purges away their dross and tin, and they come out of the furnace as pure gold in great lustre and brightness, as those in Re 7:13; now Job was in this furnace and trying; and he was confident that, as he should come out of it, he should appear to great advantage, pure and spotless; though it may be he may have respect to his trial at the bar of justice, where he desired to be tried, and be brought under the strictest examination; and doubted not but he should be acquitted, and shine as bright as gold; nay, these words may be given as a reason why God would not be found by him as his Judge to try his cause, because he knew his uprightness and integrity, and that he must go from him acquitted and discharged; and therefore, for reasons unknown to him, declined the judging of him; to this purpose Jarchi interprets the words, which may be rendered, “for he knoweth the way that I take” a; and therefore will not be seen by me, nor appear to judge me: “he hath tried me”; again and again, and has seen the integrity of my heart, as Sephorno interprets it, and well knows my innocence; see Ps 17:3; and if he would try me again, “I shall come forth as gold”; quite clear of all charges and imputations; I am able to stand the strictest scrutiny: this he said as conscious of his uprightness, and of his strict regard to the ways and word of God, as follows; but this was a bold saying, and an unbecoming expression of his to God; and of which he afterwards was ashamed and repented, when God appeared and spoke to him out of the whirlwind.
a “quia”, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Piscator, Michaelis; “nam”, Tigurine version, Cocceius, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
10 For He knoweth the way that is with me:
If He should prove me, I should come forth as gold.
11 My foot held firm to His steps;
His way I kept, and turned not aside.
12 The command of His lips – I departed not from it;
More than my own determination I kept the words of His mouth.
13 Yet He remaineth by one thing, and who can turn Him?
And He accomplisheth what His soul desireth.
That which is not merely outwardly, but inwardly with ( ) any one, is that which he thinks and knows (his consciousness), Job 9:35; Job 15:9, or his willing and acting, Job 10:13; Job 27:11: he is conscious of it, he intends to do it; here, Job 23:10, is intended in the former sense, in Job 23:14 in the latter. The “way with me” is that which his conscience ( ) approves ( ); comp. Psychol. S. 134. This is known to God, so that he who is now set down as a criminal would come forth as tried gold, in the event of God allowing him to appear before Him, and subjecting him to judicial trial. is the praet. hypotheticum so often mentioned, which is based upon the paratactic character of the Hebrew style, as Gen 44:22; Rth 2:9; Zec 13:6; Ges. 155, 4, a. His foot has held firmly
(Note: On , Carey correctly observes, and it explains the form of the expression: 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.)
to the steps of God ( , together with , Job 31:7, from Piel, to go on), so that he was always close behind Him as his predecessor ( ( ro synon. , Psa 17:5; Pro 5:5). He guarded, i.e., observed His way, and turned not aside ( fut. apoc. Hiph. in the intransitive sense of deflectere , as e.g., Psa 125:5).
In Job 23:12, precedes as cas. absolutus (as respects the command of His lips); and what is said in this respect follows with Waw apod. (= Arab. f) without the retrospective pronoun (which is omitted for poetic brevity). On this prominence of a separate notion after the manner of an antecedent. The Hiph. , like , Job 23:11, and , Pro 4:21, is not causative, but simply active in signification. In Job 23:12 the question arises, whether is one expression, as in Job 17:4, in the sense of “hiding from another,” or whether is comparative. In the former sense Hirz. explains: I removed the divine will from the possible ascendancy of my own. But since is familiar to the poet in the sense of preserving and laying by ( ( y , treasures, Job 20:26), it is more natural to explain, according to Psa 119:11: I kept the words (commands) of Thy mouth, i.e., esteemed them high and precious, more than my statute, i.e., more than what my own will prescribed for me.
(Note: Wetzstein arranges the significations of as follows: – 1. (Beduin) intr. fut. i, to contain one’s self, to keep still (hence in Hebr. to lie in wait), to be rapt in thought; conjug. II. c. acc. pers. to make any one thoughtful, irresolute. 2. (Hebr.) trans. fut. o, to keep anything to one’s self, to hold back, to keep to one’s self; Niph. to be held back, i.e., either concealed or reserved for future use. Thus we see how, on the one hand, is related to , e.g., Job 20:26 (Arab. itmaanna , to be still); and, on the other, can interchange with in the signification designare (comp. Job 15:22 with Job 15:20; Job 21:19), and to spy, lie in wait (comp. Psa 10:8; Psa 56:7; Pro 1:11, Pro 1:18, with Psa 37:32).)
