Job 29:1 - 30:15 - When Suffering Changes How You See Yourself (Session 31)

In this verse-by-verse Bible study of Job 29–30, Reasoning Through the Bible follows Job as he looks back on the better days before his suffering began. He remembers a time when he felt protected by God, surrounded by family, respected in society, and listened to by others. This session explores how suffering can make the past look brighter, the present look darker, and the soul feel abandoned. 

This study also addresses an important spiritual issue: Job is not only suffering, he is becoming deeply focused on himself. The discussion highlights how pride, nostalgia, and pain can combine to distort both our view of God and our view of ourselves. It also considers how wealth and success can become spiritual tests just as much as suffering can. 

In chapter 30, Job turns from honored memories to public shame. The people he once thought beneath him now mock him, spit on him, and hold him in contempt. This episode shows how quickly human reputation can change, why believers must care more about what God thinks than what people think, and how Christians can remain grounded when life feels upside down. 

Topics in this episode include:

•  Job 29 explained 
•  Job 30 explained 
•  when God feels absent 
•  remembering God’s past faithfulness 
•  pride and suffering 
•  nostalgia and distorted perspective 
•  wealth as a spiritual test 
•  reputation and rejection 
•  focusing on God instead of self 

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Transcript

Nostalgia And Job’s Good Old Days

SPEAKER_00 0:16

When people are young, they tend to think that times are really hard for them. But then when they get older, they look back, they get nostalgic, and they say, boy, back when I was young, times were better, and times are really going bad nowadays. Seems to happen with every generation that as they get older, they look back with a sense of nostalgia for the times before. If you have your Bibles, turn it to Job chapter 29. If you've been with us, Job has been giving his final speech, and he's been giving his view of what life is like for the wicked person and the righteous person and how God treats them. Today, Job is going to look back when he was younger before he started suffering, and he's going to give us his opinion of how things were then. And we'll see whether his view is accurate or whether it's a little biased. Steve, can you read the first six verses of Job chapter 29?

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Job again took up his discourse and said, Oh, that I were in months gone by, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone over my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, just as I was in the days of my youth when the protection of God was over my tent, and when the Almighty was still with me, and my children were around me, when my steps were bathed in cream, and the rock poured out streams of oil for me.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

In this chapter, Job is actually talking about three persons, I, me, and my. He uses those words 48 times in this one chapter. So here he's very focused on himself. He's looking back as to the days before he was suffering. He views himself as being in a very good position back in those days. And in the next chapter, he's going to talk about how the current suffering is. So chapter 29, he'll fondly remember the good times. And chapter 30, he's going to focus on his own misery. In both chapters, Job is too focused, overly focused on himself. Several times in these verses we just read, Job speaks of God's protection, but he speaks of it in past tense. Job thinks God no longer protects him and has abandoned him. So, Steve, has God abandoned Job?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

No, it's the same answer that we've been

Has God Abandoned Job

SPEAKER_01 2:45

giving over the last few chapters and sessions. God has not abandoned Job. He has actually praised Job and has offered Job up as an example to Satan, but he certainly hasn't abandoned Job.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

What should we do when we get into a really bad spot and we don't feel like God's there, or we feel like our prayers just bounce off of the ceiling? What should we do when we feel like God has abandoned us?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Get close to God. That I think is whenever we should actually go to God in more of a prayerful attitude, converse with Him from a standpoint of, I don't know what's going on, but whatever it is, I know that you're a good God. And I do pray for wisdom as to how to handle this situation that I'm in. I do pray that you'll give relief from it. But in all things, I still praise and honor your name.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

There's a tendency in the human condition to focus on the present, then have a rather biased view of the past. So if we feel like our current situation, that God is just not there. Well, one, we shouldn't base our faith on our feelings. We should base our faith on the accurate word of God. During those times, we should remember in the past when he was with us. All Christians, he has seen us through times in the past. So if we remember those times, then it'll help us get through these times. David, when he faced Goliath, he didn't just go straight into Goliath. No, he said, when I was keeping sheep, God protected me from the lion and the bear, and I was able to handle them. He will help me here as well. So we should remember when God has been with us in the past, remember the prayers that he's answered. Remember the times where we thought we should go one path, but he had a better way. And when we went his way, then it came out better in the end. Remember all the times when he was with us, and he'll get us through this time as well. The New Testament

