God is cruel to me: Job 30

"He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry out to You for help, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You turn Your attention against me. You have become cruel to me; with the might of Your hand You persecute me. You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; and You dissolve me in a storm. For I know that You will bring me to death and to the house of meeting for all living." (Job 30:19:23)

Job continues his complaint against God. According to Job, it is as if God came down and plucked him up and dashed him into the muddy pit. God's treatment of Job was unexpected and mean spirited. Further more, Job cried out to God for help, yet He turned His head and pretended not to hear. Job believed that God's hand had become evil towards him and, in the end, it would pursue him even to the grave. Job was angry and miserable, "Therefore my harp is turned to mourning, and my flute to the sound of those who weep." (Job 30:31)

There have been many times when my children have viewed my wife and I as being cruel and unreasonable. We restrict what they can do and watch and, in their minds, we are being extremely cruel. We discipline them, yet they fail to see the benefits of that discipline, they only see the pain of it. We do these things out of love and with their best interest in mind, yet they do not always see this, to them, discipline is painful and hard.

In the same way, Job misunderstood the intentions of God. God was not being cruel with Job, we only have to read the end of the book to find out how God restored Job and blessed him beyond his earlier days. God wasn't punishing Job as a master might punish one of his slaves. But God was disciplining Job as a father would discipline his son. If we fail to see God's hand in our life as the loving hand of a father, then it will become easy to despise the Lord when He comes to discipline us. "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." (Hebrews 12:5-6) We must never loose sight of the fact that God is for us and, no matter what we may have to endure along the way, He always has our best interests in mind.

David Robison