In the bitterness of his complaint and the heaviness of his stroke, Job makes known his desire to appeal directly to God. In the impossibility of this his faith is more and more severely tested; but he reposes in an assurance that the Divine eye is upon him, and he is confident of a just and even merciful sentence. So does conscious integrity uphold the tried and suffering believer, over whom for the present the shadows of suspicion gather, although the sufferer is tried by deferred judgment.
I. THE DEMAND FOR A PATIENT HEARING. Only the consciously upright would desire to plead with his judge. The self-accused tries to hide from the keen eye of detection and exposure; but he who knows himself to be unjustly accused may well desire to appear before a righteous tribunal. It is a high testimony to Job's character that he makes demand to be tried by One who cannot err (vers. 3-7). But his longing is not allayed. A further test is applied to his character. For the present, at least, judgment is denied him.
II. JUDGMENT WITHHELD, A FURTHER TRIAL. To the unjustly condemned no severer testing could be given than the withholding of the desired judgment. Job's hope is in God; but God is hidden. If he attempts to "go forward," behold "he is not there." If "backward," he "cannot perceive him." Turning to the right hand or to the left, it is the same. God, his Friend, is hidden. His only refuge is closed. How severely is faith tried and patience put to the proof by the hiding of God! The struggle is a spiritual one. The soul is cast upon the unseen. It is thrown back upon its integrity and upon its power to wait. It is the supreme test of faith. It precedes the dawn of the day of vindication, of judgment and deliverance. It is a further weight upon the already tried heart of the patriarch. To an afflicted spirit is added a suffering body, and for the present the cruel accusations of would-be friends, who mistake the discipline of God for his judgment against sin.
III. IT IS HERE THAT JOB'S FAITH IN THE DIVINE JUSTICE SHINES OUT WITH CLEARNESS. He knows God would not take advantage of his "great power" to plead that against him or to crush him with it. Nay, rather he would "put strength" in the poor suppliant. He would compassionate the oppressed, and concede to him. So Job comforts himself in the quiet repose upon the justice of the Divine decisions. The fruits of early obedience and faith are now gathered. He who sows in his own heart the seeds of Divine truth in earlier days, prepares for himself a harvest of consolation in the days of trial and adversity. Job is proving the blessedness of the man whose ways please the Lord.
IV. ALL THIS IS BASED UPON JOB'S CONSCIOUSNESS OF PERSONAL INTEGRITY. With confidence he rebuts the accusations of his accusing friends. He rejoices in the assurance of the Divine cognizance of his doings: "He knoweth the way that I take." Happy the man who can appeal with confidence to the searching of the Divine eye! Job may have had cause sufficient to be abased before God, but he is conscious of innocence of the charges preferred by his friends. Thus is falsely accused innocence sustained when its judgment is deferred. And Job appears a bright example of the comfort derived in affliction from faith in God and consciousness of untarnished integrity. - R.G.
Will He plead against me with His great power?
The idea of a God of power is common to all religions. Job felt that underneath all the mysteries of life there is a Divine righteousness. When any godly man feels that, he can bear a great deal. It is useless shutting our eyes to the great difficulties there are in human history, and indeed in every individual life. We cannot always say that we feel God to be good and wise; but we know Him to be so; and that is all that is required of our faith.
I. LIFE IN ITS PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT. In one sense prophecies must fail. We cannot prophesy, from the career and circumstances of the grown man, what the coming days will bring with them, or how they will affect him. The one matter we are sure of is that God will not plead against the souls that love Him. The immediate exercises of the Divine will in providence are as wisely employed as the mediate ones through natural laws. The future can unfold nothing that is not quite as much the work of Divine goodness as of Divine power.
II. GOD IN HIS FATHERLY CHARACTER. The more we understand our own nature in its nobler aspects, the better should we understand God's relation to His children. If it were not for our human relationships, how could we understand the relationship of God to us? The parental relation is common to all nations. Will a parent plead against his child? Will the Great Father do what the earthly father will not?
III. GOD IN HIS ALMIGHTY CHARACTER. "With His great strength." That is all the more reason that He should be delicate, tender, considerate, and kind. The strength of God, if we meditated upon Him apart from His moral perfections, might lead us to the worship, not of a Father, but of infinite power.
