Job 30:30

At last we reach the end of the wail — the last of those laments which pierce the heart. ... His skin drops off his rotting flesh; his very bones are parched and dry. Surely misery like this would move even the hardest heart. Must these friends not listen to such grief, and have pity?

Yet what could exceed his inward feeling? What could exceed its effect on his body? And this came from no natural or outward cause. It came from unheard-of blows, from a consuming disease, and from struggles of soul worse than all.

The term "black" is generally used in scripture to express affliction, sorrow, and persecution. "My skin," as Job says, "turns black and falls from me, and my bones burn with heat." (Job 30:30) It is especially so with disobedient Israel. But here, the confession is sweetly joined with faith in Christ, and so becomes, morally, the truthful expression of all believers. "I am very dark, but lovely." Black as sin in myself — whiter than snow in Christ.

What seems the most devastating misery for Job is that he considers God is against him. He cries to God but is not heard (v.20). Of course God heard him, but God answers only at the right time and in the right way. Had God become cruel to him? He thought so, but it was the love of God that delayed an answer. What he considered God's hand strong against him was really the strength of God's love for him.

It is good that he recognises one thing. Whatever his suffering, and whatever its source, God is the One who has allowed it. But Job ought to have realised that God would not allow it if it was not going to be of pure blessing to Job in the end.

This is an expression of the deepest gloom. The cause is the bright past he had enjoyed by God's favour, which had taken too much of the place of God Himself before his soul... No solution of the riddle appears yet. Instead the difficulty thickens. God is hidden still more, the more Job dwells on the circumstances of past and present, with a conscience on which no evil lay. For all this is but self, not God; and we must humble ourselves under His mighty hand, if we would be exalted in due time.

In the closing verses of this chapter he described how far his body had fallen into weakness, misery and decay. God had given Satan permission to do his worst, short of taking his life. With cruel skill Satan reduced his body to such loathsome disease as, we suppose, no man has suffered before or since. Let us not judge Job harshly. In such a fearful plight as his we should probably have said far worse things than he.

So the wail ends in a song of sadness, without a note of faith. Oh, let us thank our God that Another has lifted His voice out of darkness deeper than all that pressed upon Job. His words carry sweet assurance: "Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given Me?" "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (John 18:11; Luke 23:46). To Him — our Saviour, our Lord, our all — we turn, and learn in our grief to say, "Your will be done."