Job 23:1-17

23:1-24:25 | This section, featuring Job’s response to Eliphaz, is expressive of Job’s deeply discouraged state – God’s sovereignty is not a comfort to him but a terror. Echoes of his initial sadness in his opening soliloquy (3:1-26) are found here.

23:1-12 | In spite of Job’s anger toward Eliphaz, his dispute was not with humans but with God – the only One who knew the truth of his integrity (Ps. 17:3).

23:10 | Job’s language for testing is that of a furnace, which refines gold and makes it purer and brighter. This is a common image for God’s purifying ministry in the lives of His people (Deut. 4:20; Ps. 66:10; Isa. 48:1; 1 Pet. 1:6-7).

23:13-17 | Understandably, Job considered a sovereign God unpredictable, which can be a fearful thing. In reality, God’s seeming unpredictability is balanced by His unchanging faithfulness to His children.