Sunday, November 19, 2023

Lesson of Job's First Prayer

O that I knew where I might find Him! Job 23:3

"In Job's uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing
desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father's face.


His first prayer
is not "O that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!" nor even "O that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!" but the first and uppermost cry is, "O that I knew where I might find HIM, who is my God! that I might come even to His seat!"

Job's desire to commune with God was intensified by the failure of all other sources of consolation. 
--The patriarch turned away from his sorry friends, and looked up to the celestial throne.
--He bids farewell to earth-born hopes, and cries, "O that I knew where I might find my God!

Nothing teaches us so much the preciousness of the Creator, as when we learn the emptiness of all besides. Turning away with bitter scorn from earth's hives, where we find no honey, but many sharp stings, we rejoice in Him whose faithful word is sweeter than honey or the honeycomb." 
Charles Spurgeon