Job 23:10, “But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
You may have heard the adage; “A teacher is always silent during the test.” In a dialogue in Job 1:8, God asked Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
It seems strange that God would suggest that Satan afflict Job. But we have to go back to an important word here. God called Job His servant. This word in the text means one who is distinguished as obedient and faithful to God.
But for the first 37 chapters of the book of Job, His laments to God were not answered. Why would God suggest that His faithful servant go through such a painful season? There has to be a reason why God would suggest that a righteous man be tested, and for God to remain silent during such a trying time.
Have you been through a season where it feels as though God is distant and silent? You call to Him for guidance and answers and feel as though you hear nothing in return?
Maybe God is quiet because he has entrusted a test to you, knowing that you will come out of this season as “pure gold.” You will be refined, mature, and more dependent on Him than you were before. You will know Him sweeter for you have tasted what is bitter. You will come to yearn for and seek His presence because you remember the moments of what felt like His absence. But feelings are not facts. We must not allow the enemy to convince us that during our times of testing, God is aloof and indifferent.
Job models for us the kind of faith that perseveres to cling to the truth about His Father. And Job declares that he will come out of this better, not bitter.
God will not fail you. He will not give you a test you cannot pass. He is committed to making you more dependent on Him, and He is cheering you on! Being entrusted means God trusts you with this test.
God may be silent, but He is near.
This song is my prayer for us as God’s children. May we cling to Him and trust:
Give me a tested trust, Give me a weathered faith
I want to know your love, I want to see your face
Give me a tested trust, Help me to know you’re real
Bigger than all I want, Greater than all I feel
Dear Jesus, All that I am asking
Is that you’d come be near to me
‘Cause when life’s tides commence to crashing
That’s when I need proof, and seek to see the truth in a tested trust.