“For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.”
God will accomplish toward Job what God has appointed, and many such things are with God, establishing that Job's suffering flows from divine appointment while remaining mysterious in its purpose. The completion of what God has appointed suggests a predetermined course that moves inexorably toward conclusion, implying that Job's suffering has meaning within a divine design beyond Job's current comprehension. The assertion that many such things—many such designs, many such sufferings—exist in God's purposes suggests that Job's trial, while particular to Job's experience, participates in a larger pattern of divine activity in the world. This vision of appointment without understanding characterizes Job's deepest theological problem: how to maintain faith when appointment becomes indistinguishable from injustice.
Church Fathers on Job 23:14
O that one would grant me that I might know and find Him, that I might come even to His seat! An elect person if he did not know God, assuredly would not love Him. But it is one thing to ‘know’ by faith, and another to know by His own Form, one thing to find by trustfulness, another to find Him by contemplation. In consequence whereof it is brought to pass that Him Whom they know by faith, all of the Elect long to see by His own Form as well. With the love of Whom they burn…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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