Charles Spurgeon Commentary Job 23

Then Job answered and said, Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning (Job 23:1–2).

"Although my groaning is heavy, yet it is not so burdensome as my griefs might warrant."

Then Job answered and said, Even today is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

Job admitted that he groaned, but he claimed that he had good reason for doing so; that, indeed, the source of his grief was greater than the streams of his grief, so that he could not, even with his groans and tears, express half the anguish that he felt.

Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

Good men are washed towards God even by the rough waves of their grief; and when their sorrows are deepest, their highest desire is not to escape from them, but to get at their God. Oh that I knew where I might find him! Job wanted to spread out his whole case before the Lord, to argue it with him, to present his petitions to the Most High, and to find out from God why he was contending with him.

It is all right with you, brother, if your face is towards your God in rough weather. It is all wrong with you, brother, if the weather is very calm, and your face is turned away from your God.

Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.

It is a bad sign when a man of God becomes afraid of God. Yet there is a holy awe which may degenerate into a servile fear which has bondage; but even this may be the foundation of a holy confidence which will keep us in obedience to the Lord.

Then Job answered and said, Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

He could not express all his pain. He felt that he did not complain too much. His stroke was heavier than his groaning. His words had bitterness in them; but he thought that they were justified by his affliction.