Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
All Commentaries on Job 23:12 Go To Job 23
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
“But he knows the way that I take.” This is as if he said in plain terms, “I for my own part search myself strictly and am not able to know myself thoroughly; yet he, whom I have no power to see, sees most minutely all the things that I do.”
It goes on, “And he will try me like gold that passes through fire.” Gold in the furnace is advanced to the brightness of its nature while it loses the dross. And so like “gold that passes through fire” the souls of the righteous are tried. Their defects are removed through and through, and their good points are increased by the fire of tribulation.
The holy man [Job] compared himself with one who is being tested through fire as gold. This was not said out of pride. He who by the voice of God was pronounced righteous before his suffering was not out of pride being permitted to be tried in order that bad qualities might be cleared off and that excellences might be heightened. Gold is purified by fire. As he was being delivered over to suffer tribulation, he believed that he was being purified, although he had nothing in him to be purified.…
“My foot has held fast to his steps.” It is by examining the footsteps of God, so to speak, that we see how both the good and bad are governed and the righteous and unrighteous distinguished. By this means everyone [by divine Providence] may be led on day by day to better things, or one who is in rebellion against the good plunges headlong into worse.
It is of these same footsteps that the prophet said, “Your goings have been seen, O God.” And so we, when we behold the efficacy of his long-suffering and mercy and strive to imitate them, may follow the “footsteps of his goings” and thus imitate in some fashion his method of proceeding.…
“I have kept his way and have not turned aside.” For he who keeps the way and does not turn aside practices the thing on which his mind is bent. To continue to follow the temperament of one’s own mind is to fail in practice. Every day the righteous are concerned that they test their actions by the ways of truth. So they propose these as a rule to themselves, that they should not turn aside from the track of their right course.
Thus, day by day, they strive to move ahead, a step above their present position in proportion as they are being lifted up toward the summit of virtues, while they judge with heedful censure whatever there is of themselves that remain below themselves. And they are quick to press themselves wholly toward that point to which they find that they have been brought in part.
The text goes on, “I have not departed from the commandment of his lips.” The servant who serves well is ever intent upon the master’s facial expression in order that the things they may be asked to do, they may hear readily and strive to fulfill. In this way the minds of the righteous become bent toward almighty God. So, according to Scripture, the faithful fix their eyes on his face that reveals all that he wills, in order that they may not be at variance with his will in proportion to what they learn of that will in his revelation. When this happens, his words do not pass superfluously through their ears, but they fix these words in their hearts.
So it is added here, “I have treasured in my bosom the words of his mouth.” For we “treasure the words of his mouth in the bosom of our heart” when we hear his commandments not in a passing way but to fulfill them in practice. Thus, of the Virgin Mother herself it is written, “But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Even when these same words come forth to be practiced, they are said to lie hidden in the recesses of the heart if by what is done outwardly the mind of the doer is not lifted up within. When the word conceived is carried on to the deed, human praise is aimed within, for the word of God assuredly is not “hidden in the bosom of the mind.” Why then, blessed man, do you examine yourself with so much earnestness, and why do you take yourself to task with so much anxiety?
