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Job
Job 23.1-9 and 16-17
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1,2 I still rebel and complain against God;
I cannot keep from groaning.
3 How I wish I knew where to find him, and
knew how to go where he is.
4 I would state my case before him and present
all the arguments in my favour.
5 I want to know what he would say and how
he would answer me.
6 Would God use all his strength against me?
No, he would listen as I spoke.
7 I am honest; I could reason with God;
he would declare me innocent [a] once and
for all.
8 I have searched in the East, but God is not
there; I have not found him when I
searched in the West.
9 God has been at work in the North and the
South, but still I have not seen him.
16,17 Almighty God has destroyed my courage.
It is God, not the dark, that makes me afraid -
even though the darkness has made me blind.
Footnotes
Job 23:7 he would declare me innocent;
or then my rights would be safe.
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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union
When God feels far away
Job 23.1-9 and 16-17
I feel like using the phrase from old westerns, 'There's gold in them thar hills', 2
2 Mark Twain, The American Claimant, 1892
About this chapter.
It is a high point in Job's defence and reveals some of the secrets of his survival through so much pain and criticism.
He longs to appear before God to state his case (v 4).
Job believes that a mortal man can gain access to the throne of God. Well ahead of his time, he sees a day when God's throne will touch earth, like John who saw 'the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven'.3
3 Rev 21:2
What Job fails to grasp is that he is indeed taking part in a trial before God, not as a defendant but as a star witness.
God knows the way we are taking, even when we do not. Our calling is to walk in his footsteps, carefully placing our own puny feet in the marks left by his, nail-prints and all.
God was testing Job: he may be testing you.
You do not get a testimony without having a test. When Jesus was tested in the desert, by hunger, thirst and raging temptations, he repeated the ancient maxim that man does not live by bread alone, but by God's word.5
5 Deut 8:3; Matt 4:4
Job is an example of this great truth.
God's words can feed us spiritually in ways that cannot be gained by physical food.
We need that sustenance today. Our souls are hungry. There certainly is gold in them thar hills!
Pray that God will strengthen your faith today by his Word.
Give thanks that he knows the way you are taking and is refining you to be like gold.
Author: Eric Gaudion
Other versions are available here
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