Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 23:8
Behold, I go forward, but he [is] not [there]; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
8 9. From this fascinating dream of a Divine tribunal after the manner of that of a human judge, Job awakens to realise the actual circumstances in which he is placed. God, everywhere present, everywhere eludes him; he feels His omnipotent power, but in vain seeks to see His face.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, I go forward – The meaning of these verses is, I go in all directions, but I cannot find God. I am excluded from the trial which I seek, and I cannot bring my cause to his throne. Job expresses his earnest desire to see some visible manifestation of the Deity, and to be permitted to argue his cause in his presence. But he says he sought this in vain. He looked to all points of the compass where he might rationally expect to find God, but all in vain. The terms here used refer to the points of the compass, and should have been so rendered. The Oriental geographers considered themselves as facing the East, instead of the North, as we do. Of course, the West was behind them, the South on the right hand, and on the left the North. This was a more natural position than ours, as day begins in the East, and it is natural to turn the face in that direction. There is no reason why our maps should be made so as to require us to face the North, except that such is the custom.
The Hebrew custom, in this respect, is found also in the notices of geography in other nations. The same thing prevails among the Hindoos. Among them, Para, or Purra, signifying before, denotes the East; Apara and Paschima, meaning behind, the West; Dacshina, or the right hand, the South; and Bama, or the left hand, the North; see Wilfords Inquiry respecting the Holy Isles in the West, Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 275. The same thing occurred among the ancient Irish; see an Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish language, by an unknown author, Dublin, 1772; compare on this subject, Rosenmullers Alterthumskunde i. s. 136-144. The same custom prevailed among the Mongols. Gesenius. On the notices of the science of geography exhibited in the book of Job, compare Introduction, Section 8. The phrase, therefore, Behold, I go forward, means, I go to the East. I look toward the rising of the sun. I see there the most wonderful of the works of the Creator in the glories of the sun, and I go toward it in hopes of finding there some manifestation of God. But I find him not, and, disappointed, I turn to other directions. Most of the ancient versions render this the East. Thus, the Vulgate, Si ad Orientem iero. The Chaldee , to the sun-rising.
But he is not there – There is no manifestation of God, no coming forth to meet me, and to hear my cause.
And backward – ( ve‘achor). To the West – for this was behind the individual when he stood looking to the East. Sometimes the West is denoted by this term behind ( ‘achor), and sometimes by the sea ( yam), because the Mediterranean was at the West of Palestine and Arabia; see the notes at Isa 9:12; compare Exo 10:19; Exo 27:13; Exo 38:12; Gen 28:14.
But I cannot perceive him – The meaning is, Disappointed in the East, the region of the rising sun, I turn with longing to the West, the region of his setting, and hope, as his last beams fade from the view, that I shall be permitted to behold some ray that shall reveal God to my soul. Before the night settles down upon the world, emblem of the darkness in my soul, I would look upon the last lingering ray, and hope that in that I may see God. In that vast region of the West, illuminated by the setting sun, I would hope somewhere to find him; but I am disappointed there. The sun withdraws his beams, and darkness steals on, and the world, like my soul, is enveloped in gloom. I can see no indications of the presence of God coming forth to give me an opportunity to argue my cause before him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 23:8-10
Behold, I go forward, but He is not there.
Obscurity of the Divine working
The perplexities felt by Job on this and kindred problems were not greater or more harassing than they are to us. Our advanced position in revelation, in knowledge, in experience, relieves us of no embarrassment felt by men of ancient times with regard to this greatest of all mysteries–the mystery of God as He dwells within Himself, and of the methods in which He governs the worlds of men and things. They seemed to dwell in Gods universe, while He did not always appear to dwell in their individual world. The worlds ripest religious thought is today what it was at the beginning of time,–a bright abyss into which men look by faith, not by sight. All things are contained in God: He is uncontained in all. All things reveal God: God is unrevealed in all. Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him. There is a presence; but it is veiled. There is activity; but it is silent.
