Lo, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I do not perceive him;
Job has just cried out that he wishes he knew where to find God. Verse 8 reports what that search found. He looks in every direction and cannot find Him. What does it mean for a believer to lose the sense of God's presence without losing God?
The verse is a compass sweep. "Forward" and "backward" are east and west. The next verse adds north and south. Even in that empty sky Job holds one certainty.
But there was his fresh trouble: he did not know where to find God. If he went east or west, it was equally useless; either He was not there, or Job could not perceive Him. If he turned to the north, with its hail and snow, where He works, he could not catch a glimpse of Him. Still less could he see Him where He veils the south in mist and cloud. But of this he was sure, that God knew the way with Job, and that, after His trial of him, he would come out as gold.
What the verse describes is not the calm of a man who has given up on God. It is the condition of someone who feels how far off God is and cannot rest until that distance closes.
Two points come out in Job 23 and Job 24. The first is that Job is aware of his distance from God, and while he feels it, he wants to be brought near. It is the true exercise of a quickened soul — groping, as it were, in darkness for what it longs after. "Behold," he says, "I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him." Along with this, he senses that God's purpose never changes.
Job's problem is not that he wants God less than his friends do. It is that he wants Him more, and cannot reach Him.
Their spirit was judicial from beginning to end, and such a spirit is always wrong... They did not know God as Job did. "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there." This was his trouble. He could not enjoy God, for he had not yet the key to his distress at His hand.
Underneath the searching, something steady is at work. Whatever Job says, his heart keeps turning back to the same point.
There, you see, was a heart always turned towards the centre of attraction, always to God. He might waver under the affliction — just as a needle may be very unsteady for a little. But leave it to rest, and it always turns to the pole.
Job's complaints in this chapter are sharp, and some of them are accusations. Even so, there is a better and a worse way to be wrong about God.
He doubts God's ways, accuses Him, but is confident that if he could only see Him all would be cleared... It is all a strange contradiction. Yet it is far better to long to go before God like this than to have the pride that would say to Him, "Depart from us, for we do not want the knowledge of Your ways." It is always better to bring even our doubts of God to Himself, if we have nothing else to bring.
The verse reads like a dead end, and it would be one if only one party were looking.
It is all most tragic; and if it were only Job seeking God, he might well sink in despair. But, unknown to himself, God is seeking Job, and will find him too, before long.
That reverses how the meeting will finally happen — not by a successful search, but by a surrender.
Job feels he has tried everything to find where he may meet with God. But God was not far from him, and God was seeking Job's deepest blessing. Job would not find it by his seeking, but by honest submission to God's hand.
Job's question — where is He? — is not his alone, and the answer does not come from more searching.
Wherever a heart desires to return to God, the gospel has produced that desire. And the gospel is the preaching of Christ. It tells us of the goodness of God, and where He is to be found. By nature we neither know God, nor where to find Him. The gospel makes God known to us. We learn that He is merciful, gracious, and full of kindness and love to man. We learn this in Christ, in whom He is to be found.
- Searching — Job looks east and west, north and south, and finds no trace of God.
- Longing — the search itself shows a living soul. He feels his distance from God and longs to be near Him.
- Turning — his heart works like a compass needle. Shaken for a while, it still turns back to God.
- Sought — if only Job were seeking, he would sink in despair. But God was near, seeking Job's deepest blessing.
- Found — the meeting comes by submission, not by searching. The gospel shows us God in Christ, where He is to be found.
On the left hand, where he doth work, but I behold [him] not; he hideth himself on the right hand, and I see [him] not.
Job has searched in every direction for God, and God stays out of view. The question is whether a God nobody can find has gone away — and why an upright man is the one left searching.
One commentator takes Job's four directions as the four points of the compass. Notice what the verse grants: God is at work on the left hand, and still Job cannot see Him.
There was his fresh trouble: he did not know where to find God. If he went east or west, it was equally useless; either He was not there, or Job could not perceive Him. If he turned to the north, with its hail and snows, where He works, he could not catch a glimpse. Still less could he see Him where He veils the south in mist and cloud.
Job keeps turning to look for God. That turning itself tells you what his heart is set on.
There, you see, was a heart always turned towards the centre of attraction, always to God. He might waver under the affliction. You know how a compass needle can be very unsteady for a little. But leave it to rest, and it always turns to the pole.
Job's search left two possibilities: God was not there, or Job could not perceive Him. Commentators point to the second. What Job has lost is not God, but the enjoyment of God.
He could not enjoy God; for he had not yet received the key to his distress from His hand. He desired Him. It made him miserable to be, in actual experience, at a distance from Him, with all these troubles coming in between to cloud His goodness from his soul.
Read on its own, the verse is a dead end. But Job is not the only one searching.
It is all most tragic; and if it were only Job seeking God, he might well sink in despair. But, without his knowing it, God is seeking Job, and will find him too, before long.
