Job 29-30--Job's Summary Defense

Job's Summary Defense
29 And Job again took up his discourse, and said:

2 “Oh, that I were as in the months of old,
    as in the days when God watched over me,
3 when his lamp shone upon my head,
    and by his light I walked through darkness,
4 as I was in my prime,
    when the friendship of God was upon my tent,
5 when the Almighty was yet with me,
    when my children were all around me,
6 when my steps were washed with butter,
    and the rock poured out for me streams of oil!
7 When I went out to the gate of the city,
    when I prepared my seat in the square,
8 the young men saw me and withdrew,
    and the aged rose and stood;
9 the princes refrained from talking
    and laid their hand on their mouth;
10 the voice of the nobles was hushed,
    and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
11 When the ear heard, it called me blessed,
    and when the eye saw, it approved,
12 because I delivered the poor who cried for help,
    and the fatherless who had none to help him.
13 The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me,
    and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy.
14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;
    my justice was like a robe and a turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
    and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
    and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.
17 I broke the fangs of the unrighteous
    and made him drop his prey from his teeth.
18 Then I thought, ‘I shall die in my nest,
    and I shall multiply my days as the sand,
19 my roots spread out to the waters,
    with the dew all night on my branches,
20 my glory fresh with me,
    and my bow ever new in my hand.’

21 “Men listened to me and waited
    and kept silence for my counsel.
22 After I spoke they did not speak again,
    and my word dropped upon them.
23 They waited for me as for the rain,
    and they opened their mouths as for the spring rain.
24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence,
    and the light of my face they did not cast down.
25 I chose their way and sat as chief,
    and I lived like a king among his troops,
    like one who comforts mourners.

30 “But now they laugh at me,
    men who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.
2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    men whose vigor is gone?
3 Through want and hard hunger
    they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.
5 They are driven out from human company;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
    in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they bray;
    under the nettles they huddle together.
8 A senseless, a nameless brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

9 “And now I have become their song;
    I am a byword to them.
10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
11 Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint in my presence.
12 On my right hand the rabble rise;
    they push away my feet;
    they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
13 They break up my path;
    they promote my calamity;
    they need no one to help them.
14 As through a wide breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
15 Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.
17 The night racks my bones,
    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
18 With great force my garment is disfigured;
    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
19 God has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.
20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you only look at me.
21 You have turned cruel to me;
    with the might of your hand you persecute me.
22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
    and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death
    and to the house appointed for all living.

24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
    and in his disaster cry for help?
25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
    Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.
27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
    days of affliction come to meet me.
28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I am a brother of jackals
    and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin turns black and falls from me,
    and my bones burn with heat.
31 My lyre is turned to mourning,
    and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

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This is the beginning of what could be called Job's "summation" or closing arguments.  Job starts by wishing for the days of old when it was obvious that God's blessing was upon him and when the men of the city, both young and old, showed him respect, listened to his wisdom and saw and gave thanks to God for Job's charity to the poor, the widows, and the orphans.  Job's righteousness was not called into question and it seemed that God poured out material and physical blessings on Job during this time as a sign that He was pleased with Job and as a sign to those around Job that Job was favored by God.

Job also says that he longs for some things that can't come back like his youth and his children that have died.  His reputation may one day return but he will have to trust that he will see his children one day in the Resurrection (think about this in a few chapters when God rewards the faithfulness of Job).  While God can give us more time and help us redeem the time, we can never move back in time to go and have what we had before or to change things that we wish were different.  We can only live in the moment that God gives us here and now.

The thing that Job seems to miss the most though is being an ambassador of the kingdom of God.  He doesn't quite use that language, but I think it's safe to say that people came to Job like they would come to the representative of the King--for charity, for counsel, for protection, and for justice.  Job loved being able to serve his neighbors in a way that was glorifying to God, though admittedly he liked the blessing and glory that God gave to him as well.  But now that Job has suffered so greatly, he is one of the ones that needs to be taken care of and it seems no one will return the favor to him.  No one seems to be trying to get justice for him in finding and hunting down those who stole his herds and flocks.  No one seems to be interested in hearing of his misfortune and giving of their resources to help him rebuild.  No one seems to be tending to his medical condition and easing his pain and suffering, and no one seems to listen to him--that has to be the worst feeling of all for him as his friends have no words of kindness or sympathy for him, but only unfounded accusations and their self-righteousness and their own form of godliness.  (see 2 Timothy 3:1-9, especially verse 5).

Job continues his lament to say that those he has helped and those who are young and wicked, just like their fathers, now mock Job even though they themselves are in a similar situation (I am assuming because Job provided so much for his community that when he lost everything, everyone else was affected).  The people seem to be scrounging around for food as wild animals would and eating roots and leaves that normally would not be things that humans would eat.  They are no longer living in houses and cities, but in the gullies and caves and holes in the ground.  They are a people that have been driven from their homes from what it sounds like, and it seems easy for them to blame Job for their distress.

The only people that seem to want to get close to Job now are those who want to take advantage of him in his current condition and cause him more pain and suffering.  Then Job speaks directly to his friends to say that when God did these things to him, he cried to them for help and they did nothing to help but stood there and looked at it, and they did not even remain silent but added insult to injury, and Job imagines they are simply waiting for death to come upon him so that they may divide whatever little he has left among themselves.

Job also describes the pain and suffering that he's in great detail albeit in poetic language.  This is a man that feels that he has been abandoned by God, by his community, and even his closest friends.  He sowed a life of righteousness and when it was time for someone to take care of him, no one showed up other than those that came to steal, kill and destroy.  The words of those that came to him were not sweet and healing, but were bitter and like the venom of vipers and like the fire of hell (like the epistle of James talks about).  Job is definitely in physical suffering but he's also suffering in other ways, and he has no idea when or if it is going to end.  (We do have some idea because we know that there are 42 chapters in the book of Job and that we are coming to the end of the books soon, and we can jump ahead and see the ending and know how everything is going to turn out, but Job didn't have that benefit).