Remembering God Without Trusting Feelings

SPEAKER_00 4:50

tells us that faith comes by hearing the word of Christ in Romans 10:17. In this next section, Job thinks of himself a great deal, and it comes across as very prideful. He has a very inflated view of his importance. He's going to tell us what life was like. And again, it's a very poetic, very visual graphic description of what life was like before he was suffering. So I'm reading starting in verse 7. When I went out to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the public square, the young men saw me and hid themselves, and the old men arose and stood. The leaders stopped talking and put their hands on their mouths. The voices of the prominent people were hushed, and their tongues stuck to their palates. For when an ear heard, it called me blessed. When an eye saw, it testified in support of me. Because I saved the poor who cried for help, and the orphan who had no helper, the blessing of the one who was about to perish came upon me, and I made the widow's heart sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a headband. I was eyes to those who were blind and feet to those who could not walk. I was a father to the poor, and I investigated the case which I did not know. I broke the jaws of the wicked and rescued the prey from its teeth. So, Steve, what do you think of when you hear those words?

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Well, I think, as you've been pointing out, is that Job is focusing on himself in this particular chapter and putting it in context, he is again pushing back to his three friends who has been giving him somewhat questionable advice, sometimes just cruel advice and being cruel to him. In the previous chapter, he was acknowledging the wonders of God and what God has provided through creation itself. And the very last verse of the last chapter says the only place that we're going to find wisdom is in the fear of the Lord. So in this section, while he's focusing on himself, I think putting it in context of him pushing back on his friends, I think he's maybe trying to give a description of how God had blessed him before in light of all of his friends saying God punishes the wicked. You're suffering, Job, therefore you're wicked. Now, maybe he's exaggerating a little bit, but I think putting in context, this is kind of him giving a description to his three friends, things used to be really great for me.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And I'm sure they were much better than they were now when he's suffering. But again, he's looking back with fond memories of before all of the tragedy and the suffering came. That part is a natural human condition. But if we just walk through what he's saying about his former life, he says when I would come in, I took a seat in the public square. That was the place where the mature judges were. So he said, I was an important person. And he talks about when I showed up on the scene, the crowd would part. People would get out of the way and let me buy. The young men would hide themselves. That's talking about the powerful young warriors and the athletes, the people that work, the strong people. Oh, they would run and hide when I came into the room. The wise old men would stand up and respect. The important leaders would stop talking and turn and listen to me. Job says he was the one who saved the poor and the orphans. He helped the blind and the lame. He says that when people were about to die, they would call him in and give him the blessing that belonged to the most favored descendant. If we add all that up, Job is very focused on himself and his own importance. It seems to me that Job has a pride problem. Job was not as good, it would seem to me, as he makes himself out to be. His memory is giving him a little bit of a false view of his own importance. It's true he was a prominent man. He was quite wealthy, and I'm sure people would uh come up to him and try to get some of his wealth because of that. But the person described here is sort of a superman, one that only exists in Job's mind. He seems to be very puffed up about himself. Again, this chapter, I, me, and my 48 times, it would seem to me that he is overly focused on his own importance. Steve, is pride still a problem today and even for Christians?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

I think it's very natural for people in general to have pride. That is something that actually stands between us and God. What was the main issue between Satan and God? It was because of Satan's pride. He

