Mocked and Suffering Servant

Job 30:1-15

1 "But now they mock at me, men younger than I,
Whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.

2 Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me?
Their vigor has perished.

3 They are gaunt from want and famine,
Fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste,
4 Who pluck mallow by the bushes,
And broom tree roots for their food.

5 They were driven out from among men,
They shouted at them as at a thief.

6 They had to live in the clefts of the valleys,
In caves of the earth and the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they brayed,
Under the nettles they nestled.

8 They were sons of fools,
Yes, sons of vile men;
They were scourged from the land.

9 "And now I am their taunting song;
Yes, I am their byword.

10 They abhor me, they keep far from me;
They do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me,
They have cast off restraint before me.

12 At my right hand the rabble arises;
They push away my feet,
And they raise against me their ways of destruction.

13 They break up my path,
They promote my calamity;
They have no helper.

14 They come as broad breakers;
Under the ruinous storm they roll along.

15 Terrors are turned upon me;
They pursue my honor as the wind,
And my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

Job continues his defense by describing those now opposing him who previously were mere rabble who had nothing to do with him.  The ones who now mocked Job in his adverse circumstances judged and insulted him.  These were so common, so vulgar, that Job would not even have hired their fathers to mind his dogs, not exactly a glowing compliment.  These were vagabonds from society who had been driven out to be away from others, useless to help Job and perhaps this was a comparison to his friends come to give him unhealthy counsel.  The ones out in the wilderness were underfed, treated with the same respect as outcast thieves, living in caves and among rocky dwellings in the wilderness.  Under the bushes they brayed as wild donkeys, and among the nestles they nestled to sleep, completely wild as the animals.  Fools and children of fools, these mocking Job now taunted the once highly-respected leader who had seemingly fallen from grace to suffer as even beneath them!  So we see their despising him and insultingly spitting in Job’s face in their hate and disgust because of the circumstances.  They judged and then executed their sentence on the once high and mighty leader of the community, much like the Jews and Romans did with Christ (Matthew 26:67, 27:30).  Job saw this as God allowing it as if loosening bowstrings so they threw aside their restraint to so disrespectfully treat him.  This rabble rose against him with destruction as their way of life to impose it upon Job in order to bring him down to their level and beneath to feel better about themselves.  These terrors assaulted God’s upright one with attacks on his honor as all prosperity had left him.  It demonstrates to us how others want to bring us down because we are in Christ, to defame Him and His name by defaming us.  We must stand firm, knowing how they treated him and how we will therefore suffer as being in Him (Philippians 1:29, 1 Timothy 4:10, 1 Peter 4:19).  We are mocked and suffering servants of the Master who was our suffering servant.  We endure with joy in Him.