So the meeting Job wants will come. It will not come by the route he is trying:
Job feels he has tried everything to find where he may meet with God. He had gone forward and backward and to his right hand and his left, but it all left him completely frustrated. He could not find God. In fact, God was not far from him, and God was seeking Job's deepest blessing. Job would not find it by his seeking, but by honest submission to God's hand.
One commentator locates the obstruction in Job himself. He was an upright man, and his uprightness was the problem.
This section shows the reason that Job found himself unable to find God. Job's own righteousness was the hindrance... He was the most righteous man on earth. So he had too much confidence in his righteousness. God had to take from him the pride that his righteousness had caused in him.
Job is not politely asking after God here. He wants to confront Him. One commentator still counts that better than the alternative.
He doubts God's ways and accuses Him. Yet he is sure that if he could only see Him, everything would become clear... It is all a strange contradiction. Even so, it is far better to long to go before God like this than to have the pride that says to Him, "Depart from us! We do not desire the knowledge of Your ways." It is always better to bring even our doubts of God to Himself, if we have nothing else to bring.
- Search — The four directions cover the whole compass. Job looks everywhere a man can look, and God stays out of sight.
- Silence — God has not gone. Job cannot enjoy Him, because the trouble clouds God's goodness from his soul.
- Sought — While Job hunts for God and fails, God is seeking Job, and will find him before long.
- Surrender — What Job wants will not come by searching harder. It comes by honest submission to the hand that is on him.
- Sight — His own uprightness blocked his view. God had to take away the pride it had bred.
But he knoweth the way that I take; he trieth me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job has looked for God in every direction and cannot find Him. Yet he is sure of one thing: the God he cannot find still knows his path — even though he cannot see why that path hurts so much.
Job looks in every direction and finds nothing. But his heart still points one way, like a compass needle:
"Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him... but he knows the way that I take." There, you see, was a heart always turned towards the centre of attraction, always to God. He might waver under the suffering — just as a compass needle can be very unsteady for a while; but leave it to settle, and it always turns to the pole.
Job still wanted God. The trouble was distance: he could not get near enough to enjoy Him, and he had no explanation for his suffering.
He could not enjoy God, because he did not yet have the key to why this distress came from His hand. He wanted Him, and it made him miserable to be kept at a distance from Him in practice, with all these troubles coming in between and clouding His goodness from his soul. "When he has tried me, I shall come out as gold." He did not know how such testing could be for God's glory or for his own blessing; but he was fully sure of one thing: no one could fairly charge him with hypocrisy.
Job's picture is the refiner's furnace. God does not watch the fire from far off:
We are told in Proverbs that "The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts" (17:3). And, blessed be His name, He sits by the refining pot and watches closely until He sees His own face reflected in the melted silver. He walks in the fire with His own people. The furnace, even heated seven times hotter, can only burn away the ropes that bind them — or, to change the picture, burn the impurity out of the gold.
The fire does not mean the metal is worthless. It has a purpose, and that purpose reaches into the future:
Is it for nothing that gold is put in the furnace, or because it is not gold? No; it is to purify it. God, by trials, takes out of our hearts what is impure, so that when the glory arrives, we may enjoy it.
The words are true. But the man saying them is busy defending himself.
Not finding God, Job turns inward to himself, and again insists that he is righteous. God knows his way, "the way of the righteous" (Ps. 1:6), and after due trial, he will come forth as gold. It is all true, and yet the clear self-righteousness in it spoils the nobility of the words. It is not, "the tested genuineness of your faith — more precious than gold that perishes." We feel the real trial has not yet come.
Job was right that he would come out as gold. He was wrong about how it would happen.
As verse 10 shows, he still had confidence that God knew every step of the sorrowful path he was walking. He was sure God was testing him in it, and that in the end he would come out as gold. That indeed was the end finally reached but, we suspect, not in the way Job expected. For now, full of confidence in his own righteousness, he expected God to approve him. He did come out as gold — but through being humbled and judging himself before God. Then God lifted him up and blessed him richly.
What happened to Job is not an isolated case. Trial separates the genuine from the imitation, and it does so precisely because comfort never can.
It discovers true saints from hypocrites; unsound hearts pretend fair in prosperity, but in a time of persecution fall away (Matt. 13:20-21). Hypocrites will follow Christ to the Mount of Olives, but not to Calvary. Suffering times are sifting times. "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). God lets His children be in the furnace that they may be "partakers of His holiness" (Heb. 12:10).
- Known. Job could not find God in any direction, yet he was sure God knew his path. His heart kept its bearing like a needle swinging back to the pole.
- Tried. He knew God was testing him, but had no key to why. He was sure of God's knowledge without any explanation of God's ways.
- Refined. The fire is not there to find out whether the gold is real. It is there to purify it — and the Refiner sits beside it until He sees His own face in the metal.
- Humbled. Every word Job said here was true, yet self-righteousness spoiled it; the deepest trial had not yet touched him.
- Gold. He did come out as gold — not by God endorsing his record, but by judging himself before God. Then God lifted him up and blessed him richly.