Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!
Job is still under a blow he cannot explain, and his reply to his friends turns away from them and toward God. Two questions run through the verse: why could a man who wanted God so much not find Him, and what did he expect if he did?
A cry toward God, not away from Him
Readers often hear only complaint here. Commentators point to where the complaint is aimed: Job wants to get closer to God, not further away.
J. N. DarbyIn chapter 23, we see Job's confidence in God, and his desire for God, although the stroke was bitter. He said, "Oh, that I knew where I might find him!" He did not attempt to keep away from God. He had such a sense of what God is that he wanted to get to Him, "even to his seat."… There was no wretched, hypocritical effort to keep away from God. He knew he had to do with God. In his heart he wanted to get to Him, though his conscience kept him away.
Job expected that meeting to go well, and the reason lay in what he knew God to be.
William KellyHere was a godly heart, even though he felt the sting of his terrible sufferings… He was not afraid of what God would say. God was sure to be good, because He loved, and because of what Job knew Him to be.
What he meant to do at that seat
"His seat" is God's own dwelling, and Job pictures himself arriving there as a man with a case prepared. There is boldness in it, and that boldness did not survive his later meeting with God.
Samuel RidoutWith this sense of outrage, Job desires to go before God and lay charges against Him! He would come boldly into His presence, into His very home. He would lay his case before Him with his mouth full of arguments. He even challenges God to reply: "I would know the words which He would answer me." That is how a righteous man can speak while he is far from God. How different it was when he had his desire and God appeared to him!
Ridout still draws a lesson from it for anyone who has more doubt than faith.
Samuel RidoutIt is always better to bring even our doubts of God to Himself, if we have nothing else to bring.
The blow he felt, from a God he could not find
Two things are true at once, and that is the pain of the verse: God's hand is on Job, and Job cannot find Him.
F. B. HoleHere he was full of bitter complaint. Yet he felt that the weight of the stroke laid on him was beyond any groan he uttered. The stroke came from God, yet he did not know where He was, nor how he might find Him.
God grants the wish — and reverses the questions
Later in the book Job gets the meeting he asked for, but not on the terms he set.
F. B. HoleLook back at the beginning of Job 23. There Job, in a self-confident way, had expressed his wish to get into contact with God. He felt sure that he could order his cause before Him, fill his mouth with arguments, and know the words in which God would answer him. Now the moment had come for his wish to be granted. The Lord tells him to brace himself like a man and be ready to answer the voice of God. The questionings now should come from God.
Every man's cry, and the only road that answers it
Job's question is not only Job's. Commentators hear in it the cry of every person.
J. Wilson SmithHow, then, is this moral distance to be bridged? How can man ever reach God? Creation with its complex wonders cannot help him. The wisdom of the world is only guesswork. It leaves the unhappy student in a fog of uncertainty… But still the cry of man is, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" (Job 23:3). For, after all, the poor needy creature longs for a knowledge of his Creator.
The answer the commentators give is not a better search, but a God who moved first.
J. N. DarbyIf we look at Christ, we shall find that He exactly meets the need that Job felt… God in His person came to me in this world because I could not do anything. The blessed Lord did not wait up in heaven, but came to these unrighteous people. He never said "Come to me," until He had come Himself.
James BoydBy nature we neither know God, nor where to find Him. Job says, "Oh that I knew where I might find him! I would come even to his seat!" The gospel makes God known to us… and we learn this in Christ, in whom He is to be found; and we turn to Christ, and in turning to Christ we turn to God, for in Him we meet a Saviour-God.
Summary
- Wanted. Job's cry is desire for God, not flight from Him. His conscience held him back; his heart pressed on toward God's seat.
- Unfound. The blow came from God, yet Job could not find Him. He was sure of the hand and blind to the face.
- Answered. God granted the wish. But then the questions came from God, not from Job with his mouth full of arguments.
- Shared. The same cry rises from every heart. Creation and human wisdom leave the search unfinished.
- Found. God did not wait for man to reach Him. He came in Christ, and met the very need Job felt.