The meaning is substantially the same; the lxx, which translates ( ), which Olsh. considers to be “perhaps correct,” destroys the significance of the confession. Hirz. rightly refers to the “law in the members,” Rom 7:23: is the expression Job uses for the law of the sinful nature which strives against the law of God, the wilful impulse of selfishness and evil passion, the law which the apostle describes as , in distinction from the ( Psychol. S. 379). Job’s conscience can give him this testimony, but He, the God who so studiously avoids him, remains in one mind, viz., to treat him as a criminal; and who can turn Him from His purpose? (the same question as Job 9:12; Job 11:10); His soul wills it ( stat pro ratione voluntas ), and He accomplishes it. Most expositors explain permanet in uno in this sense; the Beth is the usual with verbs of entering upon and persisting in anything. Others, however, take the as Beth essentiae : He remains one and the same, viz., in His conduct towards me (Umbr., Vaih.), or: He is one, is alone, viz., in absolute majesty (Targ. Jer.; Schult., Ew., Hlgst., Schlottm.), which is admissible, since this Beth occurs not only in the complements of a sentence (Psa 39:7, like a shadow; Isa 48:10, after the manner of silver; Psa 55:19, in great number; Psa 35:2, as my help), but also with the predicate of a simple sentence, be it verbal (Job 24:13; Pro 3:26) or substantival (Exo 18:4; Psa 118:7). The same construction is found also in Arabic, where, however, it is more frequent in simple negative clauses than in affirmative (vid., Psalter, i. 272). The assertion: He is one (as in the primary monotheistic confession, Deu 6:4), is, however, an expression for the absoluteness of God, which is not suited to this connection; and if is intended to be understood of the unchangeable uniformity of His purpose concerning Job, the explanation: versatur (perstat) in uno , Arab. hua fi wahidin , is not only equally, but more natural, and we therefore prefer it.
Here again God appears to Job to be his enemy. His confidence towards God is again overrun by all kinds of evil, suspicious thoughts. He seems to him to be a God of absolute caprice, who punishes where there is no ground for punishment. There is indeed a phrase of the abiding fact which he considers superior to God and himself, both being conceived of as contending parties; and this phase God avoids, He will not hear it. Into this vortex of thoughts, as terrible as they are puerile, Job is hurried forward by the persuasion that his affliction is a decree of divine justice. The friends have greatly confirmed him in this persuasion; so that his consciousness of innocence, and the idea of God as inflicting punishment, are become widely opposite extremes, between which his faith is hardly able to maintain itself. It is not his affliction in itself, but this persuasion, which precipitates him into such a depth of conflict, as the following strophe shows.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Third strophe Job is no less assured of the integrity of his life than of the absolute certainty that God will not turn aside from his purpose when once it is formed, Job 23:10-13.
10. The way that I take The margin is more exact, the way that is with me; that is, that has become habitual to me. (Dillmann.) Laws of habit soon make the way of righteousness, no less than the path of iniquity, easy to our feet and one with our nature.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 474
THE UPRIGHT PERSONS COMFORT UNDER AFFLICTIONS
Job 23:10. He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
THE superior happiness of the godly above that of the ungodly is not so manifest in a season of prosperity as under circumstances of deep affliction. The world can rejoice in their portion as long as their pleasures are uninterrupted by bitter reflections or painful dispensations: but in trouble they have no refuge. The righteous, on the contrary, have less of thoughtless gaiety; but in time of trouble they find abundant consolations. No man was ever beset with a greater complication of trials than Job; all of which were beyond measure heightened by the uncharitable censures of his friends: but still he found an inward support by reflecting upon,
I.
