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, JOB 23:3-4.

Many lessons can be learned from this prayer of Job. The Lord had said unto Satan, "And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause," JOB 2:3. Satan's whole aim was to destroy Job's integrity to win his battle against the Lord. The Lord had removed His hedge from Job and allowed Satan to come against Job's integrity, Job 2:6.

Satan knows no mercy. He used all the hellish assaults against Job's integrity that he could muster up. The Lord allowed Satan to use Job's brethren, kinsfolk, and closest friends to attack Job's integrity. Job complained, ". . . ye vex my soul . . . with words . . . ye reproached me . . . [and] ye are not ashamed . . . I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard . . . my brethren [are] far from me . . . My kinsfolk have failed . . . My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children's sake of mine own body," JOB 19:1-18.

Then Job turned his back on all human help and cried unto the Lord for help, "Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 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," Job 23:2-4. When the Lord is pleased to bring you or me into some trial and withdraws Himself, we must fill our mouths with arguments; so let's look at some of the arguments we must use.

In preparing our arguments before the Lord, we must plead His promises like Jacob and David did. "And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude," GEN 32:12. "And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as thou hast said," 2SA 7:25.

Another argument we must raise is the honour of God's name, as Joshua and Hezekiah pleaded. "For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?" JOS 7:9. "It may be the LORD thy God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left," ISA 37:4.

Hezekiah pleaded God's mercy in ISA 38:14, "Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me." Most important of all, we must plead Christ's substitution which we find in 2CO 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Oh, beloved, if we have had such a faith's view of Christ, we will be able to sing: