Wed, 1 March, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
1 “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.
I think that in this and the previous chapter, we get a glimpse of possibly why God has allowed this great series of calamities fall upon righteous Job. In the previous chapter, he reviews the things he really misses: the honor and respect as everyone used to look up to him. Rich and poor, princes and paupers, young and old. Everyone used to look up to Job.
In this chapter, he reviews his current condition: he is the object of mockery. Now people mock me! Me! Job! Children of people not fit to take care of my sheepdogs make fun of me. Job shows his extreme disdain for these people. In verses 2 through 8, quoted above, he describes the worthless fathers of these taunters. In verse 9, he describes how the young scoundrels treat him. In verses 12 through 15 he talks of the rabble like waves washing over him.
What do we learn from this?
In this and the previous chapter, Job displays his pride. He shows that he was the greatest man of the east, and he knew it. But now, people who used to come to him for advice, and people who honored and respected him make fun of him. Worse still, the lowest of the low mock him.
We see here the wounded pride of Job. He suffers in many ways, but here he reveals how he suffers from the loss of honor and respect he used to enjoy.
It certainly is understandable how Job could be a proud man. It is very difficult to be blessed by God in such a great material way and not become proud. You would soon expect the kind of preferential treatment that comes with the wealth. It would be hard when your fair weather friends would turn on you, and people start to treat you with contempt just because your wealth was gone. You too would be struck with a longing for the restoration of the honor you used to take for granted. It is quite understandable that Job would lament this great hardship.
But perhaps God is allowing this to happen, among other reasons, to break Job’s pride. He has been greatly blessed by God, but this is no reason for Him to think more highly of himself than others. It is God’s blessing upon him, not his own superiority over others that has caused his great material wealth, and so Job shouldn’t be filled with pride. He shouldn’t be filled with disdain for those around him just because they are on a lower social or economic level than he was.
Neither should we be puffed up with our own successes and lord it over those around us, thinking we are superior to them. We must humble ourselves, and think of others, not as our inferiors, but as equals with us. We must consider their own concerns along with our own, seeking to do what is best for all, not just what is best for ourselves.
Where is Christ in this passage?
When we consider the lesson of humble service of others, and how we must consider the interests of others, once again the example of Jesus as related by Paul in Philippians 2 comes to mind:
3 Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
