{"id":3941,"date":"2008-10-08T01:44:33","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T06:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/ch-spurgeon\/job-233"},"modified":"2008-10-08T01:44:33","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T06:44:33","slug":"job-233","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/2008\/10\/08\/job-233\/","title":{"rendered":"Job 23:3"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

“O that I knew where I might find him!” 
              — Job 23:3 <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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!” God’s children run home when the
storm comes on. It is the heaven-born instinct of a gracious soul to
seek shelter from all ills beneath the wings of Jehovah. “He that hath
made his refuge God,” might serve as the title of a true believer. A
hypocrite, when afflicted by God, resents the infliction, and, like a
slave, would run from the Master who has scourged him; but not so the
true heir of heaven, he kisses the hand which smote him, and seeks
shelter from the rod in the bosom of the God who frowned upon him.
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, just as a traveller
turns from his empty skin bottle, and betakes himself with all speed to
the well. 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. In every trouble we should
first seek to realize God’s presence with us. Only let us enjoy his
smile, and we can bear our daily cross with a willing heart for his
dear sake. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“O that I knew where I might find him!”                — Job 23:3 In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longingdesire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’sface. His first prayer is not “O that I might be healed of the diseasewhich now festers in every…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}