Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
Job is deep in misery, and he answers his friends by describing a God whose power he can trace everywhere but whom he can never see. So the verse raises the hardest question a sufferer asks: if God is at work in my life and I cannot see Him, how can I get a hearing with Him?
Where the verse sits in Job's reply
Chapter 9 is one long speech in stages. This verse opens the stage where Job turns from God's power to God's distance. One writer sets out the parts of the speech:
Samuel RidoutJob's reply begins quietly, moves on to bitter charges against God, and ends in a wail. It falls into seven parts... (1) God supreme; who can contend with Him? (Job 9:1-4). (2) His irresistible power (verses 5-10). (3) His inaccessibility, and His dealing as He pleases (verses 11-24). (4) Job's utter weakness (verses 25-28). (5) Longing for a daysman (verses 29-35)...
No access to the One who hides Himself
The pain in the verse is not doubt that God exists. It is that God moves past Job without stopping, and Job cannot summon Him to explain.
Samuel RidoutNow Job comes to the heart of his trouble. His words are beautiful poetry; only the misery of his complaint runs deeper. He says he can have no access to this great and mighty Being who hides Himself and gives account of His ways to no one. He passes by, unseen as the wind; He acts in anger, but no one can ask a reason.
Unseen in action, yet unstoppable in effect
Job has just spoken of God's works as past finding out. The point of this verse is that the Worker stays unseen while the work stands unopposed.
Leslie M. GrantAs he says, God "does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number" (v.10). In fact, God moves in such a way that Job could not see Him at work, though God can do what no one can hinder (vv.11-12).
Job's real difficulty — and what it exposed
Job never suspected that his troubles came from some other hand. That certainty is what made his trouble so hard. It also began to work on something in Job himself.
William Kelly"Behold, He passes by me, and I see Him not; He moves on, but I do not perceive Him"... That is exactly where Job was. He was quite sure that it was of God, and that is the very thing that made the difficulty. Because his conscience was pure toward God, and he knew the goodness of God, and yet how was this? He could not understand it... He was not a proud man; but as all men are, until they learn in the way I have described, he had a very good opinion of himself. That must all come down.
Why searching for God can never succeed
One writer takes Job's words as an honest confession of something true of everyone, not just a bad mood in a bad week. If we cannot find God by looking, He must show Himself.
F. B. HoleOne serious effect of sin entering the world was that mankind lost the true knowledge of God. Once lost, no effort of man's will or intellect could win back that highest and best of all knowledge... Job confessed his inability in that direction, saying, "Behold, He passes by me, and I see Him not; He moves on, but I do not perceive Him" (Job 9:11). Since, therefore, we cannot discover God, it is necessary that He should make Himself known to us. Revelation becomes a necessity. God reached the crowning point of that revelation of Himself when He made Himself known in Christ as Father.
The umpire Job longed for
Later in the same chapter Job asks for a "daysman" — an umpire who could lay a hand on both sides at once. Commentators point to Christ as the answer to that longing.
F. B. HoleHe is, indeed, that "Daysman" whom Job sighed for, who "might lay His hand upon us both" (see Job 9:32-33). Job knew that God is not a man as he was. So there was an absolute need for One great enough to lay His hand upon God, yet gracious enough to lay His hand upon someone like Job.
Others trace the same longing forward inside the book itself, to the man Elihu who steps in later to speak for God:
Samuel RidoutHe reminds Job of his own desire for such a person: "Neither is there any daysman between us, who might lay his hand upon us both" (Job 9:33)... To this desire Elihu now replies: "Behold, I am as you wish, in God's stead; I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror shall not make you afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon you."
Summary
- Unseen. God passes by and moves on; Job can trace the effects everywhere but cannot see the One at work, and cannot hinder Him.
- Inaccessible. This verse opens the section on God's inaccessibility. The pain is not that God is absent. It is that He gives account of His ways to no one.
- Undeniable. Job never doubted the hand was God's. That certainty, with a clear conscience, made the trial so hard. It also began to bring down his good opinion of himself.
- Unfindable. No effort of will or intellect can recover the knowledge of God. So God must reveal Himself, and He reached the high point of that when He made Himself known in Christ as Father.
- Answered. The chapter cries out for a daysman who could lay a hand on both sides. Christ answers that cry — great enough to touch God, gracious enough to touch a man like Job.