Thy Strong Word — Job 30: When Dignity Becomes Disgrace

One day, you’re respected, admired, some might even envy the life you lead. People listen when you speak, seek your wisdom, and value your presence. Then, suddenly—you’re a joke. The same people who once looked to you for wisdom and nodded in agreement at your advice now scoff. They roll their eyes. They whisper. They avoid you in the street. The man who once sat at the city gates in honor now sits in the dust, scorned. The young punks who wouldn’t have been fit to tend his flocks are now spitting at his feet. His body is wasting away, his soul is crushed, and worst of all, in Job’s eyes—God is silent. What do we do when dignity turns to disgrace? When God, who once seemed so near, now feels impossibly distant?

The Rev. Chris Matthis, pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Castle Rock, CO, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study Job 30.

Why do the righteous suffer? That’s the burning question at the heart of the book of Job—one of the most profound and challenging books in all of Scripture. From a Lutheran perspective, Job’s story isn’t just about a man enduring unimaginable hardship; it’s about wrestling with God’s will, grappling with well-meaning but misguided advice, and ultimately finding comfort in God’s grace rather than human understanding. As Job’s friends offer simplistic answers, Job demands the truth, and God’s response reminds us of His infinite wisdom and mercy. Through it all, we see glimpses of Christ—the truly innocent sufferer—who redeems our pain and points us to the cross, where suffering meets salvation. Join us as we journey through Job, confronting tough questions about faith, suffering, and God’s mysterious ways with hope grounded in Christ alone.

Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

Job 30

30 “But now they laugh at me,
    men who are younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
    to set with the dogs of my flock.
²What could I gain from the strength of their hands,
    men whose vigor is gone?
³Through want and hard hunger
    they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;
⁴they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,
    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.^[a]
⁵They are driven out from human company;
    they shout after them as after a thief.
⁶In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,
    in holes of the earth and of the rocks.
⁷Among the bushes they bray;
    under the nettles they huddle together.
⁸A senseless, a nameless brood,
    they have been whipped out of the land.

⁹“And now I have become their song;
    I am a byword to them.
¹⁰They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;
    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.
¹¹Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,
    they have cast off restraint^[b] in my presence.
¹²On my right hand the rabble rise;
    they push away my feet;
    they cast up against me their ways of destruction.
¹³They break up my path;
    they promote my calamity;
    they need no one to help them.
¹⁴As through a wide breach they come;
    amid the crash they roll on.
¹⁵Terrors are turned upon me;
    my honor is pursued as by the wind,
    and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

¹⁶“And now my soul is poured out within me;
    days of affliction have taken hold of me.
¹⁷The night racks my bones,
    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.
¹⁸With great force my garment is disfigured;
    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.
¹⁹God^[c] has cast me into the mire,
    and I have become like dust and ashes.
²⁰I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;
    I stand, and you only look at me.
²¹You have turned cruel to me;
    with the might of your hand you persecute me.
²²You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,
    and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.
²³For I know that you will bring me to death
    and to the house appointed for all living.

²⁴“Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,
    and in his disaster cry for help?^[d]
²⁵Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?
    Was not my soul grieved for the needy?
²⁶But when I hoped for good, evil came,
    and when I waited for light, darkness came.
²⁷My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;
    days of affliction come to meet me.
²⁸I go about darkened, but not by the sun;
    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
²⁹I am a brother of jackals
    and a companion of ostriches.
³⁰My skin turns black and falls from me,
    and my bones burn with heat.
³¹My lyre is turned to mourning,
    and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

Footnotes

Job 30:4 Or warmth
Job 30:11 Hebrew the bridle
Job 30:19 Hebrew He
Job 30:24 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

Rev. Dr. Phil Booe

Native North Carolinian Rev. Dr. Phil Booe serves pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, and host of Thy Strong Word on KFUO Radio. His parishioners probably think he can’t teach Bible study without a mug of coffee in his hand, and he’ll always be happy to eat a plate of sushi. When he’s not shepherding his flock or teaching on the radio, you might find him watching bad movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and especially binging