Job 23:1 ¶ Then Job answered and said,
Job 23:2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Job 23:4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
Job 23:6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
Job 23:7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
Job speaks up once again, noting that God has not eased up on Him despite the depth of his distress. He wishes once again that he could get an audience with God to present his case declaring his innocence. He thinks if he could just talk with God, He could make Job understand why he was inflicted with such suffering. Job is sure that God would give him a fair hearing. He is sure that once he presented his case to God personally, he would be delivered and declared not guilty.
Job is both right and wrong in his assumptions. He is right in assuming that God would deal with him justly. He was wrong in thinking that he needed to present his case before God to inform him of his innocence. He had lost sight of the truth that God knows everything about us—even our thoughts.
Psalms 139:1–4 “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. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.”
Job 23:8 ¶ Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
Job 23:9 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:
Job feels like God has hidden Himself from him. No matter in what direction he looks, he cannot find God. He admits that though he cannot find God, God knows all about him. There are times that I think many of us can relate with what Job expresses in these verses.
Chuck Smith made an interesting observation: “Why is it that we’re always looking around for God rather than looking up for God? It’s because man has always sought to bring God down to his own level. They call, or they have what they call the anthropomorphic concept of God. That is, viewing God as a man. And this is extremely common because most of the time a man’s god is really a projection of himself.”
Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job 23:11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Job 23:12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
Job again expresses confidence that when God has tested him, he will come forth as gold—pure and blameless. I liked this quote from Spurgeon used by Guzik: “It looks very hard to believe that a child of God should be tried by the loss of his Father’s presence, and yet should come forth uninjured by the trial. Yet no gold is ever injured in the fire. Stoke the furnace as much as you may, let the blast be as strong as you will, thrust the ingot into the very center of the white heat, let it lie in the very heart of the flame; pile on more fuel, let another blast torment the coals till they become most vehement with heat, yet the gold is losing nothing, it may even be gaining.”
Job’s confidence is rooted in the fact the he has always lived in obedience before God. Hiding God’s word in his heart has been a priority in his life—even over the food his body needed to stay alive and healthy.
This raises the question—To what commandments and words of God did Job refer? He certainly seems to be referring to some sort of written record.
How many of us can truly say that we treasure the intake of God’s word more than food? I can honestly say that finally, after six decades of life, this is becoming true about me more and more as time goes on. I treasure the time I get to spend in God’s word and rejoice and take comfort in those portions that are hidden in my heart. Never would I have dreamed that I would be able to leave a legacy of a record of my own personal journey through God’s word.
I agree with this comment in the NIV Commentary: “Job’s words have to be the words either of a terrible hypocrite or of a deeply committed believer.”
Job 23:13 ¶ But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
Job 23:15 Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
Job 23:16 For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
Job 23:17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
Job recognized that there is no one like God, no one that can stand against Him and thwart His purposes. He does whatever He wants to do. He will act in accordance with His own purposes for Job both now and in the future. It is that truth that is so frightening to Job when he thinks about standing before God.
I liked the CJB translation for verses 16-17: “God has undermined my courage; Shaddai frightens me. Yet I am not cut off by the darkness; he has protected me from the deepest gloom.”
Though Job has a healthy fear and reverence of God, he knows that God is still protecting him in the midst of his suffering.
Job’s fear of God testifies to his wisdom.
Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom….”
Job 24:1 ¶ Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?
As Job continues, he wonders why God doesn’t keep set times for judgment, why those that know Him (as LORD is implied) are kept waiting for Him to show up on their behalf and punish the wicked.
The NIV states it more clearly: “Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?”
Job 24:2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.
Job 24:3 They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
Job 24:4 They turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide themselves together.
Job 24:5 Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children.
Job 24:6 They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
Job 24:7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.
Job 24:8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.
Job 24:9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor.
Job 24:10 They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry;
Job 24:11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.
Job 24:12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.
As I read through this section, it seems like Job goes on a rant about all that wicked men do and how the poor and needy suffer—yet God doesn’t seem to take notice. They steal from others, especially taking advantage of the needy and poor. The poor are reduced to scavenging for food and doing without the clothing they need to keep warm. Fatherless children are taken from their mothers as security for debt. They are forced to work for the wealthy without proper provision. Though they are oppressed and suffer deadly wounds, it seems that God doesn’t notice.
I assume that these are observations Job has made throughout his life, or maybe they are things that have come to his notice since becoming one of the poor and needy.
Verse 24 sums up the problem with which so many struggle in light of the sovereignty of God—Why does He allow men to get away with so much evil and why does He allow so much suffering?
Job 24:13 ¶ They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.
Job 24:14 The murderer rising with the light killeth the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.
Job 24:15 The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face.
Job 24:16 In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
Job 24:17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
Job notes that some of those that are wicked prefer to do their evil deeds in the darkness of night—e.g., murderers, thieves and adulterers. They think that they are getting away with their evil, that it protects against witnesses. They are comfortable working in the dark; it holds no terror for them. This reminds me of a verse in John.
John 3:19 “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
It is the morning that they fear, because they want no witnesses.
Sad to say, but in our culture today, the wicked often proudly flaunt their wicked actions without shame, daring us to forbid them the right to do so.
Job 24:18 ¶ He is swift as the waters; their portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.
Job 24:19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters: so doth the grave those which have sinned.
Job 24:20 The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a tree.
It makes more sense to me to read this the way the CJB translates it—as calling down a curse on the wicked.
“May they be scum on the surface of the water, may their share of land be cursed, may no one turn on the way of their vineyards, may drought and heat steal away their snow water and Sh’ol those who have sinned. May the womb forget them, may worms find them sweet, may they no longer be remembered — thus may iniquity be snapped like a stick.”
Job 24:21 He evil entreateth the barren that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow.
Job 24:22 He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life.
Job 24:23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways.
Job 24:24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.
I think Job is saying in this section that even though wicked men seem to be getting away with their evil deeds, God is well aware of what is going on. Eventually, they will be taken away as surely as corn that is cut from the stalk.
Courson: At this point, I think we see something happening in Job that is commendable. He is not simply focused on himself. Even in the midst of his own unbelievable difficulty and trial, he’s looking around, saying, ‘Others are going through deep waters as well.’…Sometimes, in the midst of our own trials, the best thing we can do is simply take our eyes off ourselves, look around, and see what others are dealing with. It is often only in the midst of our own difficulties that we gain a greater sensitivity to the storms others are navigating.”
Job 24:25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Job closes by asking, “Who can prove me wrong?”