Job and the Contemplation of God

 

Job and the Contemplation of God

Throughout this book, Job is asking questions and offering defenses and doing his best to understand what has come upon him. Job faces that which has no explanation in his realm of experience. The book begins with a description of Job, a man of considerable wealth and spiritual maturity. Job was a man greatly blessed by God in every significant aspect of his life.

After this introduction, the writer describes an encounter between God and Satan as the devil complains about God’s protection of Job. Satan argues that Job is faithful only because he has been given so much. God allows Satan to test his theory by granting him access to Job. Thereafter, Job suffered greatly. He was afflicted physically and witnessed the loss of his possessions and family.

Much of the book records the thinking of Job’s friends as they attempt to explain what has happened to this man. In essence, they are convinced that Job is a great sinner and that God has punished him as a result. All Job needed to do, according to these men, was repent and confess his sins to God. But Job responds in the only way a righteous man can respond—he declares that he has no sin that is unconfessed. The explanation offered by his friends is misguided, but they maintain that Job is proud and not teachable.

Eventually, of course, God speaks to Job and he quickly realizes how foolish some of his thinking has been. Nevertheless, throughout Job’s interaction with his friends, we find much insight when it comes to understanding ourselves in relation to God. One such passage comes after a speech by one of Job’s friends in which the friend once again chastises Job for his supposed pride and urges him to repent:

Job 23:1 Then Job replied, 2 “Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite 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 learn the words which He would answer, and perceive what He would say to me. 6 Would He contend with me by the greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me. 7 There the upright would reason with Him; and I would be delivered forever from my Judge. 8 Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; 9 When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.”

The agony of Job can be heard in his plea: “Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat!” (v. 3) From Job’s perspective, he is sure of his innocence in regard to what his friends are declaring, but later Job learns that this kind of statement is full of presumption and is very foolish indeed. At this point, Job is thinking purely in terms of his perspective on the matter, not in terms of God’s perspective—this perspective is revealed to him later. For now, as noted, Job is sure that he could demonstrate his innocence to God were he given the opportunity.

In time, Job will be satisfied with the knowledge that God has ordained his trials for purposes that Job need not understand. But now he is still wrestling with what has come upon him and in an honest and open fashion, he expresses his dismay. As he has said so many times before, Job knows that he is not guilty of living unfaithfully before the LORD (v. 7). But this still leaves him suffering and having to listen to the misguided analyses of his friends. Job longs to speak to God because only God knows why all this has happened; but he cannot find Him and this only makes him feel more dejected (cf. vv. 8, 9).

This book opens with the statement that Job was “blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil” (1:1). This man doesn’t understand why all this has happened, but he is going to find a measure of relief and peace as he contemplates God:

23:10 But He knows the way I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 11 My foot has held fast to His path; I have kept His way and not turned aside. 12 I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. 13 But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that He does. 14 For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him. 15 Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence; when I consider, I am terrified of Him. 16 It is God who has made my heart faint, and the Almighty who has dismayed me, 17 But I am not silenced by the darkness, nor deep gloom which covers me.”

Let your heart dwell on that first statement: “But He knows the way I take…” God was aware of Job’s circumstance; these things had not come upon him without God’s knowledge. Job was not caught up in some trick of fate. Job knew that the LORD God rules this creation and that He knows everything that transpires.

This is where Job’s knowledge of God rescues him from utter despair; this is where Job stops and contemplates God, rather than focusing solely on his circumstances, and in his contemplation, he realizes that the Almighty knows him and his ways. This causes Job to see his suffering in the proper light—“when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

Yes, Job was suffering—beyond anything he ever imagined; and yes, Job has lost every earthly possession—including his children. But there is relief even in such horrible situations and the relief is the knowledge that God knows where I am and God knows what is happening to me and God will bring me through this and when he does, “I shall come forth as gold.”

Job had no way of knowing about the scene described when this book opened, no way of knowing that God had given Satan permission to vex Job in order to show that Job was, indeed, a man of faith and not a worshiper of the LORD only because he had an easy and prosperous life, as Satan charged. While not even realizing it, Job is glorifying God as he endures. While not even being aware of all the facts, Job is honoring God by refusing to accept the erroneous explanations of his friends but also, at the same time, expressing confidence in the LORD’s righteousness and goodness.

This man accepts what has been appointed for him even though he is greatly perplexed (v. 13). He has no definitive explanation for what has happened to him, but he knows that God does what He pleases and confesses also that what is happening to him is what has been appointed (v. 14). What, then, is the ultimate response, or what is the ultimate answer for Job? He must accept what God has ordained because it is right; he must rest in what God has ordered because it is good. He knows that God is so great and so magnificent that he would be “dismayed” in God’s presence (v. 15).

“When I consider, I am terrified of Him,” Job adds. Job hasn’t lost his reverence for God. He is meditating on the nature of God at this moment and speaking truthfully. That word “consider” (biyn) means “to understand.” “When I understand, when I’m thinking rightly of God,” Job means, “I am terrified of Him.” Job means that when he stops and reflects on God’s nature and contemplates all he knows to be true about God, he is overwhelmed by God’s greatness and majesty and holiness and magnificence.

Had Job not known God as he obviously did, he would have been destroyed—and that is the point of this story. Satan said that Job served God only because God had blessed Job with so much, but God knew that Job served Him because Job loved God and knew the character of God and was moved to a life of faithfulness by that knowledge.

Finally, Job says what we all know to be true because we know the whole story contained in this book: “It is God who has made my heart faint, and the Almighty who has dismayed me.” (v. 16) A brief contemplation of the nature of God has brought Job a measure of confidence and peace that will aid him well in the face of his friends’ continuing accusations. Job’s last words in this chapter indicate that he is revived to a degree (v. 17). He is ready to speak in praise of God. And this he does as the next chapter indicates. He has measured his woes in light of what he knew about the nature of God. He has put his suffering in perspective by turning his attention to the LORD.

Let us recognize the fact that this did not immediately change his circumstances. His children didn’t rise from the dead; his flocks weren’t returned instantly; his physically suffering was not relieved. But Job’s heart was aligned rightly by this contemplation of God.