Job 23 Devotional

Known by the Unseen God

“Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”Job 23:10 (BSB)

Job's complaint is still bitter (23:2). What he wants most is not relief but God himself. If only he knew where to find him, he would lay out his case and hear God's answer (23:3-5). But he looks east and west, north and south, and cannot find him (23:8-9).

Then Job turns the thought around. He cannot see God, but God knows the road Job is on, and when the testing is done, Job will emerge like refined gold (23:10). Even in the dark, he has valued God's words above his food (23:12). Job still says he is terrified of a God who does whatever he wills (23:13-16), and still refuses to be silenced by the darkness (23:17). But Job's hope does not rest on his ability to see God. It rests on God seeing him. Peter writes that faith proven through trials is worth more than gold that passes through fire (1 Peter 1:7). Being unable to find God is not the same as being lost to him.

To think about: Where do you need the assurance that God sees your way, even when you cannot see him?