Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! 4 I would order my cause 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.
In our first passage, we find Job seeking an answer, or at least some sort of explanation for what he had recently been going through. His world was turned upside down suddenly, he had lost all of his kids, his income had been severely depleted and the workers who depended on Job for their livelihood had all but been killed, except for two or three.
Added to all this a mysterious illness has come upon him, for which there is not any rational explanation or cause, and therefore, as Job lays there licking his wounds, Job believes that he is in need of hearing a word from God, that would at least give him some explanation for his present plight.
He prays and he prays, he argues and he argues, he reasons and he reasons but for some strange reason it seems to him as if God has gone silent. Job’s utter bewilderment with God’s silence is then given voice in words that often resonate in our own experience.
Job 23:8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: 9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.
May God add His blessing to the study of His word. “Good night” and God bless!