General Revelation and Imagination in Job 23

This week, we take up Job’s boldly imaginative presentation of a courtroom scene in which he initially puts God in the dock (Job 23:1-7). As Job 23 develops, however, the situation reverses, subtly at first, as Job transitions from offense to defense (vv8-12) and ultimately ends with a portrait of God’s sovereignty that terrifies Job (vv13-16). To be sure, Job does not give up his conviction that this calamity is not a function of sin, but his claim is more chastened by the end of this chapter (v17). What do we make of the development of Job’s attitude in this chapter? How did his boldly imaginative prosecution turn to fear and trembling? What I want to explore in this reflection is the possibility that God’s self-disclosure of the greatness of his power by way of general revelation was an active part in the turn from triumphant imagination to trembling reality. If it is the case that God exerted a revelatory pressure[1] on Job’s consciousness in the course of this speech, then we are powerfully reminded that the unseen spiritual realm continues to play a factor even in these “mundane” disputes between Job and his friends. That is to say, we cannot conclude that God is absent from the speech cycles, since God is not, in fact, absent from his creation. Rather, the general revelation of his divinity and power, in nature, history, and consciousness, may even intrude on the (false) imaginings of our inner lives—and thanks be to God that he has not left himself without a witness in our inner lives!

To develop this thought, it’s worth mentioning up front that a key difference between reality and fantasy or the world of imagination is, generally speaking, the difference between activity and passivity. J. H. Bavinck notes that “our ordinary representations, our images of fantasy always display a certain activity. We feel, as it were, that we are doing something, that we are creating, and that we thus also can willfully change those images, make them disappear, etc. On the other hand, we have with real concepts the sense of passivity.”[2] To be sure, hallucinations, delusions, and dreams complicate this picture, but in a general sense we have control over our imagination in a way and to a degree that we do not have control over daily life. This general idea is exhibited strikingly in the opening verses of Job 23. Not only does Job imagine a courtroom scene in which God is put in the witness stand to explain what has happened to Job, but Job even imagines that he would be an ace attorney at this trial (v5)! If that does not illustrate the difference between fantasy and reality, I don’t know what does.

But, as I said, Job 23 is as much about the turn from triumph to trembling as it is about Job’s imaginative vindication of his integrity. It seems, as he develops his fantastical courtroom scene, that the active control which is characteristic of imagination is wrestled away from him. He turns from offense to defense in vv8-12 as he realizes that he can’t, in fact, find God in order to serve him a subpoena. Then, the overwhelming power of God and his inscrutable sovereignty intrude upon Job’s fantasy, bowling through his carefully curated courtroom scene like a wrecking ball. It is as though the revelatory pressure of God’s self-disclosure of his eternal power and divine nature (Rom 1:20) press upon Job’s conscience to the point that even in his fantasy world he cannot escape the revelation of the greatness of God’s power. As much as Job wants to put God in a box, to scale him down to a manageable adversary, the truth and reality of God’s power and glory impinge upon his fantasy. Thus, Job shrinks back from his boldly imaginative courtroom scene by the end of this chapter. He does not yield or deny his integrity, but he does acknowledge in a roundabout way that he remains confounded by his circumstances (v17).

That God may press upon our imagination with general revelation also indirectly reveals his grace. “Alone” in my inner thought world, I may imagine all kinds of things that are not edifying for me or glorifying to God. When such fantasies are wrecked by the intrusion of the reality of God’s eternal power, divine nature, or other indication of his greatness, I am experiencing one of those ways of escape that God has promised to give his people when they face temptation (1 Cor 10:13). May we know that God reveals himself even in our imagination; may we accept his revelatory pressure as grace.

[1] Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, “Revelation,” in T&T Clark Handbook of Neo-Calvinism, ed. Nathaniel Gray Sutanto and Cory C. Brock (T&T Clark, 2024), 50, quoting Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 2:73.

[2] J. H. Bavinck, Inleiding in de Zielkunde, ed. A Kuypers, 2nd ed. (J. H. Kok, 1935), 103.