For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind.
Job has been searching for God and cannot find Him. In that silence he holds on to one thing he is sure of: God's decision about him stands. This verse is Job's confession of God's fixed purpose. The surprise is that the confession does not comfort him. It frightens him.
The purpose that cannot be turned aside
These words follow the line before, where Job says God does not change and no one can turn Him. Older translations render that line, "He is of one mind." So nothing Job says or suffers can shift what God has already decided about him.
William KellyBut then there was the serious thought that God was certainly at work in these extraordinary afflictions. Job felt it was impossible to turn Him aside from His purpose, which no one can search out. What was appointed to him would come to pass without fail, for He has His mind, and does it always. So Job was dismayed before His face, and fear grew as he considered it.
What Job thought was appointed
Job assumed the appointed thing was the pain itself. He thought God had settled on punishing him and would not be moved. Commentators read it differently. The suffering was the means, not the end God had in view.
Samuel RidoutJob thought the thing appointed for him was only the misery and suffering he was going through. Instead it was the "needs be" that was to work patience. Job did not see the appointed "end of the Lord; that the Lord is very compassionate and of tender mercy." That end comes from a love too great for our complaint and unbelief to turn it aside from His purposes of blessing. Yes, "many such things are with Him": the path for each of His children is different, but the end is the same.
Sovereignty granted, grace not yet known
Job's theology here is not wrong so much as incomplete. He grants God sovereignty but not kindness. That gap turns a fixed purpose into terror.
Leslie M. GrantGod is indeed unique. But Job thought His uniqueness was only awe-inspiring majesty, and he did not understand God's unique love and grace. Job says that God does whatever His soul desires. But he thought God's desires had nothing to do with the real needs of His creatures. How totally wrong this idea was! It is true enough that God performs whatever may be appointed for people (v.14). But His appointments are not meant to inspire terror in the heart of a believer, as this did with Job.
The same double note appears in Kelly's reading of the speech. Job "granted His entire supremacy; he granted His sovereignty in the fullest degree." Yet he was "troubled that there was something between God and him; something with which God had a question, but what — he did not understand yet" (William Kelly).
The same truth, turned into comfort
Job's premise holds: God does not change, and His mind is settled. Read another way, that same truth becomes the ground of hope.
Frederick William GrantThe purpose is an "eternal purpose," from eternity, taking in an eternity to come. God does not shape His thoughts as circumstances arise. His thoughts and plans control the circumstances. How blessed to know that He is absolutely Master of all things... In another sense than Job meant, "He is of one mind, and who can change Him?" Redemption was not an impulse with Him — impulse comes from outside. It was the fruit of a purpose which was His before the world was.
The end Job did not expect
Earlier in the chapter Job had said he would come out as gold. He was right about the result and wrong about the route.
F. B. HoleHe did come out as gold, but as the result of humbling himself in self-judgment before God. Then God lifted him up and blessed him abundantly.
By the end of the book Job says the same thing about God's purpose, but now in worship, not dread. He "openly admits, as something realized in his soul, that Jehovah is able for all things, and no purpose can be withheld from Him" (William Kelly).
God was seeking him too
Job looked in every direction and could not find God. Ridout points to what Job could not see: "God is seeking Job, and will find him too, before long" (Samuel Ridout).
Summary
- Appointed — Job is sure God will do what He has determined for him. No argument of Job's can turn Him aside.
- Misread — he took the appointed thing to be his misery, when it was the "needs be" meant to work patience in him.
- Missing — he granted God full sovereignty but not love. So the settled purpose produced terror instead of rest.
- Many — "many such things are in his mind": the path of each of His children differs, but the end is the same for all.
- End — Job did come out as gold, but through self-judgment. In the end he confessed the very truth that had frightened him: no purpose can be withheld from God.