Job 23 – Seeking God The True Judge!

In this chapter we could have made it into a 3 point sermon by Job.

1. Job wants to come before God and His seat of Judgement and present his case. He believes that God will tell him exactly how He sees him, and that God would take notice of him, and hear him fairly. There are a few textual problems, especially with vv.2, 5, which come out better in the NIV, HCSB, and NLT.
2. As Job searches for God, he also realises that God is “testing” him. Though God doesn’t tempt any man (See Jas.1:12-15), He does “test” believers (See 1 Pet.1:6-9). Job firmly believed that once this test was over, that he would come forth as gold.
3. In the last section (vv.13-17), Job shows that he has a good theology about God. He says, “But He is unique, and who can make Him change” (v.17), which reveals God is unique having certain incommunicable attributes, such as that God alone is Eternal, Immutable, Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. Then Job goes further, as he says, “And whatever His soul desires, that He does“, which confirms the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God (See also Ps.115:3; 135:6).And what perhaps frightens Job is the fact that God is working out His plans for Job (See Job 23:14 in the NIV and NLT).

This doctrine of the Sovereignty of God freaks some people out, because they have such a high view of “the sovereignty of man” and the belief that man’s will is totally free, and God would never violate or go against “man’s free will” – Really? It might be worth studying that from cover to cover of the Bible, and see how often you can find verses that speak of “man’s sovereign free will”!

If you would like to watch the sermon on Youtube, follow or click this link!

Michael Robson