Job 30:22 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

Job 30:22

Comments

This is a picture not of exaltation or triumph but of terror as Job like a feather is carried up by the wind and tossed about. The power of the wind is being compared to the power of the circumstances which carry him where he does not want to go. These circumstances he attributes directly to God. Whatever success and security Job had built for himself had been quickly destroyed. Indeed, events seemed to be intelligently directed against whatever he had succeeded in doing, and conspired to undo all his work. Job could attribute such purposefulness only to an intelligent agent and there was no one who had the power to do this other than God. He did not know that God had agreed, for the purpose of this test, to carry out Satan’s evil intentions towards him, even though the Lord had no reason for wanting to harm his servant. Reputation and a good name are certainly worth striving for, but always we must submit our lives into God’s hands for him to raise us up or humble us as he sees fit.

Application

We learn that nothing happens under God’s government without a clear reason, even though for the most part that reason is hidden from us. Where we cannot see, we are required to trust. Faith does not need to understand all the workings of God. It is able to accept his work even when it remains in the dark, and even where it has to put up with counter-evidence. Is this a weakness of faith? Is faith really blind and equivalent to nothing more than wishful thinking? No, for while there is such a thing as unjustified faith and faith that proves to be ill-founded, faith in God is never disappointed and in hindsight is shown to be correct in trusting him where it could not see him at work. Like a space vehicle that goes out of radio contact as it passes behind the moon and unfailingly emerges the other side coming back into view at the precise expected second, so the Lord appears in light for every one of his children at the end, though they had to walk in darkness along much of the way.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Job 30:22 Commentary and Bible Study