Job 23

W“The God of Israel, the Savior, is sometimes a God that hides Himself, but never a God that absents Himself; sometimes in the dark, but never at a distance.” —M H hat should have been an encouraging discussion among friends had become an angry and painful debate. Instead of trying to calm things down, Eliphaz assumed the office of prosecuting attorney and turned the debate into a trial. It was three against one as Job sat on the ash heap and listened to his friends lie about him. According to the Jewish Talmud, “The slanderous tongue kills three: the slandered, the slanderer, and him who listens to the slander.” At the ash heap in Uz, it was death all around!

Instead of arguing with his friends, or compromising his integrity by giving in to Eliphaz’s appeal, Job ignores them completely and speaks to and about the Lord. Job has already made it clear that his dispute was not with men but with God, and he emphasizes this fact in his speech.

We may paraphrase Job 23:2, “My complaint today is bitter, and I have to keep a heavy hand on myself to keep from doing nothing but groaning.” Job’s three friends did not understand how much discipline Job needed just to be able to talk with them. Instead of giving in to his pain and doing nothing but groan, Job sought to master his pain and not give in to self-pity. The next time you visit somebody in pain, keep in mind that suffering drains a person’s energy and makes great demands on his strength and patience.

Job said that he had three complaints against the Lord.

“God is hiding from me” (Job 23:1–12). “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat [throne]!” (v. 3). This was another appeal to meet God in court and have a fair trial. Job was prepared to state his case, present his arguments, and let God give the verdict. Job was confident that, despite God’s great power as a Lawgiver, he would win his case, for he was an upright man, and God could not condemn the upright in heart. “There an upright man could present his case before him, and I would be delivered forever from my judge” (v. 7 niv).

But how does a mere man go about finding God? If Job went forward or backward (east or west), to the left or to the right (north or south), he could not see God or even catch a quick glimpse of Him. Of course, God is present everywhere (Ps. 139:7–12); but Job wanted a personal meeting with God. He had questions to ask and arguments to presaent!

God knew where Job was—in the furnace (Job 23:10)! But it was a furnace of God’s appointment, not because of Job’s sin; and God would use Job’s affliction to purify him and make him a better man. This is not the only answer to the question “Why do the righteous suffer?” but it is one of the best, and it can bring the sufferer great encouragement.

Scripture often uses the image of a furnace to describe God’s purifying ministry through suffering. “See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48: niv). Israel’s suffering in Egypt was like that of iron in a smelting furnace (Deut. 4:20), and her later disciplines were also a “furnace experience.” “For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver” (Ps. 66: niv). This image is used in 1 Peter 1:6–7 and 4: of believers going through persecution.

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. We may question why He does it to begin with or why He doesn’t turn down the heat or even turn it off; but our questions are only evidences of unbelief. Job 23: is the answer: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold” (nkjv). Gold does not fear the fire. The furnace can only make the gold purer and brighter.

It’s important to note that Job’s life was pleasing to God before he went into the furnace (vv. 11–12). Eliphaz had warned Job to receive God’s words and obey them (22:22), but Job had already been doing that. God’s Word was his guide as he walked the path of life, and he was careful not to go on any detours. But even more, God’s Word was his nourishment that was more important to him than his daily meals. Like Jeremiah (Jer. 15:16) and Jesus (Matt. 4:4; John 4:31–34), Job found in God’s Word the only food that satisfied his inner person. (See Ps. 1:2; 119:103; 1 Peter 2:1–3.)

Some people go into the furnace of affliction, and it burns them; others go in, and the experience purifies them. What makes the difference? Their attitude toward the Word of God and the will of God. If we are nourished by the Word and submit to His will, the furnace experience, painful as it may be, will refine us and make us better. But if we resist God’s will and fail to feed on His truth, the furnace experience will only burn us and make us bitter.

Job had a second complaint.

“God is frightening me” (Job 23:13–17). “But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases” (v. 13 niv). Job had no other gods to turn to for help, and no way to oppose God or change His mind. God runs the universe by decree, not by consensus or democratic vote. His thoughts and ways are far above ours, but He knows what is best, and we must accept His will and rejoice in it (Isa. 55:8–11).

Those who resist or deny the sovereignty of God rob themselves of peace and courage. “There is no attribute of God more comforting to His children than the doctrine of divine sovereignty,” said Charles Haddon Spurgeon. “On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings.” Why? Because the human heart is proud and does not want to submit to Almighty God. People want to do their own thing and do it their way, rather than find delight in doing the will of God.

