Job 23:13 - Meaning and Application

Some people think Job is complaining here that God was treating him unfairly, punishing him without easing the pressure, even though Job believed he had clear proof of his innocence. I do not like to think that holy Job would accuse the holy God of wrongdoing. Still, his words are bitter and impatient, and he talks himself into a kind of forced patience. He cannot do that without sounding as if God is dealing harshly with him, but he bears it because he cannot do anything else. The worst he says is that God’s way with him is hard to understand.

Job first states some strong truths, truths that could have helped him well, Job 23:13, Job 23:14. God’s plans do not change. He is in one mind, and who can turn him? Some understand this as saying he is one, or all in one, meaning he has no advisers who can pressure him to change his purpose. He is fully at one with himself and never alters either his mind or his methods. Prayer has sometimes moved God to change the way he works in providence, his wise rule over events, but his will and purpose have never changed, for God knows all his works from the beginning.

Job also says God’s power cannot be resisted. What his soul desires or plans, that he does, and nothing can block him or force him into new plans. People often want things they may not do, cannot do, or should not do. But God has unquestioned authority, and his will is perfectly pure and right, so it is fitting that he carry it out. His power also cannot be stopped. No one can stay his hand. Whatever the Lord pleased, he did (Psalm 135:6), and he always will, because what he does is always best.

Job adds that God does everything according to the plan he has set, Job 23:14. He carries out what is appointed for me. Whatever happens to us comes by God’s doing (Psalm 57:2), and when God’s full plan is finished, it will all prove wonderful. He performs all that was appointed, and only that, in the time and way appointed. This should quiet us, because what is appointed cannot be changed. Yet it can do more than quiet us. If God was appointing us to eternal life and glory as our final goal, then he was also appointing this present condition, this affliction, and whatever path leads to it. That should satisfy us that it is all for the best. We do not know now what he is doing, but we will know later.

Job also says that God’s way of dealing with people follows the usual course of his providence. Many such things are with him, meaning God does many things in his rule over the world that we cannot explain, and we must rest in his absolute authority. Whatever trouble we are in, others have been there too. Our case is not unique. The same sufferings are being experienced by our brothers and sisters (1 Peter 5:9). Are we sick or in pain, poor and stripped of what we had? Have our children been taken by death, or have our friends become cold toward us? This is what God has appointed for us, and many such things are with him. Shall the earth be forsaken for us?

But Job makes a poor use of these good truths. If he had rightly thought about them, he might have said, “So I will be calm and content, and well settled in God’s way with me. So I will rejoice in hope that my troubles will end well.” Instead, he says, Therefore I am troubled at his presence, Job 23:15. Those are truly troubled souls who are troubled at God’s presence, like the psalmist who remembered God and was troubled (Psalm 77:3). Job is very confused here, because he had just been troubled by God’s absence, Job 23:8, Job 23:9, and now he is troubled by God’s presence. “When I think about it, I am afraid of him.” What he now felt made him fear even more.

There is indeed much that should make us afraid of God if we only think about it, his perfect justice and purity compared with our own sin and worthlessness. But if we also think about his grace in a Redeemer, and our response to that grace, our fear will give way and hope will rise. Job’s wounded spirit made strong impressions on him. He was very afraid, Job 23:16. The Almighty troubled him and made his heart soft, that is, unable to bear anything and fearful of everything that moved. There is a gentle softness, like Josiah’s, whose heart was tender and trembled at God’s word, but Job means a painful softness, where everything near feels heavy and everything ahead feels threatening.

He was also very bitter and restless. He argues with God because he did not die before his troubles came, so he would never have seen them, Job 23:17. Yet if, in the height of his success, he had been called to the grave, he would have thought that was hard too. This can help us accept death whenever it comes, because we do not know what evil it may spare us from. But when trouble arrives, it is foolish to wish we had never lived to see it. It is better to face it as well as we can.

He also complains because he was left alive so long in his troubles, and the darkness was not taken from him by being hidden in the grave. We would bear darkness better if we remembered that light sometimes breaks out wonderfully for the upright even in darkness. And even if it does not come now, a far greater light is reserved for them afterward.