Job 23
McGeeCHAPTERS 23 AND 24THEME: Job’s seventh answerThis is the seventh time that Job answers his friends, and he expresses a deep longing for God. He would like to present his case before God. He is beginning to sense that he is in the sieve of God’s testing and that God will bring him through his trials.
Job 23:1
Job says, “You fellows see my condition, and you have heard my complaint. Actually, my condition is worse than it looks, and it is worse than I can tell you.”
Job 23:3
Job has a longing to come into the presence of God. It would be wonderful if his friends knew how to bring him into the presence of the throne of grace. He doesn’t need a throne of judgment; he has already been there. And he has already been to the woodshed for disciplinethere is no question about that. Now somebody needs to bring him into the presence of God.
Job 23:4
Job says that he wants to go into the presence of God because he wants to defend himself. My friend, no one can go into God to defend himself. We all must go before God to plead guilty before Him. Every one of us is guilty. We will find that when Job does get into the presence of God, he will not defend himself. He will change his tune altogether.
Job 23:5
Job wonders what God would say to him. He wonders where he can find Him. I can assure you that any man who has that longing for God in his heart is going to find Him. God will meet him.
Job 23:6
God is not found by running around here and there. He is near, nearer than a hand, nearer than breathing. He is right close to you. Job says he has been running up and down trying to find God.
Job 23:10
Now a little light is beginning to break on the soul of Job: “I am being tested for a purpose. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t understand it, but God is using this in my own life.” Friend, have you discovered in your own heart and in your own life that trouble will strengthen the fiber of your faith? Haven’t you found that it has given you a moral character that you never had before? Have you experienced God’s strength and comfort in the time of the storm? You know that God has never promised that we would miss the storm, but He has promised that we would make the harbor. And that is good enough for me.
Job 23:11
Job has had a desire for the Word of God and apparently has been following God’s Word. Here again is where God will teach us. Job did not understand or did not correctly interpret the Word of God. You know that some of the lessons in the Word of God cannot be learned just by studying them. They are learned by experience. Many of God’s truths must be taught to us in that way. As Job’s answer continues through chapter 24, we see that he gets a little long-winded. Eliphaz gave him the invitation, “Acquaint thyself with Him.” So Job expressed his desire to find God. Job knows Him as Redeemerhe has called Him that. But he doesn’t understand what is happening to him, and he needs the comfort and the help and the light from heaven, which has not been forthcoming from his friends. Eliphaz had made a stab at trying to ferret out the secret sin which he thought was in the life of Job. The effect this has had upon Job is that it has put him even more on the defensive. In fact, it causes him now to raise another question: “Why is God so exacting with me? He apparently condones the actions of others who are really sinners and who are out in the open with their sins.” This is the thrust of his argument in chapter 24.