If this doctrine is such a source of strength, then why was Job so frightened when he thought about the sovereignty of God? It was because he suffered so much and wondered what Almighty God would send to him next. It’s one thing to submit to God when you can see His face and hear His voice in His Word. But when, like Job, you are in darkness and pain, it is easy to fall apart and become frightened. “He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store” (Job 23: niv). What will happen next?

But Job 23: must be contrasted with Jeremiah 29:11: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” (niv). The future is your friend when Jesus Christ is your Lord, and you need not be afraid. Psychologist Rollo May writes, “The most effective way to ensure the value of the future is to confront the present courageously and constructively.” And the best way to do that is to submit to the Lord and realize that He is in control. “Alleluia! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth” (Rev. 19:6).

“God perplexes me” (Job 24:1–25). This entire chapter focuses on the seeming injustices that God permits in this world. Job opens his speech by asking in effect, “Why doesn’t God have specific days to hold court? Then I could attend and tell Him what I think of the way He is running the world!”

Job starts with injustices in the country (vv. 1–11), and then moves to crimes in the city (vv. 12–17). He closes his speech with a curse on the wicked (vv. 18–25). If God won’t judge them, Job will!

(1) Injustices in the country (vv. 1–11). For the most part, no walls or fences separated the farmlands; each family had its plot, and people respected the landmarks (“boundary stones,” niv; see Deut. 19:14; Prov. 22:28; 23:10). God promised to curse those who moved the landmarks and stole property (Deut. 27:17), but wicked men did it just the same.

But they didn’t stop there. They not only claimed the land, but also the animals that grazed on the land! They took flocks and donkeys and oxen from widows and orphans and left them in poverty. Job 24:5–11 gives one of the most graphic pictures of the plight of the poor found anywhere in the Bible. See them foraging for food like wild animals in the desert (vv. 5–6), freezing because they have no clothing (v. 7), drenched by the rain because they have no houses to live in (v. 8), weeping because their children have been snatched from their arms until they pay their debts (v. 9), and forced to work for the rich and yet not allowed to eat any of the food that they harvest (vv. 10–11). Even the oxen are permitted to eat the grain that they thresh (Deut. 25:4)!

“Now,” says Job to his friends, “if God judges the wicked, why hasn’t He judged those who have treated the poor so unjustly and inhumanely?”

(2) Crimes in the city (vv. 12–17). Job begins with murders (vv. 12–14); he hears the groans of the wounded and sees the death of the innocent. On the average, sixty Americans are murdered every day, a total of nearly 22,000 people annually. That’s like wiping out an entire city about the size of Fairbanks, Alaska; or El Cerrito, California; or Augusta, Maine. Some of these murderers are never identified, arrested, or convicted; and Job says, “But God charges no one with wrongdoing” (v. 12 niv). Job had never murdered anybody, yet his friends said he was under the judgment of God!

In verse 15, Job mentions sexual sins, which are certainly rampant in some parts of our cities. The adulterer and the rapist wait for the darkness before they sneak out to satisfy their desires. Also waiting for the darkness is the thief, who breaks into houses (vv. 16–17). “There is crime in the city,” said Job, “and God seems to be doing nothing about it.”

(3) A curse on the wicked (vv. 18–25). This passage may be seen as a description, telling what will happen to the wicked (kjv, niv, nasb); or it may be interpreted as a denunciation, a curse on the wicked (nkjv). I think it refers to Job’s personal curse on the wicked, who seem to escape judgment.

Job’s malediction can be summarized like this: “May the wicked vanish like foam on the water or snow that melts in the heat of the sun (vv. 18–19). May they be forgotten by everyone, even their own mothers, as they rot in the grave (v. 20). May their wives be barren and give them no heirs (v. 21). May their sense of security and success vanish quickly as they are brought low, mowed down like wheat in the harvest” (vv. 22–24).

“Now,” says Job to his three critics, “if what I’ve said is not true, prove me wrong!” (v. 25) But they never did.

Job is to be commended for seeing somebody else’s troubles besides his own and for expressing a holy anger against sin and injustice. Too often, personal suffering can make us selfish and even blind us to the needs of others, but Job was concerned that God help others who were hurting. His three friends were treating the problem of suffering in far too abstract a fashion, and Job tried to get them to see hurting people and not just philosophical problems. Jesus had the same problem with the Jewish lawyer who wanted to discuss “neighborliness,” but not discover who his neighbor was and then try to help him (Luke 10:25–37).

Injustices in society cause a good deal of pain in people’s lives, and we should certainly do all we can to uphold the law and promote justice. But those who make the laws and those who enforce them are only human and can’t deal with everything perfectly. One of these days, the Lord Jesus Christ will return, judge the wicked, and establish His righteous kingdom. Till He comes, we will have to accept the reality of evil in this world and keep praying, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:20).