Deus Absconditus – The Hiddenness of God (Job 17)

The familiar chorus goes,

“Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
I can feel His mighty power and His grace.
I can hear the brush of angels’ wings.
I see glory on each face.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.”

Job used to sing that chorus with his family during church services. But those days were just a distant memory. He would now rather sing, “Deus Absconditus” (When God Moves…And Doesn’t Leave a Forwarding Address”).

“Deus Absconditus” is a Latin phrase that loosely translated means, “God is departed and hidden.” To “abscond” means “to depart in a sudden and secret manner, to withdraw and hide oneself.” In a legal sense it means “to evade the legal process of a court by hiding.” (Remember that in this book, Job has essentially wanted to take God to court, but God has apparently evaded the summons to appear!)

The bulk of the verses of chapter 17 will be found at the end of this devotional, but lets take a look at just a few of them from the version called “The Message.” This speech of Job expresses the agitation of his heart; Francis I Anderson says the words of this chapter “crowd together in brief, jumbled sentences…”

17:1 "My spirit is broken (or ruined), my days used up, my grave dug and waiting. 17:11 My life’s about over. All my plans are smashed, all my hopes are snuffed out.”

My spirit…my days…my grave…my life…my plans…my hopes. Hartley writes concerning verse 1, “With great emotion Job expresses the depth of his despair in three short lines. His spirit, the desire for life in him, has been broken. Depression is robbing his inner resources for bearing his shame. His days are about to run out. The graveyard awaits him. Completely disgraced, he will be buried in a common grave instead of receiving honorable interment in a noble sepulcher.”

It doesn’t seem like righteousness and depression should occupy the same person at the same time, but at this point in Job they do. He is a man of unequalled integrity, but he is also a very depressed man. Chuck Swindoll uses four key words to describe Job’s state of mind in chapters 16 & 17:

Job is disgusted, distressed, depressed and despondent.

For all practical purposes, it seemed that it was “Deus Absconditus”: God has hidden not only His blessings from Job, but He has hidden Himself!

Verse 11 may be the lowest of lows for Job. Hartley writes, “(His desires), namely to be respected and accomplish good for others, are turned to ashes.”

17:6 "God, you’ve made me the talk of the town—people spit in my face…”

Job has “seemingly” been deserted by God and the theology of the Comforters hasn’t changed one bit. You would think that as the passers-by are repulsed by the site of Job and spit in his face (which is perhaps the most disgusting sign of rejection and revolt), that Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar (EBZ) would show some compassion and offer to clean off the spittle. But they don’t! They stand aloof, rubbing their chin with their hand as they contemplate Job’s hypocrisy and hidden sin, and conclude, “Well, if God has rejected him, we shouldn’t help.” (To them the ONLY reason God is hidden is because Job is hiding his sin!)

EBZ (Comforters Inc) have sided with the scoffers and the spitters!

17:8 “Decent people can’t believe what they’re seeing; the good-hearted wake up and insist I’ve given up on God. 17:9 But principled people hold tight, keep a firm grip on life, sure that their clean, pure hands will get stronger and stronger! 17:10 Maybe you’d all like to start over, to try it again, the bunch of you. So far I haven’t come across one scrap of wisdom in anything you’ve said.”

Read the same words from the New Living Translation: 17:8 “The virtuous are horrified when they see me. The innocent rise up against the ungodly. 17:9 The righteous keep moving forward, and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger. 17:10 As for all of you, come back with a better argument, though I still won’t find a wise man among you.”

The German commentator Delitzsch compares verse 9 to a “rocket burst of light.” Job is a pitiful concentration-camp shadow of a man, and yet he clings to the thought that “he who has clean hands will grow stronger and stronger!” To paraphrase Job’s tenacious faith, we could put it this way, “My skin testifies against me, my ‘friends’ don’t stand beside me, my neighbors spit at me, and its ‘Deus Absconditus’, yet I know that in the end the righteous will grow stronger and stronger!” Hartley writes, “In Job’s case his righteousness gives him the fortitude to hold to the true way no matter how powerful the opposition. Nothing separates him from God, neither pain nor abuse nor insults nor death.”

17:13 “If all I have to look forward to is a home in the graveyard, if my only hope for comfort is a well-built coffin, 17:14 If a family reunion means going six feet under, and the only family that shows up is worms, 17:15 Do you call that hope? Who on earth could find any hope in that? 17:16 No. If hope and I are to be buried together, I suppose you’ll all come to the double funeral!"

Chapter 17 doesn’t exactly end on high note; there is just a grim despondency to Job’s final words in this chapter. In every aspect (socially, emotionally, physically and theologically) life seems to be against Job. God has apparently marshaled all of the forces of the universe against one man in the obscure land of Uz.

Conclusion: Frankly, it’s a little tough to find some really uplifting devotional thoughts from this chapter (and some of the others in the middle of this book). How do you encourage people when you are talking about maggots and misery?!?

But let me off just a couple of thoughts:
1. Don’t be too quick to offer superficial remedies to hurting people. God hadn’t moved and Job hadn’t moved and yet there was a terrible darkness.
2. Your broken circumstances and “dreams turned to ashes” may seem to be of no benefit to anyone. Life may seem futile. But God can turn brokenness and ashes into blessings! He did it for Job and He can do it for you!
3. Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty helping people out. Wiping the spit off from Job may have been a little repulsive, yet it would have been far more of a blessing than what the professional Comforters had offered.

Chapter 38 (the UnHiddenness of God) is coming….eventually :>)
*********************************************************

Job Chapter 17 (from the version called "The Message"):
1 "My spirit is broken, my days used up, my grave dug and waiting.
2 See how these mockers close in on me? How long do I have to put up with their insolence?
3 "O God, pledge your support for me. Give it to me in writing, with your signature. You’re the only one who can do it!
4 These people are so useless! You know firsthand how stupid they can be. You wouldn’t let them have the last word, would you?
5 Those who betray their own friends leave a legacy of abuse to their children.
6 "God, you’ve made me the talk of the town—people spit in my face;
7 I can hardly see from crying so much; I’m nothing but skin and bones.
8 Decent people can’t believe what they’re seeing; the good-hearted wake up and insist I’ve given up on God.
9 "But principled people hold tight, keep a firm grip on life, sure that their clean, pure hands will get stronger and stronger!
10 "Maybe you’d all like to start over, to try it again, the bunch of you. So far I haven’t come across one scrap of wisdom in anything you’ve said.
11 My life’s about over. All my plans are smashed, all my hopes are snuffed out—
12 My hope that night would turn into day, my hope that dawn was about to break.
13 If all I have to look forward to is a home in the graveyard, if my only hope for comfort is a well-built coffin,
14 If a family reunion means going six feet under, and the only family that shows up is worms,
15 Do you call that hope? Who on earth could find any hope in that?
16 No. If hope and I are to be buried together, I suppose you’ll all come to the double funeral!"