IV. THE HEART IN ITS EMPHATIC No! An emphatic answer that. There are some things that the heart decides at once, and this is one of them. "Has God forgotten to be gracious?" Let us answer at once, and "No."
V. LIFE IN ITS HIDDEN SPRINGS. "He would put strength in me." This is what we want. Not absence of temptation or trial. The springs of life, fed by God, need feeding in proportion to the very strain and exercise of our inner life. The Christian who has to struggle up the Hill Difficulty, and who passes through those experiences that tend to exhaust his forces, has much need of the grace and strength of God.
VI. LIFE IN ITS PAST HISTORIES. We find this truth in experience as well as in the Bible. The ancestry of godliness is not a vain thing. The spiritual escutcheons of our families have symbols of moral victory in them.
VII. LIFE IN ITS RETRIBUTIVE ASPECTS. Here we come to a positive instead of a negative view of the text. Will God plead against us if we live in sin and guilt, neglectful of Christ, and the great salvation? How can He do otherwise?
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Abundance, Attention, Charges, Contend, Greatness, Heed, Listen, Nay, Overcome, Pay, Plead, Power, Press, Putteth, Strength, Strive, SurelyOutline
1. Job longs to appear before God6. in confidence of his mercy8. God, who is invisible, observes our ways11. Job's innocence13. God's decree is immutableDictionary of Bible Themes
Job 23:3-9 1441 revelation, necessity
Library
April 4 Evening
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.--PSA. 61:2. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.--He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.--Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.--Thou …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily PathMay 16 Evening
I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel.--PSA. 16:7. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor.--Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding, I have strength.--Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.--Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.--Thine …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path
September 30 Morning
He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.--JOB 23:10. He knoweth our frame.--He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path
November 24 Evening
What doest thou here, Elijah?--I KGS. 19:9. He knoweth the way that I take.--O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting, and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path
April 21 Morning
Stand fast in the Lord.--PHI. 4:1. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. The Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever.--The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back into perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.--If they had been of us, they would no doubt …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path
October 20 Morning
I delight in the law of God after the inward man.--ROM. 7:22. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.--Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.--I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.--I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.--My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path
February 25 Evening
Oh that I knew where I might find him!--JOB 23:3. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.--Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Truly our …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path
Order and Argument in Prayer
It is further observable that though a good man hastens to God in his trouble, and runs with all the more speed because of the unkindness of his fellow men, yet sometimes the gracious soul is left without the comfortable presence of God. This is the worst of all griefs; the text is one of Job's deep groans, far deeper than any which came from him on account of the loss of his children and his property: "Oh that I knew where I might find HIM!" The worst of all losses is to lose the smile of my God. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 12: 1866
The Question of Fear and the Answer of Faith
It is one of the sure marks of a lost and ruined state when we are careless and indifferent concerning God. One of the peculiar marks of those who are dead in sin is this: they are the wicked who forget God. God is not in all their thoughts; "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." The sinful man is ever anxious to keep out of his mind the very thought of the being, the existence, or the character of God; and so long as man is unregenerate, there will be nothing more abhorrent to his taste, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857
Whither Goest Thou?
Job could not understand the way of God with him; he was greatly perplexed. He could not find the Lord, with whom aforetime he constantly abode. He cries, "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him." But if Job knew not the way of the Lord, the Lord knew Job's way. It is a great comfort that when we cannot see the Lord, He sees us, and …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 35: 1889
The Infallibility of God's Purpose
The text will be considered by us this morning--first, as enunciating a great general truth; and, secondly, out of that general truth, we shall fetch another upon which we shall enlarge, I trust, to our comfort. I. The text may be regarded as TEACHING A GENERAL TRUTH. We will take the first clause of the sentence, "He is in one mind." Now, the fact taught here is, that in all the acts of God in Providence, he has a fixed and a settled purpose. "He is in one mind." It is eminently consolatory to us …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 7: 1861
Of the Decrees of God.
