Job was a man who lived in the land of Uz, probably about the same time that Abraham lived, “and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” (v. 1) We see in the first two chapters of the book of Job that God pointed Job out to Satan as an example of an upright man who followed God with all his heart. He bragged on Job. Because Satan cannot understand goodness and godliness he accused Job of serving God only because God had blessed him so much. Job was a wealthy man and had ten children. God gave Satan permission to take away from Job all his possessions, even his children. Satan did that through various disasters. Job refused to sin and falsely accuse God of wrong doing. Of course, Job did not know that God had given Satan permission to cause the disasters that took from him all his possessions and the lives of his children. He thought God Himself did it. Since Job would not stop serving and worshipping God Satan requested to take Job’s health away from him. God gave him permission, except he could not take his life. Satan caused him to have very painful boils all over his body. Still Job would not curse God or falsely accuse Him of wrongdoing.
After a time three of Job’s friends came to sit with Job and comfort him. After hearing Job complain of his ill fate they tried to counsel him, and even started to falsely accuse Job of sins that might have caused God to treat him the way He did. They never knew Satan was the real cause of Job’s troubles. And it is in this setting that Job spoke the words of chapter 23.
Job 23: 1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Even today my complaint is bitter;
My hand is listless because of my groaning.
3 Oh, that I knew where I might find Him,
That I might come to His seat!
4 I would present my case before Him,
And fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words which He would answer me,
And understand what He would say to me.
6 Would He contend with me in His great power?
No! But He would take note of me.
7 There the upright could reason with Him,
And I would be delivered forever from my Judge. (i.e., God would take his troubles from
him)
8 “Look, I go forward, but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
9 When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him;
When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
10 But He knows the way that I take;
When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 My foot has held fast to His steps;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth
More than my necessary food.
13 “But He is unique, and who can make Him change?
And whatever His soul desires, that He does.
14 For He performs what is appointed for me,
And many such things are with Him.
15 Therefore I am terrified at His presence;
When I consider this, I am afraid of Him.
16 For God made my heart weak,
And the Almighty terrifies me;
17 Because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness,
And He did not hide deep darkness from my face.
I want to focus on verse 3, Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat!
Often when men find themselves in hard situations they want to tell God all about it. Usually they want to either curse Him or try to bargain with Him to get them out of their difficult circumstances. Nearly always the hard times are because of their own decisions and actions. Yet they want to blame God, or at least convince Him to make life easy and pleasant for them again. They want to be relieved of their present ill condition. In a sense this is what Job wanted. He desired to come before God that he might present his case before Him, that he might get some relief both from his losses and from his friends’ false accusations against him. It seems he wanted to present before God his innocence and uprightness and to argue that he should not be going through what he was, that God had no real reason to do what He did to him. He thought he could reason with God and God would see his point and agree with him and make things good again. He obviously did not know that God did not set him up for his ruin but to bless him, both as an example to Satan and all mankind, and to give him twice as much as he had before, including seven more children.
But Job did not know where to find God. He did not know where to go to present his case before Him. And that is the case with most people in the world. They may want to find Him but they have no idea where to look. They may want to find Him just to know Who He is and what He is like. They may want to curse Him and accuse Him of things that are their own fault. They may want to correct God, thinking they are wiser than He. They may even be one of the very few in the world who want to find Him that they might find forgiveness for their sins and be accepted into His family. But like Job, they do not know where to find Him. Maybe they should just give up.
The truth is, though, God is not at all hard to find. A man does not have to travel long distances to come to Him. He does not have to look behind every tree and bush or under every rock to find Him. God has not made Himself hard to find. He is hiding from no one.
Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, “For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
As is said in the text, God is not far from any of us. He has told us in the Bible that he is everywhere at all times. Anywhere anyone is, God is there. King David, in Psalm 139 said, “7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. 9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 10 Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.”
David realized He could go no where that God was not present. God is always near by when we want to find Him.
So why is it that men cannot seem to find God? God gives the answer to that also. Jeremiah 29:13 “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” That’s the key! A man must seek God with all his heart. He must be honest and sincere. He cannot come to God pretentiously. God knows every man’s motives and thoughts. And He will not be toyed with. A man must come to God seeking Him as He truly is, as He has told us He is in the Bible, or a man will never find Him. If a man will come to God in repentance from sin and seeking salvation, he will always find God. But if he wishes to come to God for his own selfish purposes God will not make Himself known to him.
Unknown to Job and to nearly everyone in the world, coming to God is easy and quick. Come to Him with a true heart to know Him, and God will let Himself be found. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” Seek Him now lest He refuse to let you find Him, for then there will be no hope and you will be eternally damned in the end.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis added.
