Job 23 and book of Job

Job now enters into a world in which he scarcely recognizes the friends. It is almost as if the struggle within has risen to such a level that he no longer needs to maintain the appearance of conversation. God alone is the one with whom he wants to speak. This prospect is both alluring and daunting to Job in chapter 23.*

*[I will treat Job 24 much more briefly in the next mini-essay.]

Confidence (23:3-7)

He begins by reappropriating the legal metaphors used earlier. "Oh, that I knew where I might find him.......I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments (vv. 3-4)." Job not only wants to present his case, but he would patiently "learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me (v.5)." So confident is Job of his cause that he knows God "would give heed to me (v. 6)." An upright person would be able to reason with God, he thinks (v. 7).

Job's Frustration (23:8-9)

As with Job's earlier resolution to "put on the happy face" (9:27), his plan to approach God is possibly frustrated. He simply can't find God. "If I go forward, he is not there; or backward, I cannot perceive him (v. 8). The thought is doubled, lest we miss the point. "On the left he hids, and I cannot behold him; I turn to the right, but I cannot see him (v. 9)." But Job is not deterred at this point.

Restated Confidence (23:10-12)

As if responding obliquely to Eliphaz's comment that he replace his confidence in the gold of Ophir with the gold of the Almighty (22:24-25), Job says, "But he (God) knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold (v. 10)." As a faithful servant Job has "treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth (v. 12)."

Renewed Fear (23:13-17)

Ultimately Job gets no further psychologically than in chapters 7 and 9. Job cannot force God's hand; "what he (God) desires, that he does (v.13)." This realization plunges Job anew into despair. If God can do what God wants, then he is not bound to the rules of the legal process. God can appear and blow him away. Thus, Job laments, "I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him (v. 15, compare 7:14; 9:34)." God's is ultimately unpredictable and uncontrollable. Because of the way he has been treated, Job has little confidence now that God would give him a "fair hearing." The strings of tension within Job are now pulled very taut. God is the only source of vindication (unless there is a Redeemer), and God is angry, unpredictable and possibly irrational. The abused child, Job, returns to the depths and can only say, in words that make no sense, but literally say, "But I am not cut off from the darkness and from me has he concealed the thick darkness (v. 17)." All he can do now is mumble incoherently about darkness.

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