Tag: Suffering is a Real Thing - Job 29-30

Job 30:24-31 (ESV Strong's)

“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

and in his disaster cry for help?

Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?

Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

But when I hoped for good, evil came,

and when I waited for light, darkness came.

My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

days of affliction come to meet me.

I go about darkened, but not by the sun;

I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

I am a brother of jackals

and a companion of ostriches.

My skin turns black and falls from me,

and my bones burn with heat.

My lyre is turned to mourning,

and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

Tag:  Suffering is a Real Thing

Unless you have had a genuine hardship in you life you can not understand Job’s words in the above passage.   Job is, indeed, suffering.   He has truly gone from riches (chapter 29) to rags (chapter 30).  The contrast between these two chapters could not be more profound.   In chapter 29 we read that Job was so revered that people just wanted his smile cast upon them:

Job 29:24 (ESV Strong's)

I smiled on them when they had no confidence,

and the light of my face they did not cast down.

However, chapter 30 begins with:

Job 30:1 (ESV Strong's)

“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.

The “but” of Job 30:1 is so scary.   Job was a merry man in one chapter, but in the next we read the above dialogue.  His skin was black and his bones burned from this suffering that God allowed him to bear.   Satan had indeed touched his body, but not to death.   Suffering is real and we ought to be carful in making judgments about those who suffer.  Job’s friends have all said that the reason for the suffering was Job’s sin.  Yet, it was not.  Job was simply a tool for God for us to learn about God and suffering.   That might seem cruel to us, but God does allow suffering for the sake of suffering.   Jesus suffered on the cross and we are to rejoice in similar sufferings:

1 Peter 3:13-14 (ESV Strong's)

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,

Suffering is real and it is, like all things, controlled by God.   He allows us to go through times of suffering so that we know that He is also real.