AP

Job 23:8-10   But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him.  When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.  But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

Job had no explanation for what was happening in his life.  He had always trusted God; he had always sought to walk in obedience to God’s will; he had always acknowledged God’s providence in everything he did.  But now it seemed that God was acting ‘out of character’ – and he couldn’t explain it to his friends, his family, or even himself.

Everything to him was a theological enigma!  The one thing he was sure about, however, was that God is both sovereign and faithful, and therefore there must be a good purpose in everything that was happening to him.  Even if he had no idea where God was sometimes, he was never in doubt that God always knew where he was.

Back in 2010, I wrote a little poem about the impact these verses had on me:  

“My Lord wants to shape me like Jesus, to rid me of all that’s impure; 

but that will mean time in the furnace with suffering and pain to endure.  

I’d like life to be free from trouble, in comfort and peace to grow old; 

but that would mean staying as rubble when God plans to change me to gold.”

Am I, are you, trusting God to turn me, you, into gold, regardless of what it takes?  Here is a most helpful quote from Spurgeon: “God is too good to be unkind, he is too wise to be mistaken, so when we cannot trace his hand we must trust his heart.”

– Bruce Christian