Covenant Relationship

Covenant Relationship brings on vindication
[Job 23:3] Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
[Find Him - may properly express the pious breathings of a soul. How I might come into His covenant and communion with Him!" Micah 6:6, 7. Him whom my soul loveth? O that I knew where I might find Him! O that He who has laid open the way to Himself would direct me into it and lead me in it!"
His seat - The idea in the Hebrew is a well-prepared throne (Ps 9:7). He is so sure of the fairness of G-d's court that he longs to appear before it. A patient waiting for death and judgment is our wisdom and duty, and, if we duly consider things that cannot be without a holy fear and trembling; but a passionate wishing for death or judgment, without any such fear and trembling, is our sin and folly, and ill becomes us. Do we know what death and judgment are, and are we so very ready for them, that we need not time to get readier? Woe to those that thus, in a heat, desire the day of the L-rd, Amos 5:18.]
[4] I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
[Order - state methodically (13:18; Isa 43:26).
Fill my mouth - We may apply this to the duty of prayer, in which we have boldness to enter into the holiest and to come even to the footstool of the throne of grace. We have not only liberty of access, but liberty of speech. We have leave:
1. To be particular in our requests, to order our cause before G-d, to speak the whole matter, to lay before Him all our grievances, in what method we think most proper; we durst not be so free with earthly princes as a humble holy soul may be with G-d.
2. To be importunate in our requests. We are allowed, not only to pray, but to plead, not only to ask, but to argue; nay, to fill our mouths with arguments, not to move
G-d (He is perfectly apprized of the merits of the cause without our showing), but to move ourselves, to excite our fervency and encourage our faith in prayer.]
[5] I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
[Know the words - That is, "I would gladly hear what G-d will say to this matter in dispute between you and me, and will entirely comply in His judgment." This becomes us, in all disagreements; let the word of G-d determine them.
He – G-d, it little matters what man may say of me, if only I know what G-d judges of me. He would speak nothing but what was true, decree nothing that was not righteous, nor utter any thing that I could not comprehend.
Job believed that G-d would not overpower him that He would not deal with him either by absolute authority or in strict justice, not with a high hand, nor with a strong hand.
Understand - let us know what He answers, and understand what He says for His judgment is according to truth, which theirs is not and therefore be fully satisfied in.]
[10] But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
[He knows the way that I take - knows every step he had taken, would not do so, Ps. 139:3. It is a great comfort to those who mean honestly that G-d understands their meaning, though men do not, cannot, or will not. He knows that, however I may sometimes have taken a false step, yet I have still taken a good way, have chosen the way of truth, and therefore He knows it, that is, He accepts it, and is well pleased with it, as He is said to know the way of the righteous, Ps. 1:6. This comforted the prophet, Jer. 12:3.
He hath tried me - Job could not understand why G-d would not hear his prayers. He could not know that this was all a part of the game rules that had been established for the heavenly experiment in which he and his faith were the test objects. But he did sense that he was being tested for some reason he could not fathom.
As gold - Which comes out of the furnace pure from all dross. From this Job infers, When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. Those that keep the way of G-d may comfort themselves, when they are in affliction, with these three things:
1. That they are but tried. It is not intended for their hurt, but for their honor and benefit; it is the trial of their faith, 1 Peter 1:7.
2. That, when they are sufficiently tried, they shall come forth out of the furnace, and not be left to consume in it as dross or reprobate silver. The trial will have an end. G-d will not contend for ever.
3. That they shall come forth as gold, pure in itself and precious to the refiner. They shall come forth as gold approved and improved, found to be good and made to be better. Afflictions are to us as we are; those that go gold into the furnace will come out no worse.]
[11] My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
[My - Now that which encouraged Job to hope that his present troubles would thus end well was the testimony of his conscience for Him, that he had lived a good life in the fear of G-d.
Foot hath - the causeway, or raised road; formed, as they anciently were, by stones in the manner of pavement. A way paved with stones:" hence street, a raised road or pavement either in town or country.
Held - fast by His steps. The law is in Old Testament poetry regarded as a way, G-d going before us as our guide, in whose footsteps we must tread (Ps. 17:5).
His steps – His steps are the steps He has appointed me to take; the way of religion and serious godliness--that way I have kept.
His way – I have attended carefully to the weightier matters of the Law, and have not forgotten its slightest injunctions.
Not declined - have not declined from it, not only not turned back from it by a total apostasy, but not turned aside out of it by any willful transgression. Ps. 125:5.]
[12] Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
[Commandment – Whatever difficulties we may meet with in the way of G-d's Commandments, though they lead us through a wilderness, yet we must never think of going back, but must press on towards the mark. Job kept closely to the Law of
G-d in his conversation, for both His judgment and His affection led him to it.
His lips - He governed himself by the commandment of G-d's lips, and would not go back from that, but go forward according to it.
Esteemed - rather, "laid up," namely, as a treasure found (Matt. 13:44; Ps. 119:11)
Alluding to the words of Eliphaz (22:22). There was no need to tell me so; I have done so already (Jer. 15:16).
Words - G-d's word was the rule he walked by.
More than food - that is, he looked upon it as his necessary food; he could as well have lived without his daily bread as without the word of G-d. The word of G-d is to our souls what our necessary food is to our bodies; it sustains the spiritual life and strengthens us for the actions of life; it is that which we cannot subsist without, and which nothing else can make up the want of: and we ought therefore so to esteem it, to take pains for it, hunger after it, feed upon it with delight, and nourish our souls with it; and this will be our rejoicing in the day of evil, as it was Job's here.]
[14] For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
[Performeth - Those calamities which He hath allotted to me.
That is appointed for me - Whatever happens to us, it is G-d that performs it (Ps. 57:2), and an admirable performance the whole will appear to be when the mystery of G-d shall be finished. He performs all that, and that only, which was appointed, and in the appointed time and method.
And - There are many such examples of G-d's proceeding with men.
Many such things - that is, He does many things in the course of His providence which we can give no account of, but must resolve into His absolute sovereignty. He diversifies human affairs: scarcely any two men do not have the same lot; nor has the same person the same portion at all times. He has multitudes of resources, expedients, means, and human affairs.]
It is easy to contemplate His goodness, loving-kindness, and mercy; in all these we have an interest, and from them we expect the greatest good: but to consider His holiness and justice, the infinite righteousness of His nature, under the conviction that we have sinned, and broken the Laws prescribed by His sovereign Majesty, and to feel ourselves brought as into the presence of His judgment-seat,-who can bear the thought? If cherubim and seraphim veil their faces before His throne, what must a sinner feel, whose conscience is not yet purged from dead works and who feels the wrath of G-d abiding on him? And how without such a mediator and sacrifice as Y’Shua HaMashiach is, can any human spirit come into the presence of its Judge? Those who can approach Him without terror know little of His justice and nothing of their sin. When we approach Him in prayer, or in any ordinance, should we not feel more reverence than we generally do?