Job 34:23–For God has no need to consider a man further, that he should go before God in judgment.

I find this to be a very God centered statement that can only be accepted by true believers.  Scoffers or people who can’t grasp the thought of someone having ultimate authority over them are people who do not know God in Christ as Lord yet.  Because if we do know Him, we know His attributes go beyond “head knowledge” but intimacy, which is implied in really knowing God or anyone else.  To think we can arbitrate with God and His decisions is to be ultimately blind to His sovereignty, if it is us “judging” His decisions.

This is where Job is being “taken to task” by Eilhu, but it is always easier to rebuke people coldly when you’re not the one in pain.  So the difference between the two people is one is enduring pain, the other is not.  Making it easier to see how wrong it is to complain about God when our life is relatively good at the moment.    But the complaint from Job is his confusion of what He is doing, and suffering will make you wonder, complain, and struggle with your confidence in God

So it is the “in between moments” of enduring suffering, before seeing God’s planned outcome to bless us through it that takes faith. Which makes living by faith all the more difficult, yet assures us that our faith is authentic!  The ultimate question of “why” that Job echoes throughout the book are very irreverent to God’s goodness and plan, and lacking in faith, so Eilhu was right (read the whole chapter)!  But until you have suffered and had struggles with your faith, will you realize the struggle in life is always coming to trust in God’s character and goodness, over what you feel and think about your life, regardless of how “good” or “bad” it seems at the time.  Then living by faith will become a necessity, that you realize must be sustained by God and His grace all the time, not when we finally understand God’s decisions.

In His Love, Ld