Scripture reading: Psalm 22:1-15.

Sermon text: Job 23:1-17.

“If only.” I know we’ve all used that line before. “If only I had gone to that event.” “If only I had asked that question.” “If only my team had…”

We all say “if only,” even if we know we can’t change the circumstances that led to the complaint. We like to think we would make a different choice, avoid some consequence, or earn some advantage — if only.

I think the worst “if only” moments in life come when we feel God has abandoned us. We believe in our Father and have witnessed His power, but no one lies as a Christian for long without experiencing feelings of abandonment. If only God would do something; if only God would protect us; if only God would work to bring justice in our case. If only God would listen to us, He would understand our sufferings and help us!

In today’s sermon text, Job’s “if only” moment comes after the accusations of his friends that he deserved the sufferings he had incurred. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, Job’s friends, didn’t know about the conversations that had occurred in heaven. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar didn’t know that Job’s suffering resulted from an accusation by Satan and an acquiescence by God. These men worked with the knowledge they possessed, but they proudly assumed the accuracy of their knowledge. They proudly assumed that Job must have sinned, otherwise God would not have stricken him with such misery.

Job’s commiserations in the sermon text probably remind us of conversations we’ve had. You don’t have to live very long before you accumulate your own list of “if only” moments. An examination of Job’s speech in the sermon text tells us how we can trust God in our own moments when we feel abandoned by our Father.

Job began by stating the obvious: “Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.” Given everything Job had lost, we can understand a bitter complaint. Now, Job wanted his time with God; he wanted God to hear his complaint and do something to redress his sufferings.

Here we find a key point in Job’s story, one we cannot miss and understand this book: Job knew God. Everything you read in this chapter relies on a personal relationship with God. Job could never expect God to hear his case if he didn’t know God. Job, the righteous man who constantly sacrificed for his family, the man who served as a model of righteousness and faithfulness, experienced a personal relationship with God. Nothing Job says makes sense if he doesn’t know God will listen to him.

Job would “lay my case before Him.” He says, “I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.” Job also knows that God would not “contend” with him with “the greatness of His power;” instead, “He would pay attention to” him.

Job had only one problem: He didn’t know where God had gone. In Job’s eyes, God had abandoned him.

“Behold, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive Him; on the left hand when He is working, I do not behold Him; He turns to the right hand, but I do not see Him.”

What do you do when it appears God has left the scene? How do you react when it appears as if God has no intention of working to help you?

In Job’s case, he knew how to respond. Job’s relationship with God didn’t end when he lost his family and possessions. Job’s relationship with God had existed before God had blessed him with great possessions, and Job’s relationship remained rock solid. Job’s great statement of confidence continues to resound through the centuries: “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

It may have appeared that God had abandoned Job, but appearances didn’t test Job’s faith. Nor did his circumstances determine Job’s belief in God. Job confidently stated that God knew his way; God would try him, and Job would “come out as gold.”

We find this simile several times in Scripture. Gold doesn’t start as a pure metal; it starts as ore and requires refining. Refining gold requires intense heat, heat so intense that the gold actually melts. Then, the workers skim the impurities off the gold, leaving pure gold behind. Keep this in mind when you read that Job states he would come out as gold. Job knew he had gone from the normal heat of life to the intense fires of the purifying furnace. Job also confidently declared he would endure the fires and emerge with a purer faith.

Job knew his “foot has held fast to His steps;” Job had kept God’s way and ... not turned aside.” Job had kept God’s law: “I have not departed from the commandment of his lips.” Job had “treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food.” Nothing brought more joy to Job than to obey God, to walk in His path, to hear the words of God.

Job’s confidence relied on his knowledge of God. Job knew God as “unchangeable,” a righteous God who does as He desires. However, Job knew God would “complete what He appoints for me, and many such things are in His mind.” Job knew that an unchangeable God always had the best in mind for His people. Job knew that when God saw faith in action, He accomplished great things for those who believed in Him.

Still, Job knew God remained the omnipotent Creator. “Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him.” I shudder when I hear someone refer to God as “Daddy” or some other such nonsense. As one of my professors once said, “It’s hard to get buddy-buddy with a Consuming Fire.” We have the right to call Him Father, but we must never forget that Almighty God deserves our respect and reverence.

In spite of His reverence for God — “God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me” — Job still confidently stated his case. “I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.” Job would remember to revere God and show respect to His Creator, but he would still state his case.

This passage certainly gives us a brutal reminder of the realities of life in general and the Christian life specifically.

None of us who’ve lived for long can deny that life gets dark. People around us fall ill; they grow old; they die. Certainties on which we had relied suddenly crash around us.

Even worse for the Christian, Scripture assures us that God never forsakes us. Scripture records Jesus Himself as saying, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus told His disciples, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). When we are born again, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts and thereby promises His eternal presence within us. Why, then, do Christians sometimes feel forsaken by God?

We shouldn’t feel surprised that we sometimes feel abandoned. The Scripture reading today may sound familiar. It should; Jesus, the Son of God, quoted it while hanging on the cross, feeling abandoned by His Father and dying alone for our sins.

I would answer this question with 3 possibilities.

First, we may find ourselves like Job: tested in the flames of life for no reason other than God has chosen to test us. In this case, we must remember that our relationship with God remains firm and eternal because God Himself promises He will not forsake us. In this case, we can boldly state with Job, “I shall come forth as gold.” God will purify us and produce eternal treasure in us.

Secondly, Scripture teaches clearly that God blesses those who obey Him. Some people say that God brings judgment on those who disobey Him. Clearly, God does judge those who disobey Him. However, I would also point out that Scripture clearly teaches that God blesses those who obey Him because the obedient live in the place of blessing before Him. If you leave the place of blessing — if you stop obeying God in your life — you cannot expect the blessing of God.

Lastly, and most profoundly, we have another possibility. In the sixteenth century, a Catholic preacher named St. John of the Cross worked to purify his monastic order in Spain. His efforts resulted in his imprisonment. For over 9 months, St. John of the Cross suffered in a small cell, but he also experienced a great revelation of God’s presence and grace. Following his release, St. John of the Cross wrote several works, including a masterpiece: “The Dark Night of the Soul.”

According to St. John of the Cross, the “dark night” results because God “will draw a person from the beginning stage to a more advanced stage.” As St. John of the Cross wrote, “The ‘dark night’ is when persons lose all the pleasure that they once experienced in their devotional life. This happens because God wants to purify them and move them on to greater heights” (St. John of the Cross, quoted in Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups, p. 33). Part of this process, by which God prepares us for a deeper relationship with Him, involves a period of withdrawal so we can prepare for more intimacy with our Father. St. John of the Cross continued by saying, “No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the dark night” (ibid., p. 36).

Do you feel abandoned right now? Know that God remains with you through the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Jesus, too, felt abandonment as He died on the cross. However, Jesus rose again, bringing eternal life to everyone who believes in Him, confessing Him as Lord and believing in His resurrection (Romans 10:9-10). Stand, like Job and like Jesus, in righteousness. Then, prepare for a more intimate relationship with your loving Father. Once you know that God wants a more intimate relationship with you, you’ll find yourself prepared for your purification. Like Job, you, too, can say, “I shall come forth as gold.”