Job 23:4

_I WOULD ORDER MY CAUSE BEFORE HIM, AND FILL MY MOUTH WITH ARGUMENTS._ Order - state methodically (Job 13:3; Job 13:18; Isaiah 43:26). FILL ... - I would have abundance of arguments to adduce....

1-7 Job appeals from his friends to the just judgement of God. He wants to have his cause tried quickly. Blessed be God, we may know where to find him. He is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; and upon a mercy-seat, waiting to be gracious. Thither the sinner may go; and there the believer may order his cause before Him, with arguments taken from his promises, his covenant, and his glory. A patient waiting for death and judgment is our wisdom and duty, and it cannot be without a holy fear and trembling. A passionate wishing for death or judgement is our sin and folly, and ill becomes us, as it did Job....

I WOULD ORDER MY CAUSE BEFORE HIM - Compare the notes at Isaiah 43:26. That is, I would arrange my arguments, or plead my cause, as one does in a court of justice. I would suggest the considerations which would show that I am not guilty in the sense charged by my friends, and that notwithstanding my calamities, I am the real friend of God. AND FILL MY MOUTH WITH ARGUMENTS - Probably he means that he would appeal to the evidence furnished by a life of benevolence and justice, that he was not a hypocrite or a man of distinguished wickedness, as his friends maintained....

EXPOSITION VERSES 1-24:25 Job replies to Eliphaz in a speech of no great length, which, though it occupies two chapters, runs to only forty-two verses. He begins by justifying the vehemence of his complaints, first, on the ground of the severity of his sufferings (verse 2), and secondly, on the ground of his conviction that, if God would bring him to an open trial before his tribunal, he would acquit him (verses 3-12). By the way, he complains that God hides himself, and cannot be found (verses 3, 8, 9). He then further complains that God is not to be bent from his purpose, which is set against Job (verses 13-17). In Job 24:1. he goes over ground already trodden, maintaining the general prosperity of the wicked, and their exemption from any special earthly punishment (Job 24:2). H

I WOULD ORDER [MY] CAUSE BEFORE HIM,.... Either, as a praying person, direct his prayer to him, and set it in order before him, see Psalms 5:3; or else as pleading in his own defence, and in justification of himself; not of his person before God, setting his works of righteousness in order before him, and pleading his justification on the foot of them; for, by these no flesh living can be justified before God; but of his cause, for, as a man may vindicate his cause before men, and clear himself from aspersions cast upon him, as Samuel did, 1 Samuel 12:5; so he may before God, with respect to the charges he is falsely loaded with, and may appeal to him for justice, and desire he would stir up himself, and awake to his judgment, even to his cause, and plead it against those that strive with him, as Dav

Always remember, dear friends, that one of the great lessons of the Book of Job is this, that we may never judge a man's character by his condition. The best of men may have the most of suffering and of poverty, while the worst of men may prosper in everything. Do not imagine, because a man suddenly becomes very poor or a great sufferer, that therefore he must be a great sinner; otherwise, you will often condemn the innocent, and you will, at the same time, be guilty of flattering the wicked. Job's friends had cruelly told him that he must be a hypocrite, or else he would not have lost his property, and have been smitten with such a remarkable sickness; so he appeals to God against their unrighteous judgment. Job 23:1. _Then Job answered and said, Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning._ «Although my groaning is heavy, yet it is not so burde

CHAPTER S 23-24 JOB'S REPLY _ 1. O that I knew where I may find Him (Job 23:1)_ 2. Trusting yet doubting (Job 23:10) 3. Hath God failed? (Job 24:1) 4. Job's further testimony as to the wicked (Job 24:13) Job 23:1. Job here does not disprove at once the false charges of Eliphaz. He can afford to wait till later, till their mouths are completely silenced. Then he speaks the final word. He acknowledgeth that he is still rebellious. His hand which is upon him is heavier than all his groanings. Then that outburst which reveals the longing of his t

Job still rebels, though he does his best to repress his complaints (Job 23:2). Translate as _mg._ Job 23:6 f. shows the gain Job has got. Job 23:8. He is still in quest of God, but now is convinced that if he could find Him, God would treat him reasonably (contrast Job 9:14). God's inscrutableness (Job 23:8 f.) now causes him no fear (Job 23:10). Trial will but be the touchstone that will reveal his innocence (Job 23:10)

Job's Reply to the Third Speech of Eliphaz. Job continues to miss any Moral Government of the World by God As before, in the two preceding cycles of debate, Job's mind is too much absorbed in contemplation of the painful mystery of God's providence, which he had set before his view in ch. 21, to be able yet to turn away from it and give attention to the direct charges of wickedness which Eliphaz made against him (ch. Job 22:1-10). The riddle of the painful earth still fascinates him, the injustice and cruel wrong that goes unpunished, the misery of the poor and innocent, and the peaceful end of flagrant transgressors, who are "of those who rebel against the light" (ch. Job 24:13). What he misses in the world is any true retributive rule of God (ch....

B. JOB'S PERSISTENT DESIRE OR VALUE OF ARGUING WITH GOD? (Job 23:1, Job 24:25) 1. Job has honored God and obeyed his word, but God will not give him a hearing; He intentionally avoids him. (Job 23:1-17) TEXT 23:1-17 1 Then Job answered and said, 2 Even to-day is my complaint rebellious: My stroke is heavier than my groaning. 3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! That I might come even to his seat! 4 I would set my cause in order before him, And fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which he would answer me, And understand what he would say unto me. 6 Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? Nay; but he would give h