Boiled Tumbleweeds (Job 9:20-35)

Despair, gloom, disheartenment, despondency and hopelessness: all are words that refer to a state of mind caused by circumstances that seem too much to cope with. (www.dictionary.com) In verse 23 Job talks about “the God who mocks the despair of the innocent.” We will go through the verses in the second half of chapter nine and then comment on verse 23 at the end (and explain the title).

9:20-22 “Though I am guiltless, my mouth will condemn me; though I am blameless, He will declare me guilty. 21 I am blameless; I do not take notice of myself; I despise my life. 22 It is {all} one; therefore I say, 'He destroys the blameless and the wicked.’”

Blameless (or perfect, righteous, innocent, guiltless) is used in each of these three verses, but the word was also used in chapters 1 and 2 where God himself declared Job to be “blameless.” Job is not in any way claiming to be sinless, but simply that he was a person of integrity whose current misery (and seeming punishment) doesn’t mesh with his inner character. The Message puts verse 22 this way, “Since either way it ends up the same, I can only conclude that God destroys the good right along with the bad.” His conclusion? “What’s the use?”

9:24 “The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; He covers the faces of its judges. If {it is} not {He,} then who is it?”

Translation: Everything on this planet stinks! When we go through hard times it can color our outlook on the whole world.

9:25 "Now my days are swifter than a runner; they flee away, they see no good. 26 They slip by like reed boats, like an eagle that swoops on its prey.”

My nights seemingly drag on forever, but yet my life seems to fly by without purpose. And God is the eagle, and I…well I’m just a rodent trying to escape a 150 mph dive-bombing raptor!

9:27 “Though I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my {sad} countenance and be cheerful,’ (The MSG has “Even if I say, ‘I’ll put all this behind me, I’ll look on the bright side and force a smile”) 28 I am afraid of all my pains, I know that Thou wilt not acquit me.”

Translation: I’ve read the book “Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale; I’ve read “Happiness is a Choice” by Minirth/Meier; I’ve listened to Zig Ziglar and John Maxwell and all of their motivational CD’s; I’ve determined just to walk out of the mully grubs (is that how you spell that?). But then a fresh wave of pain and nausea pulls me back down into my pit of gloom.

9:29 "I am accounted wicked, why then should I toil in vain? 30 "If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye, 31 Yet Thou wouldst plunge me into the pit, and my own clothes would abhor me.”

The Psalmist Asaph cried out at one point (during a time when it seemed that the wicked were getting off scott free and he was being disciplined every morning), “Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence.”

Verse 31 “My own clothes would abhor me...” Everyone else does, I guess my clothes might as well also.

9:32 "For {He is} not a man as I am that I may answer Him, that we may go to court together. 33 There is no umpire between us, who may lay his hand upon us both.”

If only Job could have known about Calvary…where a man named Jesus interposed with His precious blood!

9:34 “Let Him remove His rod from me, and let not dread of Him terrify me. 35 {Then} I would speak and not fear Him; but I am not like that in myself.”

King David saw that same rod a little differently, “Thy rod and thy staff comfort me!” (Psalm 23)

But back to verse 23, "If the scourge kills suddenly, He mocks the despair of the innocent.” (The Message puts it this way, “When calamity hits and brings sudden death, He folds His arms, aloof from the despair of the innocent.”)

First, you can clearly see how Job’s bitterness has colored his theology, “God mocks the despair…” Secondly, God never does fold His arms in sort of a divine aloofness, neglecting the cries of His people. And thirdly, even though Job couldn’t see it, there was a way out of his despair!

Despair is defined as a total loss of hope (from having everything fail), deep gloom and disheartenment, a loss of ambition, a loss of hope so complete as to result in a more or less permanent state of passive despair (from www.dictionary.com). It is how the people of the Great Plains felt during the 1930’s, during the time mammoth dust storms and “black blizzards.” The severe drought during the Great Depression plus the unwise cultivation of vast areas of the Great Plains led to immense dust storms that engulfed the Great Plains from (at times) the Dakotas to Texas. People literally suffocated from the choking dust (babies died from “dust pneumonia”). Whole towns were devastated and depopulated. In order to survive, out of desperation some farmers fed their livestock tumbleweeds and eventually boiled them in brine and fed them to their families.

One person’s recounting of those years mentioned that people would ring their hands in despair, unable to cope with circumstances that seemed far too great to bear.

Perhaps you are staring into the abyss of “unable-to-cope-with” circumstances.” God cares about you. He does not fold His arms and stand aloof from your troubles. He is only a prayer away!