Page 121 - Job

hold God to that principle. And his conclusion is, verse 21,
“Yield now and be at peace with Him.”
You had better repent. Then he goes back to the same old argument. The
wicked suffer. You are suffering. Isn’t it amazing how blind people can be?
Job is a lot more rational than Eliphaz was, and that is illustrated in his
response in chapters 23 and 24. Again, he first expresses the depths of his
heart. He does not want answers; he wants God. Chapter 23:3,
“Oh that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His
seat! I would present my case before Him and fill my mouth with
arguments. I would learn the words which He would answer, and
perceive what He would say to me. Would He contend with me by the
greatness of His power? No, surely He would pay attention to me.
There the upright would reason with Him; And I would be delivered
forever from my Judge”.

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot
perceive Him; When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; He turns
on the right, I cannot see Him.”
Do you see what Job is saying? Oh, why won’t He listen? Why won’t He
come? Verse 10,

“But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come
forth as gold.”
What a marvelous verse. Job knows there is a reason! He is not rebelling
against that. It is the perplexity in his heart. He is not crying because he lost
his children or his gold or his cattle or his houses or even his health. He is
not complaining about the physical suffering. He is complaining because
God is gone and he does not know where to find Him.
He knows he cannot resist the Lord. Verse 13,
“But He is unique and who can turn Him? And what His soul desires, that
He does. For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such
decrees are with Him.”

And then he asks again in Chapter 24, “Why (verse 2) are some .............. ” I
will not go through the whole chapter. And then if you read those verses
you will see what he is talking about. “While others,” verse 13. Why are
some wicked men blessed and other righteous men allowed to suffer? And
then in verse 25 he says, “Now if it is not so, who can prove me a liar, and
make my speech worthless?” You say the wicked suffer. I say they do not.

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