day no. 16,366: where there's a want to

"Job is not a pessimist. His case alone is sufficient to refute the modern absurdity of referring everything to physical temperament. Job does not in any sense look at life in a gloomy way. If wishing to be happy and being quite ready to be happy constitutes an optimist, Job is an optimist. He is a perplexed optimist; he is an exasperated optimist; he is an outraged and insulted optimist. He wishes the universe to justify itself, not because he wishes it be caught out, but because he really wishes it be justified." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

Job is uncertain as to the why's. He doesn't know or understand the reason for what is happening to him, but he knows that there must be one. He trusts the One in charge of his circumstances. He takes the good with the bad without refusing to call God "good." His confusion isn't as to whether or not God is sovereign or whether or not He is good, but as to what good his suffering is accomplishing. He doesn't ask, "What good is this?" rhetorically in assuming that there cannot be a good answer, but rather insists that the One who knows is good and has His reasons. Job just wants to peek into what those reasons might be. He doesn't want God on the witness stand to defend Himself, but rather to explain Himself; not to justify himself in the face of God, but to see God justified face to face.

Whatever may be, Job wants to see God. His friends may have explanations according to what they know of God, but none of them hope to actually invoke His actual presence. They appeal to rules and regulations, but not to a Person. They would be shocked to find Him in their midst, which is the very thing Job desires more than anything. He wants answers, but he doesn't want them disembodied. He first and foremost wants the Answerer. He has some questions, but he wants to meet the Questioner.

"In a fine and famous blasphemy he says, 'Oh, that mine adversary had written a book!”'(31:35). It never really occurs to him that it could possibly be a bad book. He is anxious to be convinced, that is, he thinks that God could convince him. In short, we may say again that if the word optimist means anything (which I doubt), Job is an optimist. He shakes the pillars of the world and strikes insanely at the heavens; he lashes the stars, but it is not to silence them; it is to make them speak." — G.K. Chesterton, Introduction to the Book of Job

Job wants to believe. He doesn't know what to believe and thinks answers would fill in the gaps for him, but above it all, he WANTS to believe. He isn't looking for convenient excuses for unbelief, he earnestly longs for confirmation of his belief, even if inconvenient. He acts out to gain God's attention, not to get away from it. Job is like Absalom setting fire to Joab's fields for the sake of gaining an audience. Unlike Absalom, however, he is on the floor throwing a fit in order to be interrupted, not in order to kick the legs out from under God. Where there's a want to, there's a way This is why Job meets God and Job's friends require his mediation on their behalf.

Job 42:8-9

My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job.

Job is sure that God is good and has good reasons for all that He does. He is flummoxed for not knowing them, but faithful in knowing that they exist.

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.