Job 30:15

They poured in as through a wide breach, rolling onward under the crash of ruin. Meanwhile a crowd of terrors turned on him. Each one chased his dignity away like a hurricane, and his prosperity vanished like vapour.

Like a pack of cowardly wolves they pounce on the fallen man. His soul — or rather his "nobility" — is swept aside as if by a fierce hurricane: "my prosperity has passed away like a cloud." This is beautiful poetry, full of bold images. But Job does not show himself at his best. His weak spirit shows in how little dignity he keeps while he suffers. His faith is in eclipse.

In all his sufferings Job felt the hand of God upon him, as he had often said. He links this with the scorn of these low men, who used God's dealings with him as their excuse to pour out their hatred: "God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him."

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 acted as One who did not hear. He "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 said this? Not a man mourning his lost greatness. This was One who had willingly given up His glory out of love for His enemies. At any moment He could have freed Himself from His troubles, by asking His Father or by using His own power.

In chapter 29 we clearly see that he had been walking in the sense of blessings from God, and in part in the sense of the fruits of grace in his heart. He was resting in what he was to others, and not in the favour of God Himself. … So God goes on dealing with Job, till He brings him to nothing in the very thing he was most famous for. … Because we must be broken down — we must come to a sense of what we are, as well as of what we have done. Then God can deal with us out of His own heart.

Is it cruel of the Lord to deal this way with a poor broken-hearted creature? Let us rather ask: would it have been kind to leave him wearing his pride like a coat, and shouting against the Almighty? Only one thing humbles pride — coming face to face with its own nothingness before the majesty and boundless goodness of God.

This godly man needed to be brought low so that he could be lifted up. He had to learn the sentence of death on everything here, so that he might fully trust the God who raises the dead.