Dr. Lawrence Butler, The Bridge Church, Pembroke.

During the course of these articles concerning Job I have enumerated several times the suffering and loss that befell this wonderful man of God. Today I want to continue in this vein but desire to show you another group of people who disdained Job, mocking him, deriding him and taking advantage of the situation to show their hatred of him. We find this group described by Job in chapter 30.

The first section of this chapter describes these people as ill-bred outcasts of society. “But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock” (Job 30:1). They actually were driven away from society as if they were thieves, having to live in caves, cliffs and among the rocks. Job further states, “They were the children of fools, yea children of base men: they were viler than the earth” (Job 30:8). These were the people who were now mocking Job and adding to his misery.

Their actions are recorded in the second part of chapter 30. Job contends they rose up against him, they pushed away his feet, they marred his path and they brought terror to him (30:12-15). There was no mercy, no love or concern for Job, only an opportunity to “kick” a man when he was down.

People who were the sons of men so undependable Job would not hire them to “set with the dogs” of his flock (v.1), yet now think so highly of themselves as to be in position to pass judgment on Job and add to his torment.

Perhaps we’ve all had to deal with people like this. They are down in society because they will not work, they are not dependable or perhaps they have addictions that prevent them from being real achievers. Yet somehow when we have a difficult time in life they feel qualified to tell us what we are doing wrong. Those who never do well in life seem to have a lot of advice, don’t you agree? Maybe someone received a healing from the Lord and you did not, so they now want to think of themselves more highly than they should.

My friend, fret not when others criticize you or belittle you, that’s what happened to Job. But we’ve not reached the end of the story yet. Job still doesn’t understand why all this has happened, but God is about to speak to him, God is going to restore His blessing on Job, and people are going to repent and apologize to Job. Just wait until your story concludes and then we’ll understand what God was doing.