October 12, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Job? Here’s today’s reading:
Job 23 (NIV)
Job
1 Then Job replied:
2“Even today my complaint is bitter;
his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
3 If only I knew where to find him;
if only I could go to his dwelling!
4 I would state my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments..…..Continue Reading
These words of Job feel familiar. There have been times in my life where I just don’t understand the trial I was facing and while I knew God was there the pain of the situation made me feel disconnected. Certainly I am not comparing my life to Job’s but his words here touched me. He wants to feel connected to God and he doesn’t, his faith is not wavering and he knows God is there but everything feels like it is crumbling around him and he just needs to feel the warmth of God’s loving embrace opposed to the hurt and the loneliness. I can’t imagine going through times like these without God because without Him there is no hope and with Him we always have that to keep us going.
Job is desiring to bring his bitter complaint before God so he could talk to Him face to face. Therefore he would plead his case that he is righteous for he has kept His way and has also esteemed the words of His mouth more than food. Job is certain that he is following the Lord and doesn`t understand why God doesn`t respond to him. But in all these thoughts of Job, he knows that God knows what is happening to him and in the end Job will come forth as gold. [ verse 10] Job also knows that God will do what He has appointed for him. [verse 14] For God can do whatever He desires. [ verse 13] Job has alot of Godly wisdom which only one can get by having a close walk with God. I am sure that he also grew through these trials and sufferings that God allowed. May God bless as He leads us through trials and may we put our trust in Him as Job has.
Key Verse for me – Verse 12: I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
It is Job’s dependence and absolute clinging to the Word of God that is enabling him to endure the silence of God. And, it could be said, that his dependence and clinging to God’s Word is exactly why God is able to leave him in silence, and it is why God knew that Job would endure the most severe trials that Satan could throw at him. This chapter of Job made me think of yesterday’s entry from Oswald Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest…I will share it here and I hope that it blesses and encourages you all!
“Has God trusted you with His silence— a silence that has great meaning? God’s silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible— with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him— He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God’s sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, “I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone instead” (see Matthew 7:9). He did not give you a stone, and today you find that He gave you the “bread of life” (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God’s silence is that His stillness is contagious— it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, “I know that God has heard me.” His silence is the very proof that He has. As long as you have the idea that God will always bless you in answer to prayer, He will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy— silence.”
Job 23; 1 Samuel 1
Job 22
Thanks for sharing, Sean. Once again in spite of the doubt Job has about where God is and what He is doing, he still expresses faith. He knows God is aware of what is going on and the choices job makes. He has not departed from His commands. He has treasured His word more than his daily bread. He knows who it is he stands before and just questions what God may do further. What confidence we have that God is for us and not against us.
Here
By the time I reached chapter 24 in the book of Job I find that the conversation is relevant to what’s happening in today’s world in the questions- discussions of believers and unbelievers today
Job 23
God is with us even if He is silent.
Job 23
If only I knew where to find him, if only I could go to his dwelling! God is omnipresent, he is right where we are even when we don’t feel like he is there. He does not tell us why we suffer pain and distress, but we can be sure of the fact that he works everything out for the good of those who love him. And we have the hope of everlasting life because we are innocent before him because of the faith we have in his Son, Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.