Where Is He? … by Justin Mears

Today’s Reading – Job 22 – 26 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers Read – 1 Thessalonians 1 – 5; Psalms 51 – 55; Proverbs 11)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 61:1 – 3

Read the “0611 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! … Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:” (Job 23:3 and 8)

Job is going through the worst trial he has ever been through. He has lost everything including his wife, because she is struggling just as he is. They are going through this, not together, but separate. Now Jobs friends eager to help attempt to give clarity and understanding, however sound their advice might be (to someone who had sinned against God, and done something in need of God’s punishment), it just isn’t the case for Job. They tried to understand and even thought they did, but in the end they were only doing damage. They were in reality bringing Job to a place of even more loneliness. The cherry on top, is when Job expresses his deepest pain. In v. 3, he says: “Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat!, and then in v. 8: “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:” Job in essence feels absolute loneliness. He doesn’t have anyone to talk to, or have anyone that might encourage him. He even says in v. 9 that God “hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:” What hopelessness Job must feel.

Have you ever felt alone? Ever felt as though God was hiding from you? You looked to your spouse and they are too broken to help you, and your friends are too sure of themselves to grasp your confusion and pain. It seems as though noone understands and even more importantly, you don’t understand. The largest question in the midst of trials is “why?” Job makes mention of this in v. 5: “I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.” Why would an answer from God help? He says in v. 6: “he would put strength in me.” It gives us a bit of strength to simply understand. It’s been said that people can handle bad news better than no news. The anticipation gives great agony. Though Job doesn’t get an answer, the bit of encouragement he does find is that, though none of us understand, God does. Verse 10 states: “But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” This is the place God must bring us to, in order to build our faith in Him. He puts us in the fire to purify his gold. He is using us for which we were designed……to bring Him glory. God has a way of bringing us down to one… “The One”. God is our only hope! We know it with the head everyday, but with our hearts is the question. 

“That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (1 Peter 1:7)