I. The activity of the Divine working. On the left hand, where He doth work. And we have but to open our Bible to find how all through its pages this great truth runs as the soul of its teaching. Events which are held to be quite independent of all special causation, the Bible puts into the hand of God. He maketh the sun to shine. He sendeth the rain. He maketh the grass to grow. He giveth snow like wool. He holdeth the winds in His fist. The lightnings go before Him. Fire and hail, snow and vapour, and the stormy wind fulfil His word. All material forces, as they are set into action and get their interplay in the management of the worlds, are the servants of God and do His bidding; and they are forces only so far and so long as they are the channels of His will. A change in the direction of the latter, a suspension in the purposes of God,–and all material activities perish. Personal endowments, which we count innate and constitutional, are His gifts. There is a spirit in man, and the respiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. Talents, whether of the body or the mind, are distributed by Him. He holdeth our soul in life. He teacheth man knowledge. Genius is His gift; poetry His inspiration; art His wisdom. The skill to govern, the heroism to defend, the science to construct and adorn a nations life are conferred by Him. He teacheth mans hands to war, and his fingers to fight. There is running through every part of the inspired volume a profound recognition of law; but it is law into which there is inserted the ceaseless activity of a Divine volition. A causeless causation, a self-originating, self-acting law is unknown in nature; as it is non-existent in the creed of those ancient men to whom God revealed the earliest transcript of His thoughts. This activity of the Divine presence brings human life, with all its interests, very close to God. It makes each one of our own concernments real and very precious in its relation to Him. The individual is never slighted, can never be overlooked, is never forgotten in the magnitudes and the multiplicities of the Divine care. Amidst the play of His magnificent thoughts as these embrace the universe of things, His eye is set upon the one as upon the all, upon the atom as upon the mass. While the magnitudes and the multiplicities of worlds and systems are within the sweep of His plan, that plan takes in the obscurest individual, the most insignificant event. How this is, how it can be, we know not. Behold, He that keepeth Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep. Put Thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book? If from these general statements we pass on to those that are more specific in their details, the same truth still more impressively comes into view. Afflictions are not arbitrary visitations. They are never a lawless or a purposeless infliction. They are, in some of their visitations, resistless as the lightnings flash, and as insatiable as the grave. Now, the Bible tells us that, in some significant sense, all these afflictions come from God. However apparently accidental, and without any order in their known antecedents, they all have a parentage in the providence of God; and they are all made tributary to a purpose. He woundeth, and His hands make whole. He chastiseth, and He rebuketh. Thou, O God, hast proved us: Thou hast tried us. Thou broughtest us into the net; Thou laidest affliction upon our loins. They are neither accidents, nor necessary appendages, nor arbitrary adjuncts of our nature or condition as men. They are methods of training, modes of correction, admonitory whispers, wise teachings in the dealings of God with us as fallen, as sinful men; and so far they are fraught with the kindest intentions, and minister to most important and salutary ends. God does not create evil. He does not necessitate suffering. He works it into His plan, and uses it for good. Death, avowedly the most impressive and terrible of all our afflictions, and coming upon us in the most unanticipated surprises of time and place and mode and victims, is claimed as the supernatural visitation of God. The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. It is appointed unto men once to die. Whenever it comes, however it comes–whether it be by disease or accident, in youth or in age, at sea or on land–death is the appointment of God, and comes at His bidding; and the time, the place, the method are to be accepted and submitted to as being separately in His hand, and determined by His will. No man ever slips by stealth out of time, or appears unexpectedly in his Makers presence. The keys of death and of hell are in the hands of the Lord of Life. So on the grander scale of national visitations. His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. He changeth the times and the seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings. He enlargeth the nations, and straiteneth them again. When a great nation is suddenly crippled in its resources, or blighted in its harvests, or wasted by the pestilence; when fires or floods carry havoc and death among a people; or war lays waste a peaceful territory, leaving only its rills of blood and drifts of bones where once the homestead bloomed in wealth and beauty; still the demand is, Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Are the politics of nations only a great chessboard on which conflicting politicians play their little games of ambition, while God is out in the distance, unconcerned in the petty strife? Nay; through all these strifes and tossings of human pride and ambitious cupidity, there runs the thread of a Divine purpose, permitting all, holding all, guiding and subordinating all to a determinate end.
II. The obscurity of the methods of this working. Behold, I go forward, but He is not there;. . .He hideth Himself, that I cannot see Him.
