Job 30:15 - Meaning and Application

In this second part of Job’s bitter complaint, we hear many sorrowful notes, but only a little comfort. Most of what he says is grief and loss. He feels that trouble has taken hold of him, and it has come on suddenly, without warning. He counts his sufferings by days, because he knows they are temporary, even though they feel heavy now, and they are small compared with eternity (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Job says his sorrow has worked deep into him. His inward parts, meaning his whole inner life, are in constant pain. He goes on mourning day after day, always sighing and weeping. It is as if he lives under a dark cloud and has no sunlight at all. Some think he means he literally walked away from the sun into dark places, like deeply troubled people often do. When he goes to the assembly to worship, he does not stand quietly to ask for prayer. Instead, he cries out in pain, whether from body or soul, as though he cannot hold himself together.

He says he has become like a brother to jackals and owls, both in his loneliness and in his loud, broken cries. Their calls are strange and unsettled, and so are his complaints. The worst part of his suffering, though, is not only what happens around him, but the fear and distress inside him. When he looks ahead, he sees only frightening things. When he tries to shake off his terror, it rushes back at him. When he tries to escape, it follows his soul like a strong wind. Earlier he had spoken of the terrors of God drawing up in battle against him (Job 6:4), and he still feels surrounded by them.

If he looks back, he sees that all the good things he once enjoyed have passed away. They are gone as quickly and completely as a cloud. If he looks inward, he finds his spirit crushed and unable to bear what has happened. He feels not only wounded, but poured out like water on the ground. Compare this with the deep misery described in (Psalm 22:14), where the heart is said to melt like wax.

His bodily pain is also severe. He is full of pain, sharp pain that reaches even into his bones. It feels like a sword cutting him from within, especially at night when sleep should have brought relief. His nerves are in constant distress, his muscles do not rest, and he cannot sleep. He is like a man in a continuing fever, dried out and consumed from the inside. This shows how frail our bodies are, and how they carry the seeds of sickness and death within themselves.

Job is also covered with sores. Some people suffer strong pain in their bones but still keep their skin whole, but Satan’s attack on Job reached both bone and flesh. His skin has turned black, likely because his sores have become scabbed and infected. Even his clothing has changed because of the continual discharge from his boils. His garments have become stiff and foul, like the collar around his neck. We should not even want to dwell on how miserable his clothes and body had become through lack of care and cleanliness. Some think he may also have had a throat illness, perhaps a swelling that felt like a tight collar.

He says he has been cast into the mire, or even compared to it. His body looked more like a heap of dirt than a human body. This should warn us not to be proud of our clothes or our cleanliness. Disease can quickly change our garments and make them foul to us and to others. What once smelled sweet can become a stench (Isaiah 3:24). At best, we are dust and ashes, and our bodies are weak and lowly. We often forget that, until God lets some sore illness make us feel it plainly. Job feels as though he is already becoming what he will soon be, dust and ashes, carrying his grave with him wherever he goes.

What hurts him most of all is that God seems to have become his enemy and is fighting against him. He believes it was God who cast him into the mire and then trampled on him there. This grieves him more than anything else. He says God does not answer him. He cries out earnestly, stands up as one waiting for a reply, but gets none. If our most serious prayers do not bring quick and visible answers, we should not be surprised. The children of Jacob have never truly sought God in vain, but they have often felt as if they had, and have wondered whether God was deaf or angry with them (Psalm 80:4).

Job goes even farther and says, “You have become cruel to me” (Job 30:21). That is a serious and sinful thing to say about the God of mercy, whose compassion never fails. God is never cruel, especially not to his own children. Job spoke wrongly and without gratitude when he said this. Still, this hard thought about God was the sin that most easily trapped him at this time.

Here, Job thought that God was fighting against him and putting all his strength into ruining him. He says, in effect, “With your strong hand you oppose me, or act like my enemy.” Earlier, in Job 23:6, he had a better view of God and believed God would not use his great power to argue against him. God has full authority and irresistible strength, but he never uses either to crush or oppress anyone.

Job also felt that God was lifting him up only to cast him down in scorn (Job 30:22). He thought of himself as a feather or as chaff in the wind, tossed around by something far greater than himself. He felt like an unequal match for Almighty God and helpless when God made him ride, not in triumph, but in fear, on the wings of the wind. The judgments of God seemed to break apart his very being, like a cloud blown away by the wind. Human strength, even at its best, is nothing before God’s power. It can be dissolved very quickly.

He expected nothing now except that these troubles would soon end in death. If he was being carried on the wind, he could expect only to be thrown down and killed. He speaks as if God had no other purpose in dealing with him than to bring him to death, though he might have reached that end without so much suffering, because “it is the house appointed for all living” (Job 30:23). The grave is called a house, a narrow, dark, cold, and poorly furnished place, but it will be our dwelling, where we rest and are safe. It is our long home, our own home, for there we are gathered to our fathers.

The grave is appointed for us by the One who has fixed the limits of our lives. It is appointed for all the living. It is the common place where rich and poor meet, the general gathering place. We must all be brought there soon. It is God who brings us there, because the keys of death and the grave are in his hand. We may be sure that, sooner or later, he will bring us there. It would be good for us to think about this often. The living know that they will die, and each of us should take that truth to heart.

Two things made Job’s suffering even harder to bear. First, it was a great disappointment to what he had expected (Job 30:26). He says, “When I looked for good, or for more good, or at least for what I already had to continue, evil came.” Worldly comforts are uncertain, and it is foolish to build big hopes on them. Those who wait for light from the sparks of earthly pleasures will be deeply disappointed and end up in darkness.

Second, his whole condition had changed in a painful way (Job 30:31). “My harp is not only laid aside and hung up, but it has been turned to mourning, and my pipe has become the voice of weeping.” In his prosperity, Job had used the timbrel and harp and enjoyed the sound of music (Job 21:12). Even with his seriousness and godliness, he had taken time to be cheerful. Now his song was changed. So those who rejoice should live as though their joy were only for a moment, because they do not know how soon laughter may turn to mourning and joy to sorrow.

Still, in the middle of all this, Job found a small comfort. He foresaw that death would be the end of his present troubles (Job 30:24). Even though God was now opposing him with a strong hand, God would not stretch out that hand into the grave. God’s wrath would bring him to death, but it would not follow him beyond death. His soul would be safe and happy in the world of spirits, and his body would be safe and at rest in the dust. Though people cry out in the pain of dying, the grave itself feels nothing and fears nothing. There all is quiet. Since he would be delivered from the second death, the first death would be a real relief to him. That is why he later wished to be hidden in the grave (Job 14:13).

Job also took comfort from the fact that he had always cared about the troubles of others when he was at ease (Job 30:25). “Did I not weep for him who was in trouble?” Some think he is here complaining to God, as if it were hard that he, who had shown mercy to others, should not receive mercy himself. But it is better to take this as a comfort to himself. His conscience testified that he had truly sympathized with people in misery and done what he could to help them. For that reason, he had some grounds to hope that, in the end, both God and his friends would pity him.

Those who mourn with those who mourn will bear their own sorrows better when their turn comes to drink the bitter cup. “My soul burned for the poor,” some read it, comparing it with Paul’s words, “Who is offended, and I do not burn?” (2 Corinthians 11:29). Those who have been unkind and hard toward others may hear that brought back to them in their own conscience when trouble comes. But those who have cared for the poor and helped them will find that memory easing their bed in sickness (Psalm 41:1, Psalm 41:3).