In Job, chapter twenty-three, verse three, throughout the whole experience of Job’s suffering, his greatest longing was for the presence of his Lord. He rarely mentioned the loss of prosperity, and he barely alluded to his deep sorrow because of the loss of his children. However, it was the loss of God’s presence that he mourned. In all his misery, he desired to find God and have communion with Him again, as evident in chapter thirteen, verses twenty-four, then chapter sixteen, verses nineteen through twenty-one, and twenty-nine, verses two through five.
This same yearning for God should characterize all true believers. Psalms forty-two, verses one to two, sums up how followers of Christ should seek Him. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” Psalms sixty-three, verse one, “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;”
Job appeals to his friends for the just judgment of God. He wants to have his cause tried quickly. Blessed be God, we may know where to find him. He is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; and upon a mercy seat, waiting to be gracious. Thither the sinner may go, and there the believer may order his cause before Him, with arguments taken from his promises, his covenant, and his glory. A patient waiting for death and judgment is our wisdom and duty, and it cannot be without a holy fear and trembling. A passionate wishing for death or judgment is our sin and folly, and ill becomes us, as it did for Job.