WHEN GOD DOESN’T ANSWER

Job 30:1-31 / Keywords 30:20

I cry out to you, O God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me.

 

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.

Footnotes

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

1. When he lost everything he had in the world, Job also lost the respect he once had from people in his community. Job describes how people that he used to consider unworthy of any respect (2-8) were now mocking and disrespecting him (1, 9-14). To be despised and considered worthless by others is one of the most painful types of suffering. Jesus underwent this kind of suffering on the cross.

 

2. As he continues to struggle with the depths of his suffering, Job is no longer speaking to his friends but to God directly. He asks God why he has seemingly not answered his prayer (20). He paints a picture of how God seems to be personally attacking him (18-22). When Job put his trust in God, he hoped for good things from God. But it seems he got the opposite (26).

 

3. We may think it is not reverent to complain to God like this. But when we are in such deep distress, it is better to struggle with God honestly than to try to blame people. If we feel that God is responsible for our suffering, then we can also remember that he has power to help us overcome it.

 

Prayer Father, help me to respect others as I want to be respected. Thank you that I can bring my agony to you. Help me be patient in waiting for your answer to my prayer.

One Word Take my struggles to God