No ‘buts’ About It Series

Job 30: 1 – 31

No ‘Buts’ About It

1 “But now they mock at me, men younger than I, whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock. 2 Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me? Their vigor has perished. 3 They are gaunt from want and famine, fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste, 4 who pluck mallow by the bushes, and broom tree roots for their food. 5 They were driven out from among men, they shouted at them as at a thief. 6 They had to live in the clefts of the valleys, in caves of the earth and the rocks. 7 Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles they nestled. 8 They were sons of fools, yes, sons of vile men; They were scourged from the land. 9 “And now I am their taunting song; Yes, I am their byword. 10 They abhor me, they keep far from me; They do not hesitate to spit in my face. 11 Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint before me. 12 At my right hand the rabble arises; They push away my feet, and they raise against me their ways of destruction. 13 They break up my path, they promote my calamity; they have no helper. 14 They come as broad breakers; under the ruinous storm they roll along. 15 Terrors are turned upon me; they pursue my honor as the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud. 16 “And now my soul is poured out because of my plight; the days of affliction take hold of me. 17 My bones are pierced in me at night, and my gnawing pains take no rest. 18 By great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about as the collar of my coat. 19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 “I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You regard me. 21 But You have become cruel to me; With the strength of Your hand You oppose me. 22 You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it; You spoil my success. 23 For I know that You will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. 24 “Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, if they cry out when He destroys it. 25 Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? 26 But when I looked for good, evil came to me; and when I waited for light, then came darkness. 27 My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest; Days of affliction confront me. 28 I go about mourning, but not in the sun; I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help. 29 I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. 30 My skin grows black and falls from me; my bones burn with fever. 31 My harp is turned to mourning, and my flute to the voice of those who weep.

You are either moving towards the Son [of God] or away from Him. There are no ‘buts’ about it. In this chapter of Job we interestingly enough will focus on two words which say a lot about our current lives. The two words are ‘but now’.

What comes to your mind right away on hearing these two words? If you have been a child of God for even a short amount of time these two words make us think of the song Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I'm found,

Was blind, but now I see.

'twas Grace that taught,

my heart to fear.

And grace, my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear,

the hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,

I have already come.

'tis grace that brought me safe thus far,

and grace will lead us home.

The Lord has promised good to me,

His word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be,

as long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years,

bright shining as the sun.

We've no less days to sing God's praise,

than when we first begun.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now, I see.

Yet even in our lives as a believer we can use these same two words to describe a life without purpose.

It is a melancholy "But now’’ which this chapter begins with. Adversity is here described as much to the life as prosperity was in the foregoing chapter, and the height of that did but increase the depth of this. God sets the one over-against the other, and so did Job, that his afflictions might appear the more grievous, and consequently his case the more pitiable. He had lived in great honor, but now he had fallen into disgrace, and was as much vilified, even by the meanest, as ever he had been magnified by the greatest; this he insists much on as we read in verses 1 through 14. Job had had much inward comfort and delight, but now he was a terror and burden to himself as we learn in verses 15 and 16 and became overwhelmed with sorrow as verses 28 through 31 will point out.