His conscious integrity
It is characteristic of Gods children, that they are all upright before God
[As there is a very considerable difference in the attainments of different men with respect to bodily strength and intellectual powers, notwithstanding all possess the same members and enjoy the same faculties, so is there with respect to piety also, notwithstanding all are upright in heart. From the very instant that a person is converted to God, he must of necessity hate sin, and long after a conformity to Gods image: he cannot commit sin [Note: 1Jn 3:9.]; he must be, according to the measure of grace given him, an Israelite indeed, and without allowed guile. Nor does humility require us to confess ourselves hypocrites (wilful hypocrites, I mean) when God has quickened us by his Spirit; for it is not humility, but ingratitude and falsehood, to deny the work which God has wrought in us. Many of Gods most eminent saints have spoken of their own integrity and rejoiced in it, and even pleaded it before God [Note: Psa 17:2. 2Ki 20:3.]. And we also, by proving every one of us our own work, may have rejoicing in ourselves, and not in another [Note: Gal 6:4.].]
A consciousness of their own integrity is a rich source of consolation to them in a trying hour
[There are times and seasons when almost all the other springs of comfort seem dried up: sometimes it may be painful even to reflect upon God [Note: Psa 77:3.]. Job acknowledges in the context, that Gods presence was a trouble to him: but knowing that God was acquainted with his heart, he could yet appeal to him respecting his own integrity: and from this source he derived a pleasing satisfaction, an encouraging hope. St. Paul, under a daily and hourly expectation of martyrdom, experienced much joy in the same thought [Note: 2Co 1:8-12.]: nor shall we find it a small consolation to us, under any trials we may be called to endure.]
But Job found a yet further consolation in reflecting upon,
II.
The expected issue of his trials
Though he was at present in as hot a furnace as he could possibly endure, yet he believed that he was put into it by a skilful Refiner, for the purifying of his soul from dross
[They who are truly upright, learn to view the hand of God both in their comforts and their troubles: they know that affliction comes not by chance, but from the hand of Him who directs every thing with consummate wisdom. The ungodly look no further than to second causes; and therefore yield to murmuring and impatience whenever they receive evil from the hand of their fellow-creatures: but the godly are persuaded that their portion, whatever it be, is mixed for them by God himself, and that it is intended to purge away their iniquity, that they may be partakers of his holiness [Note: Psa 39:9. Isa 27:9. Heb 12:10.]. This was evidently the view which Job had of troubles, notwithstanding they sprang from such various sources.]
An expectation of the benefit reconciled him to the means used for his good
[No one can love trouble on its own account; since it is never joyous, but grievous. But sanctification is the highest wish of the upright soul: it is regarded as a pearl that cannot be purchased at too high a price. Trials, however painful, are welcomed, if they may but be the means of promoting this blessed end. Many have even dreaded the removal of them, lest with them they should lose also the benefits flowing from them. And, if we could have viewed the afflictions of Job in their true light, we should have preferred his condition when upon the dunghill far before that of his censorious friends. He was enabled to look forward to the end; and the event fully justified his expectations.]
Address,
1.
Those who are in the furnace of affliction
[Look above all second causes, and see God appointing the nature, measure, and duration of all your trials [Note: 2Sa 16:10.]. He brings the third part through the fire; and appoints tribulation as your way to the kingdom. Let him accomplish his own will in his own way; and what ye know not now, ye shall know hereafter.]
2.
Those who have been delivered from their troubles
[When you were bowed down under the load of your afflictions, you probably thought how differently you would live if God should hear your prayers, and deliver you. Now then remember the vows that are upon you [Note: Psa 66:10-15; Psa 116:1-14.]. Provoke him not to visit you with yet heavier afflictions. As clouds succeed the rain, so do troubles come in succession while we are in this vale of tears. Endeavour then so to improve the past, that future troubles may find you better prepared for their reception, and every dispensation fit you for your eternal rest.]
3.
Those who have never yet experienced any particular trials
[A little outward religion will satisfy you in a state of case and prosperity. But that will not be found sufficient in a time of trouble. The fire will try what your attainments are. Now therefore be in earnest about the work of salvation, that when affliction comes, it may be mitigated by the consolations of an upright mind, and not be aggravated by the accusations of a guilty conscience.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(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 his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
How delightful it is to observe, both the Old and the New Testament confirming this blessed truth, that the issue of the trial of GOD’S children, was never doubtful. It must work for good, and therefore it is more precious than gold that perisheth. 1Pe 1:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (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.
