seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Job 30:1 “But now they mock me,
men younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to put with my sheep dogs.
2 Of what use was the strength of their hands to me,
since their vigor had gone from them?
3 Haggard from want and hunger,
they roamed[a] the parched land
in desolate wastelands at night.
4 In the brush they gathered salt herbs,
and their food[b] was the root of the broom bush.
5 They were banished from human society,
shouted at as if they were thieves.
6 They were forced to live in the dry stream beds,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7 They brayed among the bushes
and huddled in the undergrowth.
8 A base and nameless brood,
they were driven out of the land.
9 “And now those young men mock me in song;
I have become a byword among them.
10 They detest me and keep their distance;
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Now that God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me,
they throw off restraint in my presence.
12 On my right the tribe[c] attacks;
they lay snares for my feet,
they build their siege ramps against me.
13 They break up my road;
they succeed in destroying me.
‘No one can help him,’ they say.
14 They advance as through a gaping breach;
amid the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors overwhelm me;
my dignity is driven away as by the wind,
my safety vanishes like a cloud.
16 “And now my life ebbs away;
days of suffering grip me.
17 Night pierces my bones;
my gnawing pains never rest.
18 In his great power God becomes like clothing to me[d];
he binds me like the neck of my garment.
19 He throws me into the mud,
and I am reduced to dust and ashes.
20 “I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer;
I stand up, but you merely look at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly;
with the might of your hand you attack me.
22 You snatch me up and drive me before the wind;
you toss me about in the storm.
23 I know you will bring me down to death,
to the place appointed for all the living.
24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man
when he cries for help in his distress.
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, then came darkness.
27 The churning inside me never stops;
days of suffering confront me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother of jackals,
a companion of owls.
30 My skin grows black and peels;
my body burns with fever.
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,
and my pipe to the sound of wailing.
a. Job 30:3 Or gnawed
b. Job 30:4 Or fuel
c, Job 30:12 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
d. Job 30:18 Hebrew; Septuagint power he grasps my clothing
This is from studylight.org.
The contrast is now completed. Having drawn the portrait of himself as he was, rich, honoured, blessed with children, flourishing, in favour with both God and man, Job now presents himself to us as he is, despised of men, afflicted of God, a prey to vague terrors, tortured with bodily pains, cast off by God, with nothing but death to look for. The chapter is the most touching in the whole book.
This is an outtake from enduringword.com.I cry out to You, but You do not answer me: This was the worst aspect of Job’s suffering, the sense that God had forsaken him. He undeniably felt that God was against him (with the strength of Your hand You oppose me… You spoil my success). Indeed, Job felt that God wanted to and would destroy him (I know that You will bring me to death).
“God’s constant attack, his ruthless might, was so completely the opposite of Job’s ‘intimate friendship’ with God in those bygone days when he had still perceived that God was on his side.” (Smick)
I know that You will bring me to death: “Under depression of spirit he felt sure that he must very soon die; he feared that God would not relax the blows of his hand until his body became a ruin, and then he would have rest. But he did not die at that time. He was fully recovered, and God gave him twice as much as he had before. A life of usefulness, and happiness, and honor lay before him; and yet he had set up his own tombstone, and reckoned himself a dead man.” (Spurgeon)
I guess by the time all the poop started to happen in my life.... I had already been introduced to Jesus.
I believe He was there the whole time I was growing up.... I had quite an abusive mother.... that was how they kept kids under control back in those wonderful 50's.... that's how my mom was raised.... there were seven kids in my mom's family.... her mother was one of 13 kids.... spankings.
I was never afraid that Jesus would leave me..... I guess by the time the poop started in my life.... I had already heard multiple sermons on Job. God promised to stay and He stayed..... even though I stunk like poop because of all the mistakes I made.... He stayed. He stayed because I believe.
I can believe because Job was so long winded..... and so many preachers don't mind preaching on Job when they do wander into the Old Testament. Job is a good example of "where's God when I'm going into the poop"..... God's there..... He knows the future and He knows that when I go through poop.... I'll come out the other side ok..... He'll make sure of that.
Job is quite an example.....
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