Eph. i. 11.--"Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."--Job xxiii. 13. "He is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth." Having spoken something before of God, in his nature and being and properties, we come, in the next place, to consider his glorious majesty, as he stands in some nearer relation to his creatures, the work of his hands. For we must conceive the first rise of all things in the world to be in this self-being, the first conception …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
Some Scriptures for Daily Practise.
If we seek God earnestly in the prayer of faith to help us in our daily practise of the following Scriptural texts and then put forth our best efforts, we shall find life daily growing more holy and beautiful. The beauty and enjoyment of a holy life is that it can always be improved upon. We can live in all the light that shines upon us from these texts today, but tomorrow we find them shining a little brighter and fuller light, so that we shall have to live a little more holy than we are living …
C. E. Orr—How to Live a Holy Life
Job --Groping
"Lord, teach us to pray."--Luke xi. 1. "Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat."--Job xxiii. 3. THE Book of Job is a most marvellous composition. Who composed it, when it was composed, or where--nobody knows. Dante has told us that the composition of the Divine Comedy had made him lean for many a year. And the author of the Book of Job must have been Dante's fellow both in labour and in sorrow and in sin, and in all else that always goes to the conception, and the …
Alexander Whyte—Lord Teach Us To Pray
The Case of the Christian under the Hiding of God's Face.
1. The phrase scriptural.--2. It signifies the withdrawing the tokens of the divine favor.--3 chiefly as to spiritual considerations.--4. This may become the case of any Christian.--5. and will be found a very sorrowful one.--6. The following directions, therefore, are given to those who suppose it to be their own: To inquire whether it be indeed a case of spiritual distress, or whether a disconsolate frame may not proceed from indisposition of body,--7. or difficulties as to worldly circumstances.--8, …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul
Prayer.
CHARACTERISTICS OF PRAYER. WHAT is prayer? A sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God hath promised. The best prayers have often more groans than words. Alas, how few there be in the world whose heart and mouth in prayer shall go together. Dost thou, when thou askest for the Spirit, or faith, or love to God, to holiness, to saints, to the word, and the like, ask for them with love to them, …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan
The Best Things Work for Good to the Godly
WE shall consider, first, what things work for good to the godly; and here we shall show that both the best things and the worst things work for their good. We begin with the best things. 1. God's attributes work for good to the godly. (1). God's power works for good. It is a glorious power (Col. i. 11), and it is engaged for the good of the elect. God's power works for good, in supporting us in trouble. "Underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deut. xxxiii. 27). What upheld Daniel in the lion's den? …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial
Sovereignty of God in Administration
"The LORD hath prepared His Throne In the heavens; and His Kingdom ruleth over all" (Psa. 103:19). First, a word concerning the need for God to govern the material world. Suppose the opposite for a moment. For the sake of argument, let us say that God created the world, designed and fixed certain laws (which men term "the laws of Nature"), and that He then withdrew, leaving the world to its fortune and the out-working of these laws. In such a case, we should have a world over which there was no intelligent, …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God
Letter ix. Meditation.
"Meditate upon these things."--1 TIM. 4:15. MY DEAR SISTER: The subject of this letter is intimately connected with that of the last; and in proportion to your faithfulness in the duty now under consideration, will be your interest in the word and worship of God. Religious meditation is a serious, devout and practical thinking of divine things; a duty enjoined in Scripture, both by precept and example; and concerning which, let us observe, 1. Its importance. That God has required it, ought to …
Harvey Newcomb—A Practical Directory for Young Christian Females
"Let any Man Come. "
[7] "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."--John 7:37-38. THE text which heads this paper contains one of those mighty sayings of Christ which deserve to be printed in letters of gold. All the stars in heaven are bright and beautiful; yet even a child can see that "one star differeth from another in glory" …
John Charles Ryle—The Upper Room: Being a Few Truths for the Times
Job
The book of Job is one of the great masterpieces of the world's literature, if not indeed the greatest. The author was a man of superb literary genius, and of rich, daring, and original mind. The problem with which he deals is one of inexhaustible interest, and his treatment of it is everywhere characterized by a psychological insight, an intellectual courage, and a fertility and brilliance of resource which are nothing less than astonishing. Opinion has been divided as to how the book should be …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament
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