Job 30 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 30 Short Summary:

In Job 30, Job contrasts his new life of suffering with his previous life (described in chapter 29). He talks about his humiliation amongst the men of his community, and his struggle through sickness and pain. He had called out to God for help, but he felt like God was ignoring him.

Job 30 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• Job’s Friends – Three men who were determined to accuse Job of sin. They were convinced Job’s suffering was God’s judgement on him for his hidden sin.

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• JOB DESCRIBES HIS NEW LIFE OF SUFFERING (30:1-31):

  • After reminiscing about his old life in chapter 29, Job contrasts his new life with it in chapter 30.

  • Job was once respected in his community, but since losing everything, people mocked him. He was the laughingstock of even the most worthless men in his town.

  • Job describes these worthless men in detail in verses 1-8.

  • The fact that Job was being mocked by them shows just how far his station in life had fallen. He went from being a man of honor to being the lowest of the low.

  • Job said, “Terrors are turned upon me; my honor is pursued as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud. And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me. The night racks my bones, and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest” (30:15-17).

  • He felt like he had been thrown into a mud pit and become like “dust and ashes.”

  • He said, “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” (30:30-31).

  • He wasn’t sure of God’s intention, he thought maybe God intended to end his life, saying, “For I know that You will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living” (30:23).

  • He called out to God for help, but he received no reply.

  • He was reaching out his hand to God, but he felt trapped in his ruin.

  • He asked God, “Did I not help the poor? Did I not weep with the mourning? Did I not grieve with the needy?”

  • Job had always tried to help people who were in need, so why wouldn’t God help him during his time of need?

APPLICATION

• Job’s humbling experience is hard to read about.

• If something like that happened to one of us, we might be tempted to become resentful.  

• But before we justify ourselves in our resentfulness, let’s remind ourselves of the person who experienced the greatest humiliation of all time, the one who went from the throne of Heaven to dying on a cross like a criminal.

• Philippians 2:5-8 – “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” 

• No matter what you go through, your life will never be altered as much as your Saviors’.

• If you experience your own humbling experience, don’t become resentful towards God, but look to Jesus for strength who walked the road before you.

• He does not ask us to do something He has not already done Himself.

• Remember also that it was Satan who robbed Job of His blessings, and it was Satan who tried to destroy Jesus on the cross. Remember who your true enemy is, if you want to become resentful towards anyone, resent Satan.

• Satan humiliates you and wants you to hate God for it. God humbled Himself to humiliate Satan and save you… the two are not the same!