1. There are reasons, depths and mysteries, in the methods of the Divine working, into which we cannot look; causes in which that working originates, and purposes which it intentionally subserves, past our finding out. How, through all this maze of human things, is the Divine will a creative force? We cannot tell. Sometimes, as if through the small chinks in the interplay of events, as by a sunbeam sifted through a rift in the clouds, we seem to got a momentary glimpse of the Actor and His plan. The Lord uttereth His voice,–and we can scarcely doubt whose voice it is, or what is the message it convoys. But it is not always thus. It is not frequently so. And least of all is it so with the sufferings of Gods people. However clear our views, however firm our convictions of the rectitude and wisdom and goodness of God may be, events are constantly taking place that confound all our reasoning; and while they tax severely our submission, they impose a heavy tribute upon our faith. The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His foot. He giveth not account of any of His matters. A silence, unbroken as the grave–absolute, awful, infinite–seems to mock the agony of the sufferer, without the solace of a momentary relief. We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
2. One cause of this obscurity is, undoubtedly, to be found in ourselves, in the imperfect instruments with which we seek to gauge the purposes of God. I do not mean in the limitation of our human powers, making it impossible for the keenest scrutiny to pierce into those abysses of gloom in which God is surely and silently working; but in our want of a spiritual temper, the absence of a moral affinity between ourselves and God, which so surely puts us at a distance from Him, and so leaves the highways of His providence incomprehensible to us. Our unlikeness to the Divine nature is, I think, one of the main barriers which shut out the light from the sufferers eye. We do not see so far or so clearly into some of the Divine dealings with us as we might do, or as God intends we should do, just because the range of our spiritual eyesight is limited by some inward blur or film. Faith is the souls super sensuous eye; but when it is darkened by the distempers of sin, it is like a broken lens in a telescope, it fractures and distorts the image. In those matters it is with our spiritual senses very much as it is with the man who seeks to get a bold and commanding view of natures scenery; almost everything depends on the position we occupy. To those on the mountain top the light comes the earliest, and with them it lingers the longest. The air is purer; the range of vision is wider: while the skies without a cloud seem dark and distant to those down beneath the shadows in the valley. And so, doubtless, it is in the scope and power of that spiritual analysis by which we seek to understand the darker mysteries of providence. We lack sympathy with the great Operator in the intrinsic excellency of His being; and this puts remoteness upon our position and dulness upon our perception, as we seek to penetrate His policy in dealing with us. We see through a glass, darkly. Hence the remoteness in which men habitually think of God. The unvisioned eye sees Him only as a distant presence, a cold and silent spectator on the outermost confines of nature; or as utterly outside of His own world of men and things. God is so far off that our voice cannot reach Him, His hand cannot reach us; and though His arrows fly swift and terrible as the lightnings in their fiery tracks through space, they do, somehow, seem without a purpose. God reigns over the world; but we do not see how He governs it. On the other hand, the purified eye, the soul made clean from sin, pierces the gloom with a quick, intelligent gladness, that brightens everything, even the dark and sorrowful, into light and beauty. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant. Likeness to God, loyalty to conscience, trust in goodness, obedience to truth,–these unseal the eyelids of the soul, and flood with meaning the purposes of the Divine will.
3. The comprehensiveness of the plan on which providential enactments transpire, must of necessity entail obscurity in many of its details. We are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon the earth are a shadow. Our little world is but an atom of the great whole of men and things. The great whole of men and things is but an atom in the wholeness of the Divine plan. That plan must embrace all time and place; all worlds, with their inhabitants; and all events, with their issues. It takes in time; but then it takes in also eternity. Hence, first, events are never single. They have their antecedents, and their consequents. They may be the offspring not of one antecedent, but of many. To the all-embracing mind of Omniscience, each passing event of today must intertwine with all the extents of yesterday; as these will in turn embrace all other events in giving birth to those of tomorrow. So with the race of man. We are all links in the great chain which winds round the two axles of the past and the future. We who live, says Comte, are ruled by the dead. Here, then, is one of our grand mistakes in seeking to understand the ways of God. We are in too great a hurry to decipher passing events. We look for reasons too close to ourselves, too isolated and specific in their range; and so we seek results too immediate in time. While the Supreme Mind contemplates the whole of life in each link, and the whole of each separate link in the One chain, we narrow the great drama to one solitary act, and that beginning and closing in ourselves. We overlook the past, which to many of us may hold the secret of those very events whose occurrence overwhelms or distracts us in the present; and we shut out the future as well as the past; and, yet, both the past and the future may sustain some immediate but inscrutable relation to the mystery of the suffering present. Gods thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are His ways our ways. What can we,–what can angel minds know of this strange problem which providence holds for solution?
