Pre-suffering of Job the people revered and respect him. He was a man of great righteousness, wisdom and justice. If you needed someone who did the right thing, he was it. But how people treated him all changed when he was stricken with illness.
“But now they mock me, men young than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dog” (Job 30:1). He then goes on to describe how awful these young men are.
“They were expelled from human society; people shouted at them as if they were thieves. They are living on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in the holes in the ground. They bray among the shrubs; they huddle beneath the thistles. Foolish men, without even a name...” (Job 30:5-8).
And yet as bad as these young men were, these are the very ones that mock Job in song and have become objects of scorn to them.
“Now I am mocked by their songs; I have become an object of scorn to them. They despise me and keep their distance from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face…they tear up my path; they contribute to my destruction” (Job 30:9-10,13).
Job wrestles with God about his condition.
“I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me…You have turned against me with cruelty; You harass me with your strong hand” (Job 30:20,21).
Job asks why.
“Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times? Has my soul not grieved for the needy? But when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, darkness came” (Job 30:26).
His pain and suffering is overwhelming.
“My skin blackens and flakes off, and my bones burn with fever” (Job 30:30).
This is the “after,” Job’s misery. The worst of the worst mock, spit and run from him. He feels God is cruel and harrassing him. And his condition is so bad his skin is turning black and coming off in flakes while his body burns in fever.
It’s easy to trust God when all is well in the world. But how will Job respond when everything has flipped?
