Job 23:1

JOB’S SEVENTH REPLY, Job 23, 24.

1. Then Job answered In response to the touching exhortation of Eliphaz, calling him to prayer and holy living, Job pleads that his great misery is that he cannot find God. East, west, north, and south Job had earnestly sought God, but he seemed to hide Himself, lest, hearing his cause, love of righteousness should compel him to absolve his servant. Job’s consciousness of integrity the thought that if tried he should come forth like gold from the furnace buoys him up as he contemplates the absolute and unchangeable Arbiter of his fate. Chap. 24. He abruptly takes up again the line of thought pursued in the twenty-first chapter, with the question why it is, if God appoints days of judgment for the wicked, that his servants do not see them. On the contrary, God’s eye constantly rests on oppressors of every hue, who everywhere trample upon the defenceless poor, the groans and cries of whom cease not day nor night. Beneath the same Eye murderers and adulterers riot in the unholiest works of darkness. Instead of manifesting himself for the deliverance of the innocent and the punishment of the guilty, he grants these malefactors either an euthanasia, a quick and easy death, or else he lengthens out their life till at last, like ripened grain, they drop into the grave. Nowhere else are the perplexities of the divine government exhibited in so vivid colours; perplexities that now, as then, defy all human solution.