Job 30:1

There is special emphasis in the words, "But now." Job draws a striking contrast between his past and his present. In Job 30 he is still occupied with himself. It is still "I;" but how changed. The very men who flattered him in the day of his prosperity treat him with contempt in the day of his adversity. That is always how it goes in this poor, false, deceitful world, and it is good for us to be made to prove it. Sooner or later everyone must find out how hollow the world is. The same people who cry "Hosanna" today will cry "Crucify Him" tomorrow.

You can imagine how painful that was. He was a man who had been living a good deal on the witness of these grand deeds and on people's high opinion of him... "Whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock." Ah, Job, you can be cutting; you can strike deep when you want to. He would not have set their fathers with the dogs of his flock! Just think of it.

These younger men spared no unfeeling jibe that could wound him to the quick. Even for physical strength they were worthless, their prime ruined by want and hunger. What else could you expect from men who until now had been gnawing whatever they could find in the desert?... plucking saltwort in the thickets, and finding food, wretched as it was, in roots of broom.

This reveals another side of Job's character. He spoke before of delivering the poor and the fatherless and those who had no helper (ch. 29:12). Was it love for them that really moved him? If so, where was his love for this class of people, whom he had apparently looked at with contempt? Now they are treating him with contempt, and he feels deeply insulted. Again this shows the pride that Job needed to have broken down, and which was indeed broken down later.

But remember well that much more is needed than the stripping of self and the discovery of how hollow and deceitful the world is. A person may go through all of this and the result be nothing but frustration and disappointment. Indeed it can be nothing more if God is not reached... Was this the spirit of Christ? Would Job have spoken this way at the close of the book? He would not. When Job once got into God's presence, there was an end to the self-absorption of Job 29 and the bitterness of Job 30.

We can only compare his anger at their taunts with the meekness of Him "who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten."... But He, like one who did not hear, gave His back to those who strike and His cheeks to those who pull out the beard. "I hid not My face from disgrace and spitting" (Isa. 50:6). Who is it that said this? Not a man lamenting his former grandeur, but One who had voluntarily given up His glory in love for His enemies.