The Trials of the Faithful and the Furnace of God:
A brief meditation on the glory of God and the good of his people in the midst of suffering
Job 23:1-17
The Book of Job, chap. 23
I. Appeal (vv1-7)
First, we are promptly presented with Job’s appeal directly to God. The desire for advice from his friends (i.e., Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar) was no longer his prominent yearning. Rather, Job begins this chapter by crying for a desperate plea to enter proximately into the court of his God, “Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat!” (v3). Herein, we see the heart of an upright man seeking the vindication of his soul before his God in the midst of severe suffering. Yet Job takes confidence in the acquittal of his Heavenly Judge and the divine deliverance thereof. For he asserts, “I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would pay attention to me. There an upright man could argue with him, and I would be acquitted forever by my judge” (23.4-7). Job, here, desires to bring his appeal before God into a law-court forensic setting. His hope lies solely in his God who would declare him righteous.
II. Anguish (vv8-9)
Nevertheless, through the avid searching, the countenance of God appears hidden and concealed. Job keenly looks forward and backward, left and right, yet the presence of his God seems dissolved amidst the immense suffering of his soul. Pain, confusion, and darkness cloud his conditions with despair. His circumstances are grotesquely bleak and sorrowful, and to add further, the presence of his God is amiss. “Behold,” Job weeps, “I go forward, but [God] is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;
he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him” (vv.8-9). Yet Job’s response does not end in unbelief.
III. Assurance (vv10-12)
Indeed, a lack of faith does not have the last word –and rightly so. As readers of Job’s experience, we arrive at the response of a righteous man and his assurance in the sovereignty of God. Truly, Job understood (even within the mystery of mourning) that suffering has a purpose in the eternal plan of God. “But [God] knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold” (v10). The fiery trials and tests from God are to refine his soul into impeccable gold. As blocks of gold are polished and purified of their impure extremities; so too the Lord has decreed that death does not have the final word in suffering. But for the believer, like Job, the final word is victory in our vindication in the court of our sovereign God.
IV. Admiration (vv13-17)
Comforted in the purposes of God, Job is also prompted to an affectionate response of awe and wonder at the Lord’s majesty. “[God] 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. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me” (vv13-16; italics added). Here, Job sits in awestruck reverence and admonition at Almighty God. His recognition of God’s purposes over pain and suffering leaves him in breathless wonder. But Job does not end there. The darkness of distress and sorrow neither silences his praise nor leaves him faithless. “Yet,” declares Job, “I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face” (v17). With God there is an everlasting hope and sure anchor of the soul (cf. Heb 6.19-20) that drowns out the darkness and beacons forth rays of his glory and our good in him.
V. Conclusion
Perilous trials for a true believer are not without purpose. Rather, trials are an expression of God’s parental love for his children (as paradoxical as that seems). The purpose of our present pain is for our eternal good –namely, conforming us into the image of Christ (cf. Rom 8.28-19), and the vindication of our genuine faith at the revelation of Jesus Christ in praise, glory, and honor. Charles Spurgeon captures this truth beautifully:
Once more, you shall come out of the fire uninjured. It looks very hard to believe that a child of God should be tried by the loss of his Father's presence, and yet should come forth uninjured by the trial. Yet no gold is ever injured in the fire. Stoke the furnace as much as you may, let the blast be as strong as you will, thrust the ingot into the very center of the white heat, let it lie in the very heart of the flame; pile on more fuel, let another blast torment the coals till they become most vehement with heat, yet the gold is losing nothing, it may even be gaining. If it had any alloy mingled with it, the alloy is separated from it by the fire, and to gain in purity is the greatest of gains. But the pure gold is not one drachm less; there is not a single particle of it that can be burnt. It is there still, all the better for the fiery trial to which it has been subjected; and thou, dear child of God, whatever may befall thee, shalt come out of the fire quite uninjured. Thou art under a dark cloud just now; but thou shalt come out into brightness, and thou shalt have lost nothing that was worth keeping.[1]
The apostle Peter, perhaps, picks up this imagery of ‘gold’ for an analogy of ‘various trials.’ He writes, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1.6-7; italics added). The end result of our suffering is praise, glory and honor! Oh the day when Christ returns to call home his own and we dwell with him in eternal joy! Hasten the day Lord God, and come swiftly Lord Jesus!
In conclusion, Knowing that God would refine him like gold through his fiery trial, Job trusted in the powerful, sovereign grace of God. Similarly, may God grant us the grace to trust him in our ‘various trials’ knowing that it is for our good (i.e., refining us as gold) and for the glory of his name. “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet 4.12-13). Hold fast to the Lord, for he is good and his steadfast love endures forever! He is coming again to restore all things completely new and there will be a day when tears of sorrow and pain vanquish forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment