“If I go to the east, He is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find Him.
When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him.”

When the youth group has a lock-in there is one game in particular they want to play and that is man hunt. Man hunt is a game of hide and seek played as teams. Have you ever played hide and seek? Did you prefer to hide or seek?

When Adam and Greg were young and Diane was going to be out for the night we would play a game of flash light hide and seek. We would wait until it was dark. We would turn off all the lights in the house. Whoever was the seeker had a flash light. The seeker had to stay in a designated spot in the house and give the others who were hiding a couple of minutes to do so.

Since the designated place to stand was directly underneath the stairs you often knew if they went upstairs by the noise they made or did not make on the stairs. However, even knowing which floor they were on did not always mean I would find them. There were times I would say aloud for them to hear, “I know you are up here.” Yet often my search of the five rooms on the second floor and three rooms in the attic left me baffled as to where they were.

I can only imagine what Job most have been feeling and thinking in his game of hide and seek with God.

“If I go to the east, He is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find Him.
When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him.”

One thing that is so very different between my game of hide and seek with my sons and Job’s game of hide and seek with God is my game was for fun and Job’s game was for life. Job had absolutely no idea why his world had come crashing down on Him. He had no idea why his God seemed to be hiding from him.

When Job lost his property, his goods, his children and his health he did not have the privilege that you and I have. We know about the conversation that took place between God and satan. We know that God agreed to allow satan to test Job’s faith. Job is at a complete loss. He is totally in the dark. All he knows is that he has been good and upright and faithful to God.

He has no idea why this has all happened. To complicate matters in the midst of his trials Job feels God is either indifferent about his situation or God has bailed on him.

“If I go to the east, He is not there;
if I go to the west, I do not find Him.
When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him;
when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him.”

Has there ever been such a time in your life? Have you passionately made your appeal to God only to feel as though you were talking to the four walls? Job’s situation is lived out every day in this world. When a person who never smoked is told he has lung cancer. When a parent learns that their child was killed in school. When a person in good shape dies suddenly from a heart attack. When terrorists carry out acts of violence. When a drunken driver crosses over the center line and collides head on with another car killing or paralyzing the driver and passengers in the car. Just think of the times you have gasped at bad news or the times you have shockingly exclaimed, “O my God.’ Or the times screamed at God at the top of your lungs, ‘WHY!’

It is in that moment that we stand where Job stood. As we suffer unjustly we feel as though God is not being fair. These feelings and thoughts intensify when our prayers seem to go unheard and unanswered. God’s perceived silence causes some people to conclude there is no God.

In the following story a man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. While the barber was cutting the man’s hair they were having a conversation. Until the barber said, “I don’t believe in God.”

The customer asked, “Why do you say that?”

Just look at the state of this world. If God exists would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? Would there be suffering and pain? I cannot imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”

The customer didn’t respond because he didn’t feel like getting into an argument. However as he was leaving the barber shop he saw a man with long, stringy hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer turned back into the barber shop and said, “You know that barbers don’t exist.”

The surprised barber said, “How can you say that? I am here. I am a barber.

The customer exclaimed “No!”. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man.”

The barber responded “Barbers exist! The problem is that some people don’t come in to me.”

The customer exclaimed “Exactly!”  “That’s the point! God too exists! What happens is people don’t go to Him and do not look for Him. That is why there is so much pain and suffering in the world.

In spite of all that satan has taken away from Job he has been unsuccessful in taking away His faith.

Job 13:15
“Though He (God) slays me, yet will I trust in Him.”

Here Job says,

“God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
Yet I am not silenced by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.”

Job is the Biblical version of the Verizon cell phone commercial where the man walks a few feet and asks, ‘Can you hear me now?’ In spite of the fact that it appears his prayer phone seems to be dropping a lot of prayers he persisted.

Persist in prayer and persist in faith. The faith that he had before his world came crashing down was all he had to keep himself going. He understood faith as it described in Hebrews 11:1

“Faith is being sure of what we hope for
and certain of things not seen.

In every life there will be moments when it is faith that propels us to keep trying, to keep believing that God was indeed there. Job shows us that such faith takes us not to a dead end, but to divine junctions.

What makes Job different than most people? We worship the same God that Job worshipped, but do we worship as Job worshipped Him? Do we hold up God with the same esteem that Job did? Do we recognize God’s absolute authority as Job did?

How much does our view of God’s character and competence influence the degree to which we are willing to trust God and in faith accept life’s highs and lows, victories and failures, etc.

“I have kept to His way without turning aside.
I have not departed from the commands of His lips.
I have treasured the words of His mouth
more than daily bread.”
Job 23:11, 12