Stormy Skies

INTRO

Job hung on to his faith with tenacity. This chapter is about the midway point of Job’s final speech in which he expresses a lot of what he was deeply feeling. Because of this, the tone of today’s chapter is a little depressing. After Job reflected on the good things he had experienced in his past, he began this part of his speech with a key phrase: “But now” (v. 1). All of the outward calamities Job faced were starting to affect his mental state.

TEACHING

Job 30:1–15: Job reflects on his loss of honor. His position in life had changed from being a person of honor to one who sat on an ash heap. McKenna noted, “No one other than Christ Himself has experienced a greater fall from fame than Job. Symbolically, he fell from the best seat in the city gate (29:7) and the governor’s chair (29:25) to the exile of an ash heap outside the city walls (30:19). Young men who had fallen silent before him in reverence (29:8–9) were now replaced by the mocking crowd of the dregs of humanity (30:1). Instead of the aged standing in honor of him, princes falling in silence, and nobles whispering in his presence (29:8–10), Job was the object of ridicule from the rabble.”¹ Job’s experience as described in chapter 30 resembles Jesus’ experience in the time between the garden (of Gethsemane) and the cross.

Job went into great detail to describe these dishonorable men who had formerly revered him but now mocked him (vv. 2–8). Formerly, Job had no use of their labor—they were unable to provide for their own needs, they scavenged for their sustenance, they were treated like thieves, they had no permanent homes, they spoke and behaved like donkeys without even having names for themselves, and they were forced to leave society. These were truly the dregs of Job’s society, and now they taunted him.

These men were now very bold in the disrespect they showed Job (vv. 9–15). They sang spiteful songs about Job. They stayed far away from him and treated him as an untouchable. They spat in his face.

Job charges God with responsibility for the way the rabble is treating him: “Because God has loosened my bowstring and oppressed me, they have cast off restraint in my presence”(v. 11). This thought was debilitating to Job. All of his strength had been taken away. Job used images of captivity and war to describe how the rabble was treating him (v. 12). Job saw terror at every turn. He saw his dignity taken from him as though by a tornado (v. 15). Even in the midst of this kind of trouble, what could be described as “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23), God was with Job. But his trouble had not yet stopped; his humiliation was not yet complete.

Job 30:16–19: Physical suffering took a toll on Job. Job knew pain in every single form. His resources were exhausted. He experienced days and nights of gnawing pain. Job claimed his clothing was “distorted with great force; He chokes me by the neck of my garment” (v. 18). Job may have been referencing his own thrashings in the night from fever, but it is clear Job ultimately held God responsible for his sufferings. Job walked the line between blasphemy and truth in these verses as he remembered the heights from which he had fallen. Job had no explanation for God’s perceived change in attitude toward him. Job knew that he had not changed, so he felt God had. Job did not know who his real adversary was.

Job 30:20–23: Job sets forth several images to describe how he felt God treated him. He felt as though God failed to acknowledge his cries and ignored him as he stood to voice his complaints (v. 20). He felt God turned against him and became his adversary (v. 21). He felt God had scattered him on the wind (v. 22). Ultimately, he felt God was leading him to his own death (v. 23).

Job 30:24–31: Job appeals to God’s compassion while expressing exactly how he feels. Job points out that even people wouldn’t condemn “a ruined man . . . because of his distress” (v. 24). How much more should God have compassion on someone like Job? Job points out he had shown compassion to those “who have fallen on hard times” and the poor (v. 25). However, everything now felt upside down: “When I hoped for good, evil came”(v. 26). His stomach was so upset he could not rest. His skin was “blackened, but not by the sun” (v. 28). He lived outside the city with wild animals (v. 29). His physical ailments continued to worsen (v. 30).

Job’s humiliation was only exceeded by Christ’s. Isaiah portrayed Christ’s sufferings this way: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; He was despised, and we didn’t value Him” (Isaiah 53:3). Job poetically summed up his reversal of fortune by noting his instruments only knew songs of lament and weeping (v. 31).

CLOSING

The wind and the ravages of life can change everything. We must hold on to the Lord in order to make it through life. Job’s sufferings foreshadowed the sufferings of Christ, but God was bigger than the sufferings of both.

“For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:38–39).