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.
We learn next in verses 17 to 18 and verses 29 to 30 that he had long enjoyed a good state of health, but now he was sick and in pain. Verses 20 through 22 points out to us that there was a time when the secret of God was with him, but now his communication with heaven was cut off. He had promised himself a long life, but now he saw death at the door described in verse 23. Job tells us that two things gave him some relief:—1. That his troubles would not follow him to the grave as verse 24 indicates and that his conscience comforted him that, in his prosperity, he had sympathized with those that were in misery which verse 25 reveals.
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.
Here Job makes a very large and sad complaint of the great disgrace he had fallen into. Two things he insists upon which greatly aggravated his affliction out. First of all Job was overwhelmed by the meanness of people who attacked him. As it added much to his honor, in the day of his prosperity, that princes and nobles showed him respect and paid a deference to him, so it added no less to his disgrace in his adversity that he was spurned by the footmen, and trampled upon by those that were not only every way his inferiors, but were the meanest and most contemptible of all mankind. None can be represented as more base than those are here represented who insulted Job, upon all accounts.
They were young, younger than he as he indicates in verse 1. The youth which verse 12 also mentions, should have behaved themselves respectfully towards him for his age and gravity. These young street thugs were the offspring of evil men who were so bad that such a man as Job would not even wanted to hire them to do even the take meanest service about his house, as that of tending the sheep and attending the shepherds with the dogs of his flock. They were so shabby that they were not fit to be seen among his servants, so silly that they were not fit to be employed, and so false that they were not fit to be trusted in the meanest post.
Job here speaks of what he might have done, not of what he did: he was not of such a spirit as to set any of the children of men with the dogs of his flock; he knew the dignity of human nature better than to do. They and their families were the unprofitable burdens of the earth, and good for nothing. Job himself, with all his prudence and patience, could do nothing of them. The young were not fit for labor, they were so lazy, and went about their work so awkwardly: Whereto might the strength of their hands profit me? The old were not to be advised within the smallest matters, for in them was old age indeed, but their old age was perished, they were twice children.
I look at the immigrant problems facing the world today. Shockingly 99% of the men are not employable since they have no hirable skills. As a result all these individuals drain the economy of country in order to care for them.
Verse 3 points out the extreme poverty of these people. They were ready to starve, for they would not dig, and to beg they were ashamed. The countries to where to sought refuge had their own economic difficulties to deal with so they were forced away. Hence they were forced to flee into the deserts both for shelter and sustenance, and were put to taking extreme measures in order to survive. They cut up mallows by the bushes, and were glad to eat them, for want of food that was fit for them, The marsh mallow grows especially in marshy areas near the sea; its root was formerly processed to make marshmallow confections,
They were such lying, thieving, lurking, mischievous people, that the best service the magistrates could do was to rid the country of them, while the very mob cried after them as after a thief. They were lazy and would not work, and therefore they were exclaimed against as thieves, and justly; for those that do not earn their own bread by honest labor do, in effect, steal the bread out of other people’s mouths. An idle fellow is a public nuisance; but it is better to drive such into a workhouse than, as here, into a wilderness, which will punish them indeed, but never reform them. They were forced to dwell in caves of the earth, and they brayed that is cried like donkeys among the bushes
They had nothing at all that would cause other people to want to help them. They were a group composed of all evil that one would not think it possible that ever the human nature should sink so low, and degenerate so far, as it did in these people. But such as these were abusive to Job, first of all In revenge, because when he was in prosperity and power, like a good magistrate, he put in execution the laws which were in force against such criminals, which these brutal people now remembered against him.
In the news when you see a politician or police officer convicted of a crime in order to spare their lives they are placed in protective custody or jails. If they were sent to a regular jail the inmates would probably kill them in revenge against those who were in the past the ones responsible for putting them in prison in the first place. We see that these evil people feel that Job is now one of them so they lay out their attacks against him.
Look at some of the extreme abusive actions taken against Job. It was said in some books that the apostle Peter would sometimes come in contact with mockers who would verbally chime, ‘cock a doodle do’ when he passed by. Here Job says that these evil people made up mocking songs about him and would sing them when he was in their presence. Part of their songs and actions would refer to him as a horrible monster like we see on the TV programs – The walking dead.’ They expressed the greatest scorn and indignation against him. They spat in his face, or were ready to do so; they tripped him, kicked him, either in wrath, because they hated him, or in sport.
They cast upon him the cause of their present pathetic conditions. It is common for criminals to hate the judges and laws by which they are punished. However under this pretence, they accused him falsely, and misrepresented his former conversation. They reflected upon him as a tyrant and an oppressor because he had acted with justice upon them
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.
Job comments how the affliction seized him, and surprised him. He thinks and remarks how all of a sudden they had come upon him without giving him of course without any previous warning. He was in great sorrow by reason of it. His mind was filled with grief, and was not able to rest from these painful thoughts. The sense of his calamities was continually preying upon his spirits without any intermission. He went mourning from day to day, always sighing, always weeping; and such cloud was constantly upon his mind that he went, in effect, without the sun.
Just think and imagine that this poor man had nothing that he could take any comfort in. He abandoned himself to perpetual sorrow, as one that resolved to go to the grave mourning. He walked out of the sun (so some) in dark shady places, as melancholy people use to do. If he went into the congregation, to join with them in solemn worship, instead of standing up calmly to desire their prayers, he stood up and cried aloud, through pain of body and mind, like one half distracted. If he appeared in public, to receive visits, when the fit came upon him he could not contain himself, nor preserve mental and physical control, but stood up and shrieked aloud. Thus he was a brother to dragons and owls, both in choosing solitude and retirement, as they do, and in making a fearful hideous noise as they do.
The terror and trouble that seized his soul were the sorest part of his calamity. If he looked toward the future, he saw everything frightful before him: if he endeavored to shake off his terrors, they turned furiously upon him: if he attempted to escape from them, they pursued his soul as swiftly and violently as the wind. If he looked back, he saw all the good he had formerly enjoyed removed from him, and nothing left him but the bitter remembrance of it. If he looked within, he found his spirit quite sunk and unable to bear his infirmity.
Have you ever broke your leg of had a blunt trauma? You then can relate how Job felt. He was full of pain, piercing pain, pain that went to the bone, to all his bones. The pain was so intense that he could not sleep. The blood and pus settled, and the sores scabbed over, which made his skin look black. Even his garment had its color changed with the continual running of his boils, and the soft clothing he used to wear had now grown so stiff that all his garments were like a starched collar. Thus was he cast into the mire. His body looked more like a heap of dirt than anything else.
With all the mental torture the one thing that cut him to the heart more than anything else was that God did not appear for him. The worse possible condition is happening to Job. He feels that our Holy God has forsaken him. His prayers not only go unanswered but it is worse because Job feels like God has made a decision to totally ignore him. And sometimes Job is stopped in his prayers because it seems that the more he beseeches our Holy Master for help just the opposite comes about. He thought God fought against him and stirred up His whole strength to ruin him
Man’s substance, take him in his best estate, is nothing before the power of God; it is soon dissolved. So unable was Job to help himself when he was made to ride, not in triumph, but in terror, upon the wings of the wind, and the judgments of God did even dissolve his substance, as a cloud is dissolved and dispersed by the wind.
He now expected that God would shortly end his life. The grave is a house, a narrow, dark, cold, ill-furnished house, but it will be our residence, , our own home.
In the midst of all this mental and physical torture Job foresees, with comfort, that death will be the period of all his calamities. Dealing with people who have wanted to take their lives there is a scary dramatic change in a person’s demeanor. They person has reached a stage that ending their lives brings about a unique peaceful disposition. Someone once informed me this, ‘It makes everything that's weighing on me feel small. It relaxes me because thinking of everything I thought was life or death is nothing close. It’s oddly calming’.
We see in verse 24 though God now, with a strong hand, Job thought that He set Himself against him, "yet,’’ says he, "He will not stretch out his hand to the grave.’’ The hand of God’s wrath would bring him to death, but would not follow him beyond death; his soul would be safe and happy in the world of spirits, his body safe and easy in the dust. Though men cry in his destruction (though, when they are dying, there is a great deal of agony and out-cry, many a sigh, and groan, and complaint), yet in the grave they feel nothing, they fear nothing, but all is quiet there. "Though in hell, which is called destruction, they cry, yet not in the grave; and, being delivered from the second death, the first to me will be an effectual relief.’’ Therefore he wished he might be hidden in the grave.
He goes on to reflect with comfort upon the concern he always had for the calamities of others when he was himself at ease: Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? Job’s conscience witnessed for him that he had always sympathized with persons in misery and done what he could to help them, and therefore he had reason to expect that, at length, both God and his friends would pity him. In the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 29 the great student of the Bible Paul referenced Job’s care for the poor, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?
A major problem people deal with is their ‘expectations’. Men and women have been rebellious sinners and though although they care not about what God wants they expect Him to be kind and gracious to them. Have you ever seen a tragedy and someone comments, ‘If God was a God of love why did He allow this to happen.’ I have been there and we see in verse 26 Job similar disappointment to his expectation: "When I looked for good, for more good, or at least for the continuance of what I had, then evil came’’ At times we look for a ray of light in our difficulties but yet it seems to get worse, doesn’t it? How can anyone expect any rest when such affliction hits him or her.
Because of his physical condition Job is a horrible mess. To avoid mockery and attacks by others like those animals that dwell in the desert places alone Job must also. When he needs to go somewhere he must do it in the dark for fear of being attacked.
Let us take note of what Job experienced. In his prosperity Job had taken the musical instruments and rejoiced at their sound. Now these bring him not one bit of enjoyment. Let also remember to enjoy these things while we have the opportunity for no one knows when they also have their laughter turned into mourning.
