Job Chapter 23
Please read: Job 23 –
What is remarkable about the faith in God that Job possessed, is that he wanted to be closer to Him. He wanted to be face to face with the one that he could not see. It is often typical human nature to want to forget about God or to put Him out of our mind when the most difficult of times come. This suggests to us something profound about Job. Job must have spent intimate times speaking with God and now desires to experience that same intimacy. When one has experienced close intimacy with God and then experiences His silence, the silence can be deafening.
Through it all Job has maintained the same view of God that he expressed earlier in the book. That God is God and He can do what He pleases. He can give and He can take away. But since Job has had such an intimate relationship with God, he feels that if he could just sit down with God, he could argue his case that he is innocent, and all would be well. But then later in the chapter he expresses the sovereignty of God and states that he cannot change the mind of God. He might not know why God is doing this to him, but he knows that he will come out the better man having been tried by fire.
This can bring us some comfort as believers who read the book of Job today. We see that while Job had amazing faith in God, there are just some things he does not understand about Him. That’s comforting to know; a man of such great faith could be confused about God like we sometimes are. When there are times in our life when we just do not understand what is happening to us, we can trust that God does, and all of it will bring about His purpose in our lives, and that is enough.
Let's Reflect
1. Job expresses a bitterness regarding his suffering. Let’s face it, what Job went through was incredibly difficult. But he does not express that he is bitter with God, only that he wants to understand why he is afflicted. So, what does he want to do so that he might have a better understanding? See verse 3.
2. According to verse 6, Job speaks in confidence how he knows God would react to him if he were able to sit down with God and plead his case. He knows that God would not contend with him, but He would do what? This is evidence of the kind of intimate relationship with God Job had previously experienced.
3. What legal term did Job use to describe the decision that would be the outcome of presenting his case to God?
4. In verses 8 and 9 he expresses that he cannot find God. God is silent. But even though God is silent he knows that God is accomplishing His purpose. What will be the end result in Job’s life?
5. How does Job describe the words he has heard from God in those shared intimate times he experienced?
6. In verses 13-16 what emotion does Job describe regarding God?
7. Despite all that had happened to him, and despite feeling that God had put a heavy hand upon him for some unknown reason, Job said he would continue to do what? I believe this statement is a statement of faith meaning he will continue to acknowledge the greatness and sovereignty of God. This is definitely not the outcome that the devil wanted out of all of this!
