Job 23:10

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).