Job’s Self-Portrait And The Pride Trap

SPEAKER_01 9:45

wanted to be just like God. He wanted to take the place of God. He was very prideful. Pride led to his downfall. And we're told in scripture that's the same thing with us as humans, is that we're prideful and we associate ourselves with things that we think are great and good, but really in the eyes of God, they're not all that great and good. And I think Christians, because we're human beings, we can fall subject to that prideful feeling in some of the things that we do, some of the things that we have as a result of different ministries. Maybe some people look at it and they say, Oh, look at how the Lord has blessed me, or look at how the Lord has blessed my ministry. And the question comes up, Glenn, as we've been going through here, we've talked about how Job has attributed to God his suffering because God is against him. And yet we know that God is not against Job. So a question comes up: does that also work in the opposite way? This is what I mean by that. Maybe sometimes God allows us to have good things and wealthy outlooks and wealth. And it's not something that he has personally blessed us with, but it's something that he has allowed us to have, just like he allowed for the suffering to come on Job. It's something that he has allowed to come on Job. And then Job attributes to God that he is inflicting him. And we've talked through the various chapters and sessions, that that's a wrong perspective that Job has of God. And that perspective has skewed his view of God as he goes through this suffering. So, Glenn, a question comes up. Maybe sometimes God allows people to have wealth, and the people attribute to God, much like Job attributes to God, that he has caused this suffering to come on him, when really it's just that something that God has allowed to happen on the wealthy part of it and the prosperity part of it, but really that wealth and prosperity is coming through the world and it's not coming through God directly.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Oh, that's entirely possible. I believe that very often wealth and prosperity can be a temptation away from godly things. People that are quite well off tend to think, well, I don't have any problems. Why do I need God? All of the things and the money tend to get our attention away from our own soul and spiritual things. I find that it can be a great temptation to be very wealthy or very talented. I think that the world looks up to these people. It's also quite possible that God is using wealth with some people as a temptation to see if they're going to be faithful to him and his word, just like he would use suffering with Job. Are we going to be faithful to him or are we going to be faithful to all of the things he gives us? One of the questions that we can ask ourselves is if I lost everything, if I was like Job and I lost everything, I lost all my money, my health, all my loved ones, would I still follow God? And if the answer to that is no, okay, I'm going to question all this pain and suffering and loss, then I'm going to stop following God. Well, then did you love him in the first place? Or did we just love the things that he provided for us? And I think, Steve, that that's also possible. We can falsely claim, oh, look at all the good things that are happening to me. God's good to me. Well, it could be he's giving us a test.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

So let's bring this back to your original question, Timmy. Do sometimes Christians have pride in their life? And we look at some of these people of ministers, pastors, and they are there bragging. It's just outright bragging about the Bentleys they drive, about the jets that they fly around the country with. They're very boastful about the wealth that they have. Fellow believers look at them and they attribute God's blessing on them. And I want to put forth that that can also be a skewed view of God, whenever God's not really blessing them with that. He's allowing them to have it, but he's not directly blessing them with it. Just like what we've talked about with Job

Wealth As Temptation And Spiritual Test

SPEAKER_01 14:20

attributing his suffering to God, and that's a wrong view. I want to say that sometimes we might have that wrong view in looking at that person and saying, look at how God has blessed them. And then we have an expectation that comes to us that we want that blessing as well. And then that becomes a measuring stick as to God's blessing. And through that, Glenn, I think pride comes into our life. It's very certainly shows to me the pride of those people that are out there bragging about how God has blessed them with all this wealth and things like that. I think it would be wise for us to take a stance a little bit back, view it in context, and really wonder is God really blessing them or is God just allowing them to have wealth at the time? And I think something that we can see if they're very prideful and boastful, then I think that's an indicator of whether or not it's truly coming from God.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

There have been many Christian leaders that have ended up at the end of their lives with a pride problem. People that started out well, but because of the success of the ministry or the size of the church or their talents that God had been working through them, people coming to them telling them how good they are, the human condition is that we tend to like it when people come to us and tell us good things. So the pride gets in the way and has been the downfall of many a leader. I firmly think that one of the reasons why God doesn't make all of us more successful than we are is because he knows we would fall if we were to become in a very prominent position. People start out good, but the pride gets in the way all too often. In the next section, Job continues with more self-focused. I'm reading, starting in verse 18, he says this. Then I thought, I will die with my family, and I will multiply my days as the sand. My root is spread out to the waters, and dew lies on my branch all night. My glory is ever new with me, and my bow is renewed in my hand. To me they listened and waited, and they kept silent for my advice. After my words they did not speak again, and my speech dropped on them. They waited for me as for the rain, and opened their mouths as for the late rain. I smiled at them when they did not believe, and they did not look at my kindness ungraciously. I chose a way for them and sat as chief, and I lived as king among the troops, as one who comforted the mourners. So Job starts out now remembering his family that died. His family tree, he says, there was scattered to the water. He says, I will die with my family. Steve, what do you think is going through his mind here?

