Job Chapter 23
Job cannot locate God anywhere, yet trusts the trial will refine him like gold.
Job 23 answers Job 22 with Job wishing he knew where to find God, searching forward, backward, left, and right without success. Despite the silence, he holds to the conviction in Job 23:10 that 'when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.'
Then Job answered:
“Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
If only I knew where to find Him, so that I could go to His seat.
I would plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would learn how He would answer, and consider what He would say.
Would He contend with me in His great power? No, He would certainly take note of me.
Then an upright man could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.
If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him.
When He is at work in the north, I cannot behold Him; when He turns to the south, I cannot see Him.
Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread.
But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him? He does what He desires.
For He carries out His decree against me, and He has many such plans.
Therefore I am terrified in His presence; when I consider this, I fear Him.
God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me.
Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.