Read
Job Continues
Young People Now
1Young people now insult me,
although their fathers
would have been a disgrace
to my sheep dogs.
2And those who insult me
are helpless themselves.
3They must claw the desert sand
in the dark for something
to satisfy their hunger.
4They gather tasteless shrubs
for food and firewood,
5and they are run out of towns,
as though they were thieves.
6Their only homes are ditches
or holes between rocks,
7where they bray like donkeys
gathering around shrubs.
8And like senseless donkeys
they are chased away.
Those Worthless Nobodies
9Those worthless nobodies
make up jokes and songs
to disgrace me.
10They are hateful
and keep their distance,
even while spitting
in my direction.
11God has destroyed me,
and so they don't care
what they do.
12Their attacks never stop,
though I am defenseless,
and my feet are trapped.
13Without any help,
they prevent my escape,
destroying me completely
14and leaving me crushed.
15Terror has me surrounded;
my reputation and my riches
have vanished like a cloud.
I Am Sick at Heart
16I am sick at heart!
Pain has taken its toll.
17Night chews on my bones,
causing endless torment,
18and God has shrunk my skin,
choking me to death.
19I have been thrown in the dirt
and now am dirt myself.
20I beg God for help,
but there is no answer;
and when I stand up,
he simply stares.
21God has turned brutal,
22stirring up a windstorm
to toss me about.
23Soon he will send me home
to the world of the dead,
where we all must go.
24No one refuses help to others,
when disaster strikes.
25I mourned for the poor
and those who suffered.
26But when I beg for relief
and light,
all I receive are disaster
and darkness.
27My stomach is tied in knots;
pain is my daily companion.
28My days are dark and gloomy
and in the city council
I stand and cry out,
29making mournful sounds
like jackals and owls.
30My skin is so parched,
that it peels right off,
and my bones are burning.
31My only songs are sorrow
and sadness.
Reflect
This is a chapter of utter despair! Job is now mocked by the homeless rejects of society, perhaps criminals, driven into the desert to scratch out an existence in the parched land. The young men whose parents showed him deference in the last chapter now make up jokes and songs to taunt him. They attack him physically. He is overwhelmed by terror. Everything that gave meaning to life in chapter 29 has vanished.
Or that is how it seemed to Job now.
If he made one error in chapter 29 he does one thing right in chapter 30. Although it seems to Job that God is ignoring him, he still cries out. There is no answer. Worse, he feels that God is attacking him (vv 20-21). But he is honest with God.
Job is still thinking within the theological framework of the Ancient Near East. Gods and men have a symbiotic relationship. When men please the gods, the gods bless them. If the gods withdraw blessing, it’s because they are displeased, or don’t care. But from the prologue to this book (Job 1:1-2:6) we know what Job doesn’t. He thinks that God doesn’t hear him. We know that God does. He thinks that God has turned brutal (v 21, CEV). It’s not God who has done these things.
Job, crying for help, is about to discover that God is not like the gods of his culture. He will have to finish his litany, and listen to Elihu first, but he will discover that the one true God sees, hears, and cares for us. What a contrast with the gods of his culture!
It may be that you are going through a difficult and painful time as you read this. God may seem far away. Cry out to him anyway. Tell him honestly how you feel. Don’t try to be theologically “correct.” He will hear you and honour your prayer.
Respond
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you love me with an enormous and everlasting love, even if I don’t always feel that way. Thank you for showing me what the Father is like. I would never have guessed it. Thank you for seeing, and caring all that I am going through. Even when life doesn’t make sense to me, I will trust you anyway. Amen.
Annabel Robinson
Annabel was born in Kew, near London, England. She committed her life to Jesus Christ at a Scripture Union camp when she was 16, and immediately found joy and peace. At Oxford she was active in the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union, where she met her husband, Reid. They emigrated to Canada in 1965, where she taught Classics at the University of Regina until 2007. She has two children, Heather in Oslo and Alasdair in Calgary.