Job 23:8-10, 13-15
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold…
But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): With the Jewish commentators in general, we are to understand places by these various expressions; even the parts of the world—east, west, north, and south; which Job went through, and surveyed in his mind, to find God in, but to no purpose; for, when a man stands with his face to the rising sun, the east is before him, and, if he goes forward, he goes eastward; and behind him is the west, and, if he goes that way, he goes backward; so the eastern sea is called the former sea, and the western Mediterranean sea, the hinder sea, Zechariah 14:8; and a man, in this position, will have the north on his left hand, and the south on his right; now Job says that he went “forward,” that is, eastward. But, says he of God, “he is not there,” or “is not;” meaning not that He did not exist; for Job most firmly believed in the existence of God—In the east Job now lived, and had been the greatest man in it; but now God did not appear to him, not in a kind and gracious manner; nor could he find Him at His throne of justice. He was there, though Job saw him not, for He is everywhere.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Look at Job—he hunts for God everywhere—forward, backward, on the left hand, on the right hand. He leaves no quarter unvisited. No part of the earth is left without being searched over that he might find his God.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Really? Job was searching all over the earth for God?
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): What does it mean then?
JOHANNES COCCEIUS (1603-1669): By “forward” and “backward,” are meant times future and past; the sense is that Job looked into the future times of the Messiah, and the grace promised him in His living Redeemer, that should stand on the earth in the latter day, Job 19:25-27; and he looked back to the ages before him, and to the first promise made to Adam; but he could not understand by either the reason why good men were afflicted. By the “right” hand and “left” hand, he meant the different dispensations of God to men, granting protection with His right hand, and distributing the blessings of His goodness by it; and with His left hand laying afflictions and evils upon them; yet, neither from the one nor the other could he learn the mind and will of God concerning men, since love and hatred are not to be known by these things, Ecclesiastes 9:1,2.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Cocceisus gets closer to the truth of it. But I think it’s more personal. In his chastening affliction, Job looked forward to the future, seeking to understand God’s purpose in it, but he could not discern it; and he looked backward, searching his own ways for any cause that God might have to afflict him, but he saw no cause for it. Then, trying to perceive God’s reasons for these afflictions, he looked to God’s left hand, where God doth work judgment in His providences—and still it was hid from him. Lastly, he looked to God’s right hand, symbolic of God’s gracious blessings, but despite his faith in God, Job couldn’t see how all this continuing misery could possibly work together to his future good. And although Job knew that all these terrible afflictions came upon him from God’s hands, yet he could not “perceive Him,” or “see Him,” in them—neither in God’s purpose, nor for what cause or reason, nor could he see how a blessing could ever come as a result of it.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): When God afflicts us, He contends with us, and when He contends with us, there is always a reason.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is justly said that “God’s judgments are a great deep,” Psalm 36:6…It behooves us to mark, that God’s judgments are oftentimes hidden from us. But yet must we not therefore think them strange, or say that there is no reason in them. Let us rather acknowledge that God’s righteousness is too high a thing for such rudeness that is in us, and that it is too great a presumptuousness for us to desire to attain thereto. This, say I, must we be fully resolved of—that God’s judgments are very secret, and when we have fought, searched, and ransacked to the uttermost that we can, we shall be confounded: but it doth not follow therefore, that God hath no rule of Himself. No. And why? Let us make a comparison between Him and us, and what a difference is there. “My ways,” saith He, “are further off from yours, than heaven is from earth,” Isaiah 55:8,9.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Romans 11:33. God’s judgments are a great deep, and His ways past finding out; but the issues of all are to the glory of His wisdom and grace, and to the eternal happiness of all who trust in Him.
JOHN CALVIN: What remaineth then? We must honour God’s secrets when they be hidden from us, and confess that all His doings are disposed with infinite wisdom, uprightness, and goodness.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Thus Job found it. In the midst of his afflictions, he accounted God his enemy; but not so when he saw the termination of them. Thus we, under our trials, are ready to say, “All these things are against me:” but in how many instances have we seen reason to be ashamed of our precipitancy and unbelief! In how many instances have we found our trials to be the richest blessings in disguise, and have been constrained to acknowledge them all as the fruits of parental love! Let us, then, wait for the issue of our trials, before we presume to judge hardly of God on account of them. The history of Job was particularly intended to teach us this lesson, and to reconcile us to afflictive dispensations of whatever kind: “Behold, we count them happy that endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy,” James 5:11.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Remember the words of our Lord Jesus to His disciples, “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter,” John 13:7.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): Whatever veil now covers the deep things of God, it will shortly be done away with; though we know not now, the faithful shall know hereafter, and forever admire and adore the perfection, excellence, and beauty of all His works and ways—in creation, providence, and grace, and not a flaw to be found.
CHARLES SIMEON: Let it be our endeavour to walk more by faith and less by sight; according to that direction of the prophet, “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God,” Isaiah 50:10.
