A senseless, a nameless brood,
they have been whipped out of the land.
And now I have become their song;
I am a byword to them.
(Job 30:8-9)
We humans can be pretty ruthless. All of us have a desire to be at the top in some area of life; we want to be the smartest, the wisest, the strongest, the richest, the most composed, the best encourager, the most sought after counselor, the humblest, the meekest, the one whom no one could ever blame. And some of those things are excellent qualities to desire. But what we tend to be OK with is when someone who is a bit more (maybe a lot more) prominent in "our" dream place of status suddenly trips and falls or is in some way removed from that pedestal. Job found this out. Among men of his day, he was the best of the best in all the right ways. We think of him as they guy covered in sores whose wife told him to die, whose friends were hardly friendly, and who seemed to have nothing to live for. But before calamity struck, before the testing came, Job was the guy that everyone respected, that nobody interrupted, and that the needy would turn to. He was the wealthy guy who used what he had to bless others and whose age didn't seem to matter when it came to people showing him respect. You can read all about it in chapter 29 and infer it from the things God Himself says about him right at the beginning of the book.
But though none of the character qualities of Job changed when the life he knew came crashing down, he became the new stray dog in the land to kick and holler at when seen. The prominent did this with their lofty words of "wisdom" and the nameless brood he mentions here did it through their senseless, scoffing drinking songs. Job to them was probably a lot like a wrongly accused police officer thrown into prison with the criminals he helped put behind bars. He had now entered their territory of lowlife land and would be kept at the bottom of the food chain if possible.
We need to take great care that we don't become like virtually everyone in Job's life. Instead of looking for opportunities to be raised up when others are brought low or to even look good in the sight of others for helping the fallen, we must seek the praise of the Lord alone. We must be God motivated in our movements through life as the waves of circumstances raise us into view and perhaps bring others downward. No matter how subtly or internally it might take place, we've got to guard ourselves from the temptation to lift high our eyes when another has been brought down a notch.
they have been whipped out of the land.
And now I have become their song;
I am a byword to them.
(Job 30:8-9)
We humans can be pretty ruthless. All of us have a desire to be at the top in some area of life; we want to be the smartest, the wisest, the strongest, the richest, the most composed, the best encourager, the most sought after counselor, the humblest, the meekest, the one whom no one could ever blame. And some of those things are excellent qualities to desire. But what we tend to be OK with is when someone who is a bit more (maybe a lot more) prominent in "our" dream place of status suddenly trips and falls or is in some way removed from that pedestal. Job found this out. Among men of his day, he was the best of the best in all the right ways. We think of him as they guy covered in sores whose wife told him to die, whose friends were hardly friendly, and who seemed to have nothing to live for. But before calamity struck, before the testing came, Job was the guy that everyone respected, that nobody interrupted, and that the needy would turn to. He was the wealthy guy who used what he had to bless others and whose age didn't seem to matter when it came to people showing him respect. You can read all about it in chapter 29 and infer it from the things God Himself says about him right at the beginning of the book.
But though none of the character qualities of Job changed when the life he knew came crashing down, he became the new stray dog in the land to kick and holler at when seen. The prominent did this with their lofty words of "wisdom" and the nameless brood he mentions here did it through their senseless, scoffing drinking songs. Job to them was probably a lot like a wrongly accused police officer thrown into prison with the criminals he helped put behind bars. He had now entered their territory of lowlife land and would be kept at the bottom of the food chain if possible.
We need to take great care that we don't become like virtually everyone in Job's life. Instead of looking for opportunities to be raised up when others are brought low or to even look good in the sight of others for helping the fallen, we must seek the praise of the Lord alone. We must be God motivated in our movements through life as the waves of circumstances raise us into view and perhaps bring others downward. No matter how subtly or internally it might take place, we've got to guard ourselves from the temptation to lift high our eyes when another has been brought down a notch.
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