SPEAKER_01 17:09

I think that he's reminiscing, as we've talked about, and he's going back to the days whenever he had his family. Remember, the families would get together for meals. They would have meals at each other's houses. And it was at one of these meals where his sons and daughters were all destroyed and taken away from him. And I think he is looking at it and not only reminiscing it the way it was, but also that he's going to be able to see them at some time in the future as well. And that we get an indication here that Job definitely believes in an afterlife.

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Oh, yes, I would agree. He had mentioned that previously. He's remembering here back when his family would listen to him. His friends were not listening. So he's remembering how the family would stop and pay attention to his words. In verse 25, I chose a way for them and sat as chief and lived as a king among the troops. He viewed himself over this large family, and I was able to guide the next generation into a path of wisdom and righteousness. He has confidence here in his own self-righteousness. In this chapter, after all of Job's suffering, he shows nothing of a submissive spirit or a contrite heart. He's still longing for the days when he was head, when he was lead. He wasn't showing any sort of a contrite heart. So, Steve, what is it about a soft heart that would appeal to God?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

I think just what you said, a contrite heart, it's one that is yielding to him, as we've talked about again, that yielding to God and saying, I don't understand what's going on, but yet I appeal to you to take it away from me. But if you don't take it away from me, I know that you have something better for me, even if

Job 30 Turns To Mockery

SPEAKER_01 18:58

it's something that's going to be on the other side.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

As we get to chapter 30, remember Job's friends have been accusing him of hidden wickedness. They think that wickedness is the only reason that anyone would be suffering. Job's friends have made a series of speeches accusing Job, but the friends in Job have been getting increasingly blunt in their argument with each other. Chapter 29, we saw Job talked about himself the entire chapter, remembering fondly all of the good times. People would part when I came into the room. They would stop talking and listen to me. The young strong men would go and hide, and the wise men would give me respect. Job is self-focused and a bit self-righteous, showing no signs of a contrite heart. Here in this chapter, he turns a hard corner and starts talking about how the lower class people, the ruffians, if you will, have started to insult him. So he's contrasting greatly the current situation with the former one. Steve, can you read the first eight verses of Job chapter 30?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

But now those who are younger than I mock me, whose fathers I refuse to put with the dogs of my flock. Indeed, what good was the strength of their hands to me? Vigor had perished from them. From poverty and famine they are gaunt. They who gnaw at the dry ground by night in waste and desolation, who pluck saltweed by the bushes, and whose food is the root of the broom shrub. They are driven from the community, they shout against them and against a thief, so that they live on the slopes of ravines, in holes in the ground and among the rocks, among the bushes they cry out, under the weeds they are gathered together, worthless fellows, even those without a name, they are cast out from the land.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

In this section, again, he turns a hard corner. The very first phrase, but now, he says, is it's very different. Job is saying the children of the lower class people, the scoundrels, the thieves, if you will, they don't even show him common respect. Younger people are always supposed to respect older people. People from the ruffians will

Reputation With People Versus God

SPEAKER_00 21:20

not even give him respect. Job is saying that he used to have respect from the highest levels of society, and now the worst parts of society look at him in derision. Steve Job is concerned about what people in society think of him. Should we be concerned about whether people in the world, what they think of us?

