When You Hit Bottom

This is a chapter of utter despair! Job is now mocked by the homeless rejects of society, perhaps criminals, driven into the desert to scratch out an existence in the parched land. The young men whose parents showed him deference in the last chapter now make up jokes and songs to taunt him. They attack him physically. He is overwhelmed by terror. Everything that gave meaning to life in chapter 29 has vanished.

Or that is how it seemed to Job now.

If he made one error in chapter 29, he does one thing right in chapter 30. Although it seems to Job that God is ignoring him, he still cries out. There is no answer. Worse, he feels that God is attacking him (vv 20-21). But he is honest with God.

Job is still thinking within the theological framework of the Ancient Near East. Gods and men have a symbiotic relationship. When men please the gods, the gods bless them. If the gods withdraw their blessing, it’s because they are displeased or don’t care. But from the prologue to this book (Job 1:1-2:6), we know what Job doesn’t. He thinks that God doesn’t hear him. We know that God does. He thinks that God has turned brutal (v 21). It’s not God who has done these things.

Job, crying for help, is about to discover that God is not like the gods of his culture. He will have to finish his litany and listen to Elihu first, but he will discover that the one true God sees, hears, and cares for us. What a contrast with the gods of his culture!

It may be that you are going through a difficult and painful time as you read this. God may seem far away. Cry out to him anyway. Tell him honestly how you feel. Don’t try to be theologically “correct.” He will hear you and take you seriously. He will honour your prayer.

Respond in Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I believe that you love me with an enormous and everlasting love, even if I don’t always feel that way. Thank you for showing me what the Father is like. I would never have guessed it. Thank you for seeing and caring about all that I am going through. Even when life doesn’t make sense to me, I will trust you anyway. Amen.

Annabel Robinson

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®).