Job 23:8 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Job 23:8

Comments

Job was anxious to find God; he longed to receive an answer from the Lord about the extreme suffering he had to bear; he cried out to God to give him a resolution to the conundrum of how he could love him and yet treat him so much worse than many who wickedly rejected the Lord. Job had tried to search for God and had failed. This is not just a general statement of the inscrutability of God’s government of the world. It is true that he works with such skill and for the most part in such secrecy that no one can detect where he is at work or what he is doing, certainly not until after the event and his works have become visible, and even then time may need to pass before it becomes clear what was accomplished by his works. This is a more specific complaint of Job related to his trial, that although he had asked God to show him why he suffered he had received no answer. The words indicate the diligence with which he had searched for God, looking in all directions and approaching the Lord in every way that he could conceive. He does not doubt that God is there, but he believes that he has deliberately withdrawn his presence so that his servant is left to speak on his own. He acknowledges that God turns to the left hand (the north – Barnes – since Hebrew maps faced to the east not the north) and to the right hand, but Job cannot trace his movements, let alone come close to him as he longs to do.

Application

Now Job speaks in better terms. Faith has begun to reassert itself and following the great encouragement of Job 19:25-27, he does not again sink down to the quite the same depths as he experienced before. God is testing him: this is the explanation and Job is determined to prove himself faithful and not foolishly deny the Lord, When the test is over, he must come out of it believing that God is with him even when he cannot be seen. Job sees profit in this testing process, for it has a refining effect upon him. If so, then he will patiently submit to it for he has confidence that whatever God does to him is good, and though not pleasant for the present time, something profit will come out of it which could not be achieved in any other way. What is the loss of earthly riches or comfort or health, compared to the abiding lessons that God teaches which will have benefit for all eternity? Job values far higher the gold worked in his character than the gold that he might possess on earth. He is willing to sacrifice the one for the other.

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Job 23:8 Commentary and Bible Study