SPEAKER_01 21:41

We should be concerned about how God thinks of us, not how the people of the world think of us. We can have a good relationship with God through his son, Jesus Christ. And that is what we should be thinking about. The worldly people here, they're going to be fickled. They're going to be with us one day. To be against us the next. And that's exactly what Job is pointing out. In my youth, I was somebody and I was somebody to my family. But now that I'm suffering, they all mock me and they run away from me. And these are the people that even their fathers weren't somebody that I would put into my employee. They would hide from me as well. They weren't even worth the work that they would put forward. They weren't somebody that I considered, but yet now they make fun of me. So I think this is a picture of the world. Fair weather friends is a phrase that some people might use. The world is going to be around when we're up. And when we get down, the world many times will abandon us. But God is going to be there in our heights. He's going to be there in our depths. He's going to be a constant in our life. So, no, I do not think that we should be worrying about what the world thinks about us, other than whether or not they see us as having a true, proper relationship with God, because remember, we are the best Christian that somebody else knows. They're watching us in that regard. And that's what we should be concerned about. Are we putting forth a picture of Christ to them? That's the concern that we should have.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

I would think that the Christians should have two things that they're concerned about with their relationship with society and the rest of the world. On one hand, we should desire society have respect for us as far as our honesty and our abilities and whether or not we're quote unquote good people. Society should look at us with a good reputation. We should be people that are good for our word, that people can trust. And from that standpoint, society, we should have a good reputation with society, or at least we should desire that. But we should, on the other hand, remember that as Christians, there's always going to be somebody that do not like us, in fact, even hate us for no more or less than we're followers of Christ. Jesus told us this. If they hated me, then they will hate you as well. We should realize as Christians that if we are at all public with our faith, there's going to be some that hold us in derision. As a matter of fact, if we don't have some people that's holding us in derision, it's probably because we're keeping our faith quite private and they don't know. Because there's going to be some that for no more nor less than we name the name of Jesus Christ, they don't like us. But we shouldn't go out not caring at all about our reputation. We should have an honest and trustworthy reputation of all people. We should just realize that there are some in the world that will try to manipulate us and hold us in derision, and we should not be concerned with what they think. We should

Bullying, Distorted Perspective, And Closing Takeaway

SPEAKER_00 24:55

be concerned with what the Lord thinks of us. The next few verses goes on to describe what the scoundrels of society will do to Job. Steve, can you start at verse 9 and read down through verse 15?

SPEAKER_01 25:10

And now I have become their taunt, and I have become a byword to them. They loathe me and stand aloof from me, and they do not refrain from spitting in my face. Because he has undone my bowstring and afflicted me, they have cast off the bridle before me. On the right hand their mob arises, they push aside my feet and pile up their ways of destruction against me. They break up my path and they promote my destruction. No one restrains them. As through a wide gap they come amid the storm they roll on. Sudden terrors are turned upon me, they chase away my dignity like the wind, and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

In this section, Job talks about the young delinquents. They come by, they make fun of him, and they spit in his face. They turn into a mob and come to Job with no restraint. Job feels like the world is down on him. In the previous chapter, chapter 29, he remembered how we used to be respected and important by the highest members of society. Here, the lowest of the low, he's being bullied and spit upon. Steve, Job is in a quite precarious situation. On one hand, remembering himself as being very puffed up in the past, and now considering himself as being the last guy on the totem pole in society.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Maybe it's possible, Glenn, that just like I said in the last chapter, that Job is exaggerating a little bit his standing in the community. Maybe he's exaggerating a little bit how much he is despised in the community now. But either way, he is juxtaposing how he was in the community before his suffering versus how he is now in the community. And this is at least how he viewed himself in either position that he had. So I think we can say that Job's suffering has not only skewed his view of God and his relationship with God, possibly it's skewed his view of himself within the community, both good and bad. And I think that's something we can take away from this is that whenever we have great suffering like this that comes upon us, we are living no longer just day by day. Sometimes we're living just hour by hour, and we are reflecting on ourselves, maybe sometimes too much. And we should be reflecting on God more and less on ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

As a general rule, that's the solution to many spiritual and even personal physical problems, is to focus more on the needs of others, focus more on what we can do for the Lord, and focus less on our own issues. If we do that, we'll generally come out just fine with the Lord. Here, this language, as we've mentioned more than once, is very beautiful, very poetic language, some of the greatest that's ever been written. We'll find out more about it next time. Job's going to continue talking about himself. We're actually getting a little tired of listening to Job talk about himself, but there's more that he has to say next time on Reasoning Through the Bible. Thank you so much for watching and listening. May God bless you.