Ver. 10. But he knoweth the way that I take ] Heb. That is with me. He perfectly understandeth that there is no way of wickedness in me, Psa 139:24 , no sin that I do favour, allow, and wallow in; but that the way that is called Holy is my delight and endeavour; that I am upright for the main, that my heart is not turned back, neither have my steps declined from his way, Psa 44:18 . I cannot see him, but he seeth me, and mine uprightness.
When he hath tried me
I shall come forth as gold
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
take: or choose.
when he hath: or, if He would.
shall = should.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Job 23:10-17
Job 23:10-17
JOB’S UTMOST CONFIDENCE IN HIS OWN INTEGRITY
“But he knoweth the way that I take;
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to his steps;
His way have I kept, and turned not aside.
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.
But he is in one mind, and who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth, that he doeth.
For he performed that which is appointed for me:
And many such things are with him.
Therefore am I terrified at his presence;
When I consider, I am afraid of him.
For God hath made my heart faint,
And the Almighty hath terrified me;
Because I was not cut off before the darkness,
Neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.”
Job’s absolute confidence in his uprightness, integrity, and faithfulness to God appears in every line of this. Some of the expressions here elude us, as to their exact meaning; but as Kelly noted, “This chapter, and from here to the end of Job, there are difficulties for translators. The Hebrew text is often uncertain.”
“In this chapter, Job’s confidence in his vindication appears firmer than ever.”
“I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10). Where was there ever any greater certainty than this? In view of the epic nature of Job’s great trial, it is amazing, even yet that he held to this confidence.
“I have not gone back from his commandment” (Job 23:12). In every dispensation of God’s grace, there is constant emphasis upon God’s commandments. Not even the blessed grace of the New Dispensation has removed obedience as a prerequisite of eternal life. The Head of our Holy Religion said, “If thou wouldest enter into life, KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS” (Mat 19:17). The present-day Christian should beware of the current bombardment by Satan to the effect that, “The grace of God alone saves us; obedience is not necessary.”
“When I consider, I am afraid of Him” (Job 23:15). It is only the fool who is unafraid of God. “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Pro 9:10).”
E.M. Zerr:
Job 23:10. It is pathetic to know that Job was in the dark as to why he was being afflicted, except he believed it to be some kind of a test for him. He was not bitter over it but looked forward to the time or place when the test would be over and he would come out of it in the favor of God.
Job 23:11. Job’s confidence in the future was due to his faithfulness in treading the pathway of righteousness.
Job 23:12. Job regarded the words of the Lord above all other necessary things.
Job 23:13-14. The subject of this paragraph is the wisdom of God. It is to be esteemed as perfect although we cannot always understand its workings.
Job 23:15-17. Job was filled with awe at the presence of God. Maketh my heart soft means he felt humbled under the divine influence. He would have preferred death before the present afflictions came had that been the will of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
he knoweth: Gen 18:19, 2Ki 20:3, Psa 1:6, Psa 139:1-3, Joh 21:17, 2Ti 2:19
the way that I take: Heb. the way that is with me
he hath: Job 1:11, Job 1:12, Job 2:5, Job 2:6, Deu 8:2, Psa 17:3, Psa 66:10, Pro 17:3, Zec 13:9, Mal 3:2, Mal 3:3, Heb 11:17, Jam 1:2-4, Jam 1:12, 1Pe 1:7
I shall: Job 42:5-8
Reciprocal: Deu 2:7 – he knoweth Jos 22:22 – he knoweth Jdg 2:22 – prove Jdg 3:1 – prove Jdg 7:4 – I will 2Sa 22:22 – I have kept Job 10:7 – Thou knowest Job 13:15 – he slay me Job 22:3 – thou makest Psa 31:7 – known Psa 37:34 – keep Psa 142:3 – then thou Pro 4:18 – General Isa 26:8 – in Isa 48:10 – I have refined Jer 12:3 – knowest Mic 7:9 – he will Mat 15:28 – Jesus 2Co 1:12 – our rejoicing Jam 5:11 – Ye
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
HE KNOWETH MY WAY!
He knoweth the way that I take.
Job 23:10
Of all the attributes of God, Omniscience is at once the most awful and most beautiful.
If I had to test a persons state, I would ask him this question, Are you glad, or are you sorry, at this moment, that God is Omniscient? As a daily criterion, then, of your state, and as a daily resting-place, carry the thought with you wherever you goHe knoweth the way that I take.
I. Knowledge, in its true and complete sense, belongs to God only.There is nothing in the whole world of which any living being could say, if he were asked about it, I know it. There are twenty questions about any letter of the alphabet which no philosopher could answer. Hence the truth, the stress, and the force of the pronounHe knoweth. Every smallest event was ordained by Him from all eternity. Its past, present, and its future, for ever and ever, are all the same to Him.
Oh! how He must know me! And this God of all knowledge is mine. He is my Creator, He is my Friend, He is my Father. Observe the beautiful individuality, the He and the I. He knoweth the way that I take. How close the He and the I stand together!
II. And notice, too, the present tense.He knoweth the way that I take; which I am taking; not which I did take, or which I may take by and by, but that I am actually taking now, whether it suits my present strength, my present joy, my present knowledge, my present duty, my present grace; and He knows the exact meaning of that word I take.
III. It well becomes us that every one should settle with himself what way he intends to take; what old way he will leave, what new way he will adopt; where it is to start, whither it leads; its difficulties and its aims, its motives and its supplies. For the settling of this important question let me advise you to lay down three first principles.
(a) Christ Himself has distinctly said, I am the Way. Therefore, no way can be right of which, I do not say Christ is part, Christ is not the whole. With Him it must begin, with Him it must end. Leave Christ out, and in the true and higher sense, as He says, It is no life till I am the life.
(b) To enable you to discern which is your way and to keep in it, we have the distinct promise of the Holy Ghost, Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left. Listen, listen very attentively every step for these still small voices.
And (c) the FatherHe knoweth the way that I take. With all a fathers watching, loving care He knoweth the way that I take.
This is the first principle of all, that in everythingour life being one with Himits true character must be to follow Him, to tread in His steps, and to be in mystic union with Him.
Now, if I had to select the three chief characteristics of Christs own life, I should say they were humility, unselfishness, and singleness of aim. These, then, must be the directing posts, the sign-marks of the way we take this year.
It may seem to you to-day, looking forward, a long and steep ascent. It is; but the longest journey is made up of single steps. One by one; one to-day; another to-morrow; another the next day. The sooner you take the first step, the sooner you will reach the top, and then you will glorify Him for ever. And Oh! the comfort as we step out into the dark unknown; what a comfort it is to feel, My Father, my Father knows it all. Me, and my future.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Job 23:10. But he knoweth the way that I take My comfort is, that, though I cannot see him, and know all his ways, and the reasons of his dispensations; yet he, being everywhere present, alway sees me, knows my heart and life, and observes the whole course of my conduct, my internal desires and designs, and the counsels of my heart, as well as my outward words and actions. It is a great comfort to those who are upright in their intentions, and mean honestly, that God understands their meaning though men do not, cannot, or will not. When he hath tried me When he hath proved me by these afflictions, as gold is tried by the fire; I shall come forth as gold Which comes forth from the furnace pure from all dross. The Hebrew is absolute, , bechanani, He hath tried me, I shall come forth, &c. They that keep the way of the Lord may comfort themselves when they are in affliction with these three things: 1st, That they are but tried; it is not intended for their hurt, but for their honour and benefit; it is the trial of their faith, 1Pe 1:7. 2d, That when they are sufficiently tried, they shall come forth out of the furnace, and not be left to consume in it, as dross or reprobate silver. The trial will have an end; God will not contend for ever. 3d, That they shall come forth as gold, pure in itself, and precious to the refiner. They shall come forth as gold approved and improved; found to be good, and made to be better. Afflictions are to us, as we are; those that go gold into the furnace will come out no worse.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23:10 But he knoweth the {f} way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
(f) God has this preeminence about me, that he knows my way: that is, that I am not able to judge his work, he shows also his confidence, that God uses him for his profit.