4. Then, the moral purposes which some, possibly many, of our darkest experiences are intended to accomplish, must not be left outside of the causes which perplex us. The response, What I do thou knowest not now, may indicate a mercy not less than a necessity. Light, making clear the purpose, might defeat the end. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Tribulation worketh patience. By these moral purposes we mean the sum total of religious gain that afflictive visitations are intended to secure–first, to the individual sufferer; then, to those with whom he may be more immediately related; and lastly, to the universal good. All human events, of whatever order, under whatever apparent exceptions, are to be construed by the Christian man according to that rule, We know that all things work together for good to them that love God; or by a more distributive three-fold rule, containing, first, the negative assurance, that there shall no evil touch him; secondly, the positive pledge, that no good thing shall be withheld from him; and thirdly, the constructive, all-embracing promise that all things shall work together for his good. This threefold promise is the statute law, the blessed triune charter, under which the Christian lives; nor is any event ever suffered to befall a good man, but one, or both, or all three of these great laws come into benignant operation. This is the providence of grace. And it is in the methods through which these laws come out in their action, that one source of our perplexity not unfrequently reveals itself. Even when the vision is the clearest, it is often impossible to see which first, and sometimes how at all, these several promises are being manipulated in the interests of the individual man. Sometimes the end proposed is not related immediately to the means. As in the case of Joseph and Job, Daniel and Esther, the end to be reached appears wholly out of the way of the method employed. Then, the good contemplated in some dispensations of providence is not single, but manifold. In the history of Joseph, the afflictions of which he was the immediate victim had a mission backwards into his own family circle, and forwards into the Egyptian court, and so onward through all the worlds future history in its preparation through the Jewish nation for the incarnation and redemption of Christ,–results these, all of which seem to us incongruous and immeasurably distant in their relation to the coat of many colours, and the exile and slavery in Egypt; yet, to God, they were all braced into a consistent and instant present, the last link parallel with the first, the first coincident with the last. The ploughshare of the destroyer goes crashing through the centre of a household, upturning suddenly its very foundations, and in the ghastly wreck extinguishes a whole springtime of youthful hopes in a fathers grave. Do you ask, Why all this? Why does God hide His purpose, and robe His presence in clouds and darkness even from those who love Him? The answer, sufficient for us, is, That our manhood may be trained to trust. We grow strong by endurance. If we knew all beforehand, there would be no room for faith, for submission, for the balancing of motives. If we knew as God knows, we should be as God.
But we are infants, being trained. Patience is the fruit of trial. Our faith is born in struggle.
1. Here then is, first, a rebuke to our petulance. It says, Be still, and know that I am God! We are in the dust before Him. Our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. What can a child, on the scaffolding of some unfinished colossal pile of architecture, know of the skill and purpose of its construction? And what are we but baby builders in the plan of God,–ephemeral insects, whose life is a leaf in the forest of worlds!
2. Let us see how this present obscurity ministers to hope. The darkness which now envelops the Christians path, and which for the reasons we have shown must continue to envelop it, creates, as it justifies, the expectation that hereafter, in this or in some other state, light will arise out of obscurity, and we shall see as we are seen, and know even as also we are known. It cannot be that the limitations, the disappointments, the chafings of a bitter unrest are to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Some of the sorrowful chapters of life may be made clear even on this side of the screen.
3. Still more fully, still more tenderly, this assurance of light takes in the future world. What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. There are profundities in creation which from the beginning of time have been struggling to get into expression, and have not spoken yet. And there are mysteries in our human life–events, epochs, dispensations–whose cloudy advent in time will constitute apocalyptic visions for our studies through eternity. The times and the seasons the Father hath put in His own power. In the wide uplands and glorious expanse of the eternal life, God will surely tell thee, thou poor, solitary sufferer, why thou wast left alone, without a sheltering hand or a counselling voice, when in the inexperienced days of youth thou neededst them the most. (J. Burton.)
The unseen God declared
This passage represents to us a gracious soul, sighing and seeking anxiously after more personal and peculiar intercourse, and even most intimate fellowship with its God, and therefore is made to feel painfully the silence, the reserve, and the secrecy, which, as the God of nature and providence, He so inviolably adheres to.
1. It might relieve us, if God were to reveal Himself, even in any degree, to any one of our external senses. But He never now condescends to discover Himself even thus far to the inhabitants of our world. Consequently it is not unreasonable for us all to dread that there may be some judicial reason why God is so hiding Himself from our knowledge.
2. This suspicion appears to be confirmed in some measure, or to a certain modified extent, by our happening to know that there is at least one other world where the same God has other worshippers, from whom He never did hide Himself. There may be many more such worlds than one.
3. There was a time when it was far otherwise with this world. At one time it was so much like heaven, as that the Lord did in those days speak with a human voice to the man whom He had then just newly created, like unto Himself in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over all the inferior creatures whom he saw around him.
4. It tends to aggravate our quite natural and just suspicion, when we consider that God, who is now so hiding Himself from all the careless, will not always, nor even will He much longer continue to hide Himself from any one of us. Relief alone comes, when awakened to a sense of sin, we are led to turn to the Only Begotten of the Father. He hath revealed Him. (John Bruce, D. D.)
Searching for God
This man seems to be condemned by the moral order of the world, and yet knows that he is innocent. A man in such an awful strait as this may be expected to utter bold words. But Job does not array himself against God. He rather arrays God against God. The God he seems to see against the God he desires to see, but cannot. It is the God within Job that protests against a credal God without. But Jobs mistake lay in being angry because he could not get the full vision of God at once. He wanted it immediately. It is only by a long and hard struggle that we can get the vision of God. We must gain the sunny uplands where His face is seen by noble and untiring spiritual effort. There is no short and easy path to the sunlit sky. Further, when Job was challenging God to try him, Job was not aware that God was even then trying him; that in that very perplexity, in that very hiding of God, in that very darkness and conflict, through which Job was then passing, God was already sitting in judgment on him, and proving his life, to see whether it would come forth from the fire as gold.
I. The great search for God which every true life must undertake. The search must proceed, for there is no true life without the knowledge of God; and there is no full life without the satisfying knowledge of God. The true knowledge of God can only come through struggling. This will appear on the following two considerations.
1. A true knowledge of God is inward riving heart knowledge. And–
2. The true knowledge of God is progressive knowledge. But the truest man in the world may enter into seasons of very great perplexity. God is larger than our thoughts, and grander than our creeds. They cannot express the fulness of God.
II. The guarantee of the success of this struggle to find God. He knoweth the way that I take. The search for God depends on an inner knowledge of God; and we have the paradox, that we do know God, and yet are searching for Him. We know when we have found Him, for He is in our deepest life as an ideal. If our hearts are true, if our lives are sincere and pure, we have the guarantee that we shall at length see God in the fulness of His glory.
III. The purpose and issue of this great struggle. The struggle which is necessary to find God and truth is a test of our character. Truth requires a struggle, the constant use of our best energies. Infidelity is the laziest thing in the world, but it is by heart sweat that truth is found. The struggle to find God preserves the truth of the life. Life is preserved by progress, and progress involves conflict. Life is movement, stagnation is death. This struggle not only preserves the truth of the life, it purifies and develops it. This is my message–See that you struggle to find God. While you are searching, remember to be true. And search on. (John Thomas, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. Behold, I go forward] These two verses paint in vivid colours the distress and anxiety of a soul in search of the favour of God. No means are left untried, no place unexplored, in order to find the object of his research. This is a true description of the conduct of a genuine penitent.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I go forward, i.e. towards the east, which in Scripture is accounted the forepart of the world, as the Hebrew name of it signifies, because of the light of the sun, which ariseth there, and draweth the eye of men towards it.
He is not there, to wit, so as I would have him, as a judge to hear and determine my cause, of which he is here speaking; for otherwise he knew and believed that God was essentially present in all places.
