Job 30

The poor are shunned... 

Job 30  

 FRIDAY  Reflections

As Job looks over his past when things were going well he made note that those around him listened to him. Now Job says everything has changed. Job laments that everyone has left and deserted him. It’s hard to argue. Job’s wife told him to curse God and die (not much help there). His friends continue to tell him he must be a wicked person, though they knew him before and should have known better.

In my commentary on the previous chapter, I quoted Solomon's words "Wealth attracts many friends"(Proverbs 19:4a) and “the rich have many friends.” (Proverbs 14:20b). If you noticed I quoted only part of those verses. I did this so I could reveal the complete verses today. They are “The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends” (Proverbs 14:20) and “Wealth attracts many friends, but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them” (Proverbs 19:4). Ouch! 

Very often those that lose their wealth, fame, and power often find themselves without anyone. This is where Job was. It isn’t a pretty place. Often a person will find themselves here because of their own actions, but as we are reminded here in Job, this isn’t always the case. 

The one truth we can trust is God knows what is really going on. He can forgive and will make things right though not always when we want or even always in this life.

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 30:2  Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me, in whom old age was perished? 

Job 30:3  For want and famine they were solitary; fleeing into the wilderness in former time desolate and waste. 

Job 30:4  Who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat. 

Job 30:5  They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;) 

Job 30:6  To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks. 

Job 30:7  Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they were gathered together. 

Job 30:8  They were children of fools, yea, children of base men: they were viler than the earth. 

Job 30:9  And now am I their song, yea, I am their byword. 

Job 30:10  They abhor me, they flee far from me, and spare not to spit in my face. 

Job 30:11  Because he hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me, they have also let loose the bridle before me. 

Job 30:12  Upon my right hand rise the youth; they push away my feet, and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction. 

Job 30:13  They mar my path, they set forward my calamity, they have no helper. 

Job 30:14  They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters: in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me. 

Job 30:15  Terrors are turned upon me: they pursue my soul as the wind: and my welfare passeth away as a cloud. 

Job 30:16  And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me. 

Job 30:17  My bones are pierced in me in the night season: and my sinews take no rest. 

Job 30:18  By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat. 

Job 30:19  He hath cast me into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes. 

Job 30:20  I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. 

Job 30:21  Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me. 

Job 30:22  Thou liftest me up to the wind; thou causest me to ride upon it, and dissolvest my substance. 

Job 30:23  For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living. 

Job 30:24  Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction. 

Job 30:25  Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul grieved for the poor? 

Job 30:26  When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. 

Job 30:27  My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me. 

Job 30:28  I went mourning without the sun: I stood up, and I cried in the congregation. 

Job 30:29  I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls. 

Job 30:30  My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. 

Job 30:31  My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep. 

Photo by Cory Woodward on Unsplash