Job's Calamity Job 30

Job 30:1 "But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock."

Job has just told us in chapter 29 of his greatness. Now, in this chapter he tells of his great fall. Like so many of us, Job measures his greatness by his riches, position and what people think of him. In the first part of this chapter, Job describes the fathers of the youth who are now showing disrespect for him. He even goes back as far as their grandparents.

v8 "They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth."

Once he established that the lineage of the disrespectful was corrupt, he makes this statement:

v9 "And now am I their song, yea, I am their byward."

I've seen it in the movies where the homeless and forgotten are pushed aside on the streets and shoved from place to place without regard that they are a human being. Such is the picture I have of the fallen prince Job.

v12 "Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. v13 They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper."

It was a bad time for Job when he lost his possessions and his health. He lost his family and the respect of his household. Now, he is pushed around like a common bum. It seems Job has gone as low as he can go without actually dying which would seem a blessing now.

I'd like to note here that Satan's hand was in Job's distresses. Satan will destroy a person and then leave them without pity. Satan does not care for people but only hurts them.

v15 "Terrors are turned upon me; they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud."

v19 "He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes."

Then an echo of prayer comes from Job's lips as it came from David's in Psalm 40:

Psalm 40:2 "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings."

Not yet though Job. v20 "I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me; I stand up, and thou regardest me not."

I'm not an expert on the meaning of the Bible. I have picked up on what could be a fault of Job's. He has declared that he is righteous and finds it a great loss that people no longer bow to his wishes. It is difficult for a well respected man to swallow the fact that he is no longer held in high regard. BUT should any of us expect that we should be raised above another. Perhaps God will raise some up, but should we demand it or expect it based on our goodness. I think not.

From verse 20 Job prays but still he is attempting to justify himself by his deeds. He did do some good things. Man's deeds, however, are man's deeds.

Let's jump to the New Testament and remember what Jesus told Peter: Luke 22:31 "And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."

That was my first text way back when I wrote down my first Bible lesson. I knew even then that we were all in Satan's gun sights. Satan would like to have had Peter to do to him as he did to Job but first he had the gospel to preach and the church to help establish. Satan had not changed his ways from Job to Peter and has not changed them today.

It is the LORD who protects us from him. The key was 'don't loose faith Peter'. Keep the faith.

Chapter 31 will continue Job's discourse but we are soon coming to the end of this long conversation and a new person steps into light.

Psalm 3:2-3 "Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O LORD, are a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head."

A chapter on Job's calamity.

Some places of my interest: Chatsworth, Georgia, Brazil, Brasil, Papua New Guinea, Australia, United States, Guatemala

Previous Post