Job 30 Commentary
This chapter echoes the cry of the psalmist in chapters 22 and 69. We also hear the voice of the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.
“And now those young men mock me in song.” Who are these young men? These are sons of nearly useless men – men not good enough to be Job’s servants! Has Job’s condition become so bad?
This chapter touches on a sensitive subject. Will faith in the LORD God reduce the saint to this position? Will low and sinful minds show up one day to mock the saint?
It can be the saint’s worst experience when the low-and-down of society begin to question your decision-making. Does this faith make sense? Look at you now! The ‘we told you’ statement can hurt more than the pain itself.
Faith should count, but not for Job. It has failed him, so it appears. The young men add salt to the wound by saying loudly what Job has been battling all along. The young men are saying what Job’s wife said, but in a mocking and degrading way.
The young men can be workmates who rise up the hierarchy of management with a better income because of either corruption or cheating. And you know they are lazy and less smart. Their elevation looks at you and mocks your faith.
“Here we are, and there you are,” they say. “Even a mere dog can climb up the ladder of success.” It forces you to ask the question, “Shouldn’t faith achieve more?” Of course, it has achieved more pain for Job! But wait a minute, the story isn’t over yet.
As it was for Job, so it is for the saint. These are moments you feel the LORD is quiet. And a chilling knowledge of death comes to confirm your fate. It is an appointment for all mortals. Will life end this way for me? Have I not wept for those in trouble? Does my faith count for nothing?
Job laments the loss of his material world and what it has meant. Secondly, Job laments his own meaningless life as it all ends in death – the place appointed for the living. But in the declaration: “I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God”, we can see the greatest hope for humanity. It is called resurrection in the New Testament.
When you hear these words, “Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony,” Luke 16 – the story of Lazarus and the rich man, then you know the LORD remembers every activity! Then you know this life isn’t all there is to existence!
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