Context No. 2838 of 4322 · Job

Job 23:1-17: in context

1Then Job answered, 2“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning. 3Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! 4I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would tell me. 6Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No, but he would listen to me. 7There the upright might reason with him, so I should be delivered forever from my judge. 8“If I go east, he is not there. If I go west, I can’t find him. 9He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of him. 10But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I will come out like gold. 11My foot has held fast to his steps. I have kept his way, and not turned away. 12I haven’t gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. 13But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does. 14For he performs that which is appointed for me. Many such things are with him. 15Therefore I am terrified at his presence. When I consider, I am afraid of him. 16For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me. 17Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither did he cover the thick darkness from my face.

Job is still in agony, and his longing takes a striking shape: if only I knew where to find him, he says, I would come to his seat, lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. He is convinced God would not merely overpower him but actually listen. Yet God is nowhere he looks, not east or west, north or south.

And then the anchor line: but he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come out as gold. Job cannot find God, and yet he trusts that God can find him. In the dark of unanswered prayer he holds two things at once: I cannot see God, and God fully sees me. The testing that feels like abandonment is, he dares to believe, a refining meant to leave him gold. This is not the absence of fear; he says plainly that God's presence terrifies him. It is a trust that outlasts the darkness.

When I cannot find God in my trouble, can I still trust that he sees me and is refining, not abandoning, me?

Sources

Job 23:10: "But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I will come out like gold."
Psalm 139:8: "If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!"
1 Peter 1:7: "That the proof of your faith... more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire."