Today is the second part of Job’s final defence of his innocence before God.

1 “But now they mock me, those who are younger than I,
whose fathers I disdained too much
to put with my sheep dogs.
2 Moreover, the strength of their hands—
what use was it to me?
Those whose strength had perished,
3 gaunt with want and hunger,
they would roam the parched land,
by night a desolate waste.
4 By the brush they would gather herbs from the salt marshes,
and the root of the broom tree was their food.
5 They were banished from the community—
people shouted at them
as they would shout at thieves—
6 so that they had to live
in the dry stream beds,
in the holes of the ground, and among the rocks.
7 They brayed like animals among the bushes
and were huddled together under the nettles.
8 Sons of senseless and nameless people,
they were driven out of the land with whips.

9 “And now I have become their taunt song;
I have become a byword among them.
10 They detest me and maintain their distance;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Because God has untied my tent cord and afflicted me,
people throw off all restraint in my presence.
12 On my right the young rabble rise up;
they drive me from place to place
and build up siege ramps against me.
13 They destroy my path;
they succeed in destroying me
without anyone assisting them.
14 They come in as through a wide breach;
amid the crash they come rolling in.
15 Terrors are turned loose on me;
they drive away my honor like the wind,
and as a cloud my deliverance has passed away.

16 “And now my soul pours itself out within me;
days of suffering take hold of me.
17 Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never cease.
18 With great power God grasps my clothing;
he binds me like the collar of my tunic.
19 He has flung me into the mud,
and I have come to resemble dust and ashes.
20 I cry out to you, but you do not answer me;
I stand up, and you only look at me.
21 You have become cruel to me;
with the strength of your hand you attack me.
22 You pick me up on the wind and make me ride on it;
you toss me about in the storm.
23 I know that you are bringing me to death,
to the meeting place for all the living.

24 “Surely one does not stretch out his hand
against a broken man
when he cries for help in his distress.
25 Have I not wept for the unfortunate?
Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 But when I hoped for good, trouble came;
when I expected light, then darkness came.
27 My heart is in turmoil unceasingly;
the days of my affliction confront me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
in the assembly I stand up and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin has turned dark on me;
my body is hot with fever.
31 My harp is used for mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.

REFLECTIONS

Job’s descent from yesterday’s passage to today’s is shocking. Yesterday, Job remembered his extraordinary life of honour and blessing. He used to be given the highest place of honour at the city gate, and even the most important elders and nobles would stay silent in his presence (29:7-10). Today, he laments how he has plunged from those heights to the deepest depths of humiliation, rejection, and agony. Now, even the “sons of senseless and nameless people” who have been banished from society won’t have anything to do with him. He has “become their taunt song” and they spit in his face (30:1-10). And Job knows that God is allowing all this.

Job’s descent from glory to humiliation reminded me of the even greater descent of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8 – from glory in the presence of his Father to taking human form, becoming a slave, and going to the shame and agony of death on a cross.

But the big difference between Job’s descent and that of Jesus is that Jesus chose to take that path from glory to humiliation and agony … for us, to redeem us and bring glory to his Father. He descended, and then was raised to the highest place, so that by clinging to him by faith, we can know that we will be raised from the shame of sin and the agony of death to share in his glory. Remember that with thankfulness today.