Where is God?

“Oh that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat!  Job 23:3

The last advice that Eliphaz had given to Job would have sounded positive to him except for the fact that Eliphaz was assuming that Job was a wicked sinner who had abandoned God and all he needed to do was to return to Him to restore his life back to what he once enjoyed.  The advice itself was true: repent, return, and be restored by the grace of God.  However, Job was weary of explaining his cause to his three friends for they sounded like a broken record:  “Job, you must be wicked because you are suffering.  Stop complaining and look to the LORD. ” Why should Job continue to argue in his own defense with these three judgmental men just to hear the same harsh rhetoric that he had been hearing for days, maybe weeks?  If only he could make his case before God.  If that was possible, he just knew that God would hear him out and make everything right.

The phrase, “the patience of Job”, is not always accurate.  In seeking an answer from the LORD, Job was more impatient than patient.  He was suffering, and he wanted it to stop, and stop now.  How could he find God?  How could he find his way to God’s throne?  If Job could only find God, he was certain that he could be bold and specific with his argument, and that God would rule in his favor.  Job was really counting on a positive reply from the LORD.  He had heard enough condemnation from his friends.  He did consider the chance that he would be so fearful and anxious before the Almighty when he finally came before Him, but then he dismissed that thought.  Surely God would strengthen him and give him the boldness to state the facts and let God be the Judge.  (Men and women who possess the righteousness of Christ will always be delivered from God’s wrath, not necessarily from chastening or from bearing on earth the consequences of sin, but they will not be condemned with the wicked.  Praise the Lord!)

Beside all of his troubles, Job’s additional dilemma was that he didn’t know where to find God.  He said if he looked to the left wherein lies God’s workshop, God was not there.  If he looked to the right, he thought God was hiding Himself from him.  Looking north, south, east, and west, there was no sign of God.  But wait.  Job began to think about how he had served God, helped others, and realized that God had been with him his whole life, watching over him, blessing him, and providing for him.  Job was unaware of what God had said about him to Satan, that Job was perfect, upright, one who feared God and stayed away from evil (1:1), thus verifying the righteousness of Job, what he had been claiming all along.  As he continued to think about his life and the goodness and justice of God, he realized that his meeting with God, after God examined him, would show that he was indeed a righteous man, pure as gold.  Job wasn’t claiming to be perfect, but he was confident that God would agree with him.

Even on Job’s most miserable day, he did not deny God nor walk away from Him.  Where could he go but to the LORD?  (Reminds me of an old gospel song).  He felt that God was his only friend.  Eliphaz had told Job to “lay up God’s words in his heart”, and Job felt that he had done and was now doing that.  Matthew Henry wrote, “The word of God is to our souls what our necessary food is to our bodies”.  He went on to say that we can’t live good lives without God’s word sustaining our minds, souls, and spirits.  Just think of all the people across the world who feed their bodies with food and drink, but their souls are starving literally to death.  There is no real life in one who is devoid of God’s Spirit.  People attempt to fill that void that only God can fill with all sorts of things that are of no real benefit to them.

God is the Master of all thought.  What He thinks is always right and true.  He doesn’t take counsel from anyone.  He doesn’t change His will, nor does He change His purposes.  Whatever plans the LORD had for Job would be accomplished.  God apparently wasn’t finished with Job.  God has His own timetable, His own agenda, and His plans and purposes for every individual.  No one can thwart God’s will.  Whatever happens to an individual, and God has an unlimited supply of not only punishments and corrections, but blessings as well, is pre-determined in God’s court of justice.  I think that Job was beginning to see that there was a plan for his life, but he couldn’t understand how his present condition could possibly fit into what lay ahead for him.

The more Job considered appearing before the Judge of all the earth, the more fearful he became.  He had been worried about not being able to find God, and now he was worried when he did find Him.  Perhaps Job’s prior attitude was a little too prideful and arrogant, and this fear that came upon him brought him back to the reality of the greatness and sovereignty of God Almighty.  Job had been allowed to live to experience this darkness.  God did not keep him from it, but rather allowed him to live and spend some time in the darkness of his soul.  Thus, there must have been a reason.

Next week:  Why aren’t the truly wicked judged?