Backward, i.e. towards the west; so also the north is called the left hand, and the south the right hand, Job 23:9, because so they all are to a man who looks towards the east. He names all the several parts of the world, to show his eager desire and restless endeavours to find out God, and to present himself before him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. But I wish in vain. For”behold,” c.
forward . . .backwardrather, “to the eastto the west.“The Hebrew geographers faced the east, that is, sunrise: not thenorth, as we do. So “before” means east: “behind,”west (so the Hindus). Para, “before”east: Apara,“behind”west: Daschina, “the righthand”south: Bama, “left”north. A similarreference to sunrise appears in the name Asia, “sunrise,”Europe, “sunset” pure Babylonian names, as RAWLINSONshows.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I go forward, but he [is] not [there],…. Job here returns to what he had said before, Job 23:3; as Jarchi observes, where he expresses his earnest desire after God, that he might know where he was, and come up to his seat; here he relates the various ways he took to find him, and his fruitless search of him. Cocceius thinks, by these phrases “forward” and “backward”, are meant times future and past; and that the sense is, that Job looked into the future times of the Messiah, and the grace promised him, his living Redeemer, that should stand on the earth in the latter day; and that he looked back to the ages before him, and to the first promise made to Adam; but could not understand by either the reason why good men were afflicted; and by the “right” hand and “left”, the different dispensations of God to men, granting protection with his right hand, and distributing the blessings of his goodness by it; and with his left hand laying afflictions and evils upon them; and yet, neither from the one nor the other could he learn the mind and will of God concerning men, since love and hatred are not to be known by these things: but rather, with the Jewish commentators in general, we are to understand places by these various expressions; even each of the parts of the world, east, west, north, and south; which Job went through, and surveyed in his mind, to find God in, but to no purpose; for, when a man stands with his face to the rising sun, the east is before him, and, if he goes forward, he goes eastward; and behind him is the west, and, if he goes that way, he goes backward; so the eastern sea is called the former sea, and the western, or Mediterranean sea, the hinder sea, Zec 14:8; and a man, in this position, will have the north on his left hand, and the south on his right; see Ge 13:9; now Job says that he went “forward”, that is, eastward; but, says he of God, “he [is] not [there]”, or “is not” g; meaning not that he was not in being, did not exist; for he most firmly believed the existence of God, or that he was, but, as we rightly supply, he was not there, that is, eastward; and yet the greatest, the most glorious, and most gracious appearances of him were in the east; man was made in the east; the garden of Eden was planted eastward; here God appeared to Adam, both before and after his fall; and it was in the east, Christ, the second Adam, was born; his star appeared in it, and his Gospel was first preached in the eastern parts; in the east Job now lived, and had been the greatest man in it; but now God did not appear to him, as the Vulgate Latin version, not in a kind and gracious manner; nor could he find him at his throne of justice here, as he wished for; he was there, though Job saw him not; for he is everywhere; indeed he is not confined or limited to any place; for, as the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, so much less any part or corner of the earth:
and backward, but I cannot perceive him; or understand where he is, or get intelligence of him, and of the reason of his dispensations, especially concerning himself.
g “et non ipse”, Montanus, Drusius, Bolducius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Mystery of Providence. | B. C. 1520. |
8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: 9 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: 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. 12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Here, I. Job complains that he cannot understand the meaning of God’s providences concerning him, but is quite at a loss about them (Job 23:8; Job 23:9): I go forward, but he is not there, c. Eliphaz had bid him acquaint himself with God. “So I would, with all my heart,” says Job, “If I knew how to get acquainted with him.” He had himself a great desire to appear before God, and get a hearing of his case, but the Judge was not to be found. Look which way he would, he could see no sign of God’s appearing for him to clear up his innocency. Job, no doubt, believed that God is every where present but three things he seems to complain of here:– 1. That he could not fix his thoughts, nor form any clear judgment of things in his own mind. His mind was so hurried and discomposed with his troubles that he was like a man in a fright, or at his wits’ end, who runs this way and that way, but, being in confusion, brings nothing to a head. By reason of the disorder and tumult his spirit was in he could not fasten upon that which he knew to be in God, and which, if he could but have mixed faith with it and dwelt upon it in his thoughts, would have been a support to him. It is the common complaint of those who are sick or melancholy that, when they would think of that which is good, they can make nothing of it. 2. That he could not find out the cause of his troubles, nor the sin which provoked God to contend with him. He took a view of his whole conversation, turned to every side of it, and could not perceive wherein he had sinned more than others, for which he should thus be punished more than others; nor could he discern what other end God should aim at in afflicting him thus. 3. That he could not foresee what would be in the end hereof, whether God would deliver him at all, nor, if he did, when or which way. He saw not his signs, nor was there any to tell him how long; as the church complains, Ps. lxxiv. 9. He was quite at a loss to know what God designed to do with him; and, whatever conjecture he advanced, still something or other appeared against it.
II. He satisfies himself with this, that God himself was a witness to his integrity, and therefore did not doubt but the issue would be good.
1. After Job had almost lost himself in the labyrinth of the divine counsels, how contentedly does he sit down, at length, with this thought: “Though I know not the way that he takes (for his way is in the sea and his path in the great waters, his thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours and it would be presumption in us to pretend to judge of them), yet he knows the way that I take,” v. 10. That is, (1.) He is acquainted with it. His friends judged of that which they did not know, and therefore charged him with that which he was never guilty of; but God, who knew every step he had taken, would not do so, Ps. cxxxix. 3. Note, It is a great comfort to those who mean honestly that God understands their meaning, though men do not, cannot, or will not. (2.) He approves of it: “He knows that, however I may sometimes have taken a false step, yet I have still taken a good way, have chosen the way of truth, and therefore he knows it,” that is, he accepts it, and is well pleased with it, as he is said to know the way of the righteous, Ps. i. 6. This comforted the prophet, Jer. xii. 3. Thou hast tried my heart towards thee. From this Job infers, When he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. Those that keep the way of the Lord may comfort themselves, when they are in affliction, with these three things:– [1.] 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, 1 Pet. i. 7. [2.] 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. [3.] 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.
2. Now that which encouraged Job to hope that his present troubles would thus end well was the testimony of his conscience for him, that he had lived a good life in the fear of God.
(1.) That God’s way was the way he walked in (v. 11): “My foot hath held his steps,” that is, “held to them, adhered closely to them; the steps he takes. I have endeavoured to conform myself to his example.” Good people are followers of God. Or, “I have accommodated myself to his providence, and endeavoured to answer all the intentions of that, to follow Providence step by step.” Or, “His steps are the steps he has appointed me to take; the way of religion and serious godliness–that way I have kept, and have not declined from it, not only not turned back from it by a total apostasy, but not turned aside out of it by any wilful transgression.” His holding God’s steps, and keeping his way, intimate that the tempter had used all his arts by fraud and force to draw him aside; but, with care and resolution, he had by the grace of God hitherto persevered, and those that will do so must hold and keep, hold with resolution and keep with watchfulness.
(2.) That God’s word was the rule he walked by, v. 12. He governed himself by the commandment of God’s lips, and would not go back from that, but go forward according to it. Whatever difficulties we may meet with in the way of God’s commandments, though they lead us through a wilderness, yet we must never think of going back, but must press on towards the mark. Job kept closely to the law of God in his conversation, for both his judgment and his affection led him to it: I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food; that is, he looked upon it as his necessary food; he could as well have lived without his daily bread as without the word of God. I have laid it up (so the word is), as those that lay up provision for a siege, or as Joseph laid up corn before the famine. Eliphaz had told him to lay up God’s words in his heart, ch. xxii. 22. “I do,” says he, “and always did, that I might not sin against him, and that, like the good householder, I might bring forth for the good of others.” Note, The word of God is to our souls what our necessary food is to our bodies; it sustains the spiritual life and strengthens us for the actions of life; it is that which we cannot subsist without, and which nothing else can make up the want of: and we ought therefore so to esteem it, to take pains for it, hunger after it, feed upon it with delight, and nourish our souls with it; and this will be our rejoicing in the day of evil, as it was Job’s here.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
8. Forward Or, eastward. The Orientals determined the cardinal points by facing the east; unlike ourselves, who, for reasons not so natural, confront the north, making this the starting point. Rawlinson traces the words Asia and Europe to Hebrew sources, the former having originally signified “the East,” the latter “the West.” (Herodotus 3:33.) The Jews have a tradition that Adam was created with his face toward the east, that he might first see the rising sun. Wordsworth happily reminds the Christian that in all his thoughts, words, and works, with regard to the points of his spiritual compass he should have the eye of his heart turned toward Christ, “the Sun of Righteousness,” and should regulate the whole course of his life accordingly.
Backward To the west.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job Despairs of Finding Vindication in this Life
v. 8. Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; v. 9. on the left hand, v. 10. But He, v. 11. My foot hath held His steps, v. 12. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips, v. 13. But He is in one mind, v. 14. For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me, v. 15. Therefore am I troubled at His presence, v. 16. For God maketh my heart soft, v. 17. because I was not cut off before the darkness,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
(8) Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: (9) 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:
What Job here complains of, how fully do all GOD’S people know! Reader, have you not known what it is to be searching for JESUS, and , like the church of old, sending forth often the question, without obtaining a satisfying answer, Saw you him whom my soul loveth? Precious seeking souls are in pursuit of JESUS, in private prayer, in meditation, in reading, and in public ordinances; hearing his gospel preached; sitting under the means; and yet often remain unrefreshed, and without the enjoyment of the Redeemer’s presence. Nevertheless, it should always be recollected, upon these occasions, that JESUS is present; he is looking on, he is exciting the desire in the heart, and by and by will be found of the poor seeker. Isa 45:19 ; Psa 27:8-14 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 23:8 Behold, I go forward, but he [is] not [there]; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
Ver. 8. Behold, I go forward ] Heb. Eastward, which is reckoned the forepart of the world; because that eye of the world, the sun, riseth there; and every man looketh to the rising sun.
But he is not there
And backward, but I cannot perceive him
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 9:11, Psa 10:1, Psa 13:1-3, Isa 45:15, 1Ti 6:16
Reciprocal: Job 29:5 – the Almighty Job 34:29 – when he hideth Job 35:14 – thou sayest Job 42:5 – mine Psa 13:2 – take Psa 139:5 – beset me Son 3:1 – but Isa 50:10 – let
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 23:8-9. I go forward , kedem, ad orientem, toward the east: , achor, ad occidentem, toward the west; so the Vulgate, which is likewise the interpretation of the Jewish commentators, who by the left hand, and the right, in the next verse, understand the north and the south. They have a tradition that Adam was created with his face placed toward the east, that he might see the rising sun. From whence they say the east was to him kedem, the anterior part of the world. From that situation they named the other quarters. But Job in both these verses certainly intended nothing more than that, let him turn himself which way he pleased, in no place could he find God present, namely, as a judge to hear and determine his cause, of which he is speaking: for, otherwise, he knew God was essentially present in all places. On the left hand where he doth work That is, in a special and peculiar manner, say some interpreters, both Jewish and Christian, the north being the more habitable and more populous part of the world. Ibi genres, says Cartwright, rebus gestis et bello omni vo clarissim: ibi evangelium generalius et luculentius promulgatum. There the nations have flourished, most famous in all ages for exploits and war; and there the gospel has been more generally and successfully promulgated. All this may be true, yet as the whole world is Gods workmanship, and is continually preserved by him, and as his providential care reacheth equally to every part, no one place is here intended to be signalized more than another, with regard to the works of God. He hideth himself on the right hand He moves and works invisibly in all quarters of the world, but yet I cannot behold him appear as my judge, nor discover him to plead my cause in his sight.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
23:8 {e} Behold, I go forward, but he [is] not [there]; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
(e) Meaning, that if he considers God’s justice, he is not able to comprehend his judgments on what side or whatever part he turns himself.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Job’s innocence 23:8-12
Wherever Job looked, he could not find God. Two paraphrases of Job 23:10 are these. Because (the first word in the verse in Hebrew) He knows my ways, God is evading me. "He knows I am innocent and therefore is refusing to appear in court, for once He heard my case He would have to admit to injustice." [Note: Zuck, Job, p. 108.] A better explanation, I think, follows.
"A more literal translation . . . yields: ’But he (God) knows (his) way with me.’ Because God knows what He is doing with Job, Job is coming to a point where he will be satisfied even if God never explains the reason for His strange conduct. Earlier Job had demanded to know why God was dealing with him thus, and he found his trial insufferable (Job 7:18). Now he accepts the testing, because he knows: I shall come forth as gold." [Note: Andersen, p. 210.]
Job believed that people would eventually recognize that he was as pure as gold (cf. Job 22:25). Job had this hope because he trusted God and had walked before God faithfully (Job 23:11-12; cf. Job 22:15).
"Here Job’s assurance that God is concerned with his well-being rises to its highest point." [Note: Hartley, p. 340.]
"When God puts His own people into the furnace, He keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat. He knows how long and how much." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 51.]