Job 23:1-17 - Homilies By E. Johnson

Longing for the appearance of the delivering and justifying God.

I. EXCLAMATION . ( Job 23:2-5 .) So bitter is his complaint, "his hand is heavy upon his groaning," i.e. he must force groan after groan out of himself. Oh that he knew where to find the judgment-seat of God, and that he might have the opportunity of pleading his cause! ( Job 23:3-5 ). He possesses still "faith and a good conscience," those best jewels of a Christian ( 1 Timothy 1:5 ), and can think of appearing before God, not with terror, but with confidence. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence with God" ( 1 John 3:21 ).

II. DOUBT ( Job 23:6-9 ) of the possibility of this intervention of God on his behalf. He timidly thinks of the overwhelming effect of God's majesty upon him (comp. Job 9:34 ; Job 13:21 ). But here, relying on the consciousness of innocence, he casts the doubt away. "Would he contend with me in his omnipotence? No; he would only attend to me" ( Job 23:6 ). It would be seen that it is a righteous man who enters into judgment with him, and Job would escape his Judge (verse 7). But then this cheerful expectation is checked by the thought that God is nowhere to be found—neither east nor west, north nor south (verses 8, 9), although present in all quarters ( Psalms 139:8-10 ). Without the definite revelation of the gospel, we may readily lose ourselves in a vague and aimless pantheism. God is everywhere, yet nowhere; present in all things for the intellect, found in none by the heart. It is the doctrine of the Mediator, of the Man Christ Jesus, which resolves this contradiction. God must meet us in the form of man, otherwise he is but an abstraction.

III. REASON OF GOD 'S WITHDRAWAL . (Verses 10-13.) According to Job, this is, that although God knows his innocence, he will not depart from his resolve not to be found of him. Verses 10-12 contain strong assertions of his innocence. God knows Job's wonted way or manner of life; and, if proved, he would come out like gold from the furnace. His foot has kept firmly to God's step, God's way he has observed, and has not turned aside, nor departed from the commandment of his lips. "More than my own law I kept the words of his mouth," i.e. more than the dictates of pleasure or self-will (verse 12). "But he remains one, and who will turn him" from his design (comp. Psalms 33:9 ; Numbers 23:19 ; 1 Samuel 15:29 )?

IV. AWE AND HUMILITY IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD . (Verses 14-17.) God will fulfil Job's destiny, like that of many others (verse 14). The thought of this unfathomable counsel of God through which Job must suffer fills him with fearfulness and amazement (verse 15). It is God himself, not the mere sufferings, who has unnerved Job and overthrown him (verse 16). It is not the darkness of his trouble ( Job 22:11 ) nor his own hideous form ( Job 19:13-15 ) which have stupefied him. No, it is God alone who is the cause of this stupor, who is behind these sufferings with his incomprehensible counsels.

Here, again, we see how deep is faith in the heart of Job, how inextinguishable the longing and the need for communion with God, which is life to him, and more than life l He can bear pain, he can dispense, if need be, with human sympathy; but he cannot bear the absence of God! As the plant in the cellar, so the faithful soul ever turns and struggles towards the light; and the only Light of the soul is God!—J.