Job 23 · The Lantern

Job Longs for God

And Job answered and said:

"Today also my speech is bitter," that is, my words happen to be harsh and irksome to both our ears. In a different sense [we may interpret the passage as] you, indeed, to use harsher speech against you, drive me with your words.

"Then Job answered and said, 'Yes, I know that my accusation comes from my hands.' " This means, I carry along with me the evidence that accuses me. I draw from myself the demonstration of my afflictions. "His hand has been made heavy upon me, and I groan over me." If it were possible, he says, to discuss my punishments with him, it would also be possible to find them out.

Then Job answered and said, Now also is my complaint bitter: and the hand of my stroke is heavier than my groaning. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION In his own way blessed Job sets out with the plainer sort of words, but his declaration he closes by the deep following on of mystery.

Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on my groaning.

Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his seat!

I would set out my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

I would know the words he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.

Would he contend with me in the greatness of his strength? No — only he would give heed to me.

There an upright man could reason with him, and I would escape forever from my judge.

Look, I go forward, and he is not there; and backward, and I do not perceive him;

The real meaning is this, "Suppose I willingly submit the judgment of my actions to the eyes of the Lord." What happens to me? God is invisible in his nature. Will I look for him in those material things that are before me? He cannot be seen. He is before me, but I do not perceive him.

If I go to the East, He appeareth not; if I go to the West, I shall not understand Him; if I go to the left hand, what shall I do? I shall not comprehend Him; if I turn myself to the right hand I shall not see Him. For the Creator of all things is not in a part, inasmuch as He is every where.

Lest someone think that he said, "Who will give me the ability to know him, find him, and approach his throne?" (23:3) because he believed that God was closed in a corporeal place or could be known sufficiently through creatures, he then says, "If I go to the East, he does not appear." Consider that according to Aristotle there are six different positions in the heavens: up and…

to the left where he works, and I do not behold him; he turns to the right, and I do not see him.

But he knows the way that is with me; when he has tested me, I shall come out like gold.

My foot has held to his step; I have kept his way, and have not turned aside.

My foot hath held His steps. His way have I kept, and not declined. For as a kind of footsteps of God are His doings which we see, by which doings both the good and bad man is governed, by which the righteous and unrighteous are arranged in their classes, whereto both everyone that is subject is led on day by day to better things, and he that is in rebellion against them is bor…

He proves by the righteousness of his life that he was not punished for previous sin. Here one should remark that each thing is shown right when it conforms to its own rule. There is a twofold rule of human life. The first is, of course, the natural law impressed in the minds of men by God, by which man naturally understands what is good from its likeness to divine goodness.

From the commandment of his lips I have not departed; more than my portion I have treasured the sayings of his mouth.

But he is at one — and who can turn him back? What his soul desires, he does.

He declares the reason by which he walks in the narrow path of God without his feet ever turning aside. This compels him to be the dedicated guardian of his precepts, "I conceived with my mind, he says, this esteem for God, because he is the only one for whom this name [of God] is truly fitting." As for those who are called gods, he does not accept any of those who are called g…

The fear of the Lord arises in us from the consideration of the perspicacity of divine wisdom. Whence Job: "For he alone is, and no one can turn away his thoughts. And therefore I am troubled at his presence, and when I consider him, I am made fearful with dread." He alone is, that is, from himself alone he has being, and all other things are from him.

To the objection that this proof which he introduced on the basis of the righteousness of his life is not fitting, he shows as a consequence that the most certain and demonstrative proof cannot be introduced about divine judgments because of the incomprehensibility of the divine will.

For he will complete what is decreed for me; and many such things are with him.

Therefore I am dismayed before his face; I consider, and I dread him.

Therefore am I troubled at His presence; when I consider I am afraid of Him. He is rightly 'troubled at the presence of the Lord,' who sets before the view of his eyes the terribleness of His Majesty, and is throughly shaken by dread of His Righteousness, whilst he sees that he is not fit to render his accounts if he be judged with severity.

The fear of the Lord arises in us from the consideration of the perspicacity of divine wisdom. "And therefore I am troubled at his presence, and when I consider him, I am made fearful with dread." If God is the cause of all things, there is no creature that is not naked in his eyes, because he himself sees and beholds the thoughts of men.

"On that account," because I consider that he can do more and I cannot tell whether he does will to do more, "I am disturbed," with the anguish of fear. So he then says, "when I consider him," his power, "I am more overcome with fear," that he is going to try me with still more grave adversity.

And God has made my heart faint, and the Almighty has dismayed me;

This unexpected disaster, he says, did not happen according to human logic. I discern that this blow comes from the hand of God. And he is right in speaking of the darkness that "covers my face," because this darkness is not ordinary darkness but is of his own dejection.

For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me. By divine gift the heart of the righteous man is said to be made soft, in that it is penetrated with the fear of the judgment from Above. For that it is soft, which is capable of being penetrated, but that is hard, which cannot be penetrated.

He expresses the cause of this anxious fear in the blow of God he has experienced against himself, and so he says, "God softened my heart," as though dissolving it in liquid, by taking away the strength of security. "And the Almighty threw me into confusion," for by his omnipotence he has brought in anguish of sadness about my present evils and fear of future ones.

for I was not effaced before the darkness, and he has not covered the gloom from my face.

Job23

Job Longs for God