Job 23

He says if we seek Him we will find Him, when we seek for Him with all our heart (Jeremiah 29:13). But I’ve been seeking with every ounce of strength in my heart before and found only dark rooms and empty hallways. Please, explain the dead silence. Explain the locked doors. Tell me about the lights turned off and the CLOSED sign in the front window. I imagine Job felt this when he says, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!” But Job doesn’t get lost in this empty hallway, and neither should we. He settles his own heart on the unchanging truths of God, and so must we. Though he can not see God, Job believes God is doing some work on him…molding him, trying him, sure, but also refining him! Making Job into gold that has been purified.

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. My foot has held fast to his steps; I have kept his way and have not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.”

Job 23: 10-12

Job rightly fears this all-knowing, sovereign God. His knowledge of the Holy brings him to true fear…not the kind that we play around with, the little snakes and spiders that worry us. No, Job has reverent fear, awe and trembling, in the face of the One True God. Job is not afraid of the storm, rather, he is in awe of the storm’s Maker.

“But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. For he will complete what he appoints for me, and many such things are in his mind. Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him.”

Job 23: 13-15

The darkness is nothing next to the light of God’s holiness. Job doesn’t fear the dark. How could he? He knows the Light. His reverent fear is focused exactly where it should be focused – on God Himself. Job is grappling with the truth from Psalm 13. He seems to have a good grasp on the first four verses, and the last two verses of this song will come to him later, once God has spoken.

“How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed over him,’ lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

Psalm 13

As I consider the awe and trembling God inspires, the reverent fear He draws from His people in His presence, I am reminded that it is His mercy that motivates our fear. He is holy in all things. Our sin separates us from Him (Isaiah 59:1-2). But in love, He has welcomed us to Him through the mercy provided by Christ’s death on the cross (Colossians 1: 15-23). God’s forgiveness of our sins is the catalyst to our reverent fear.

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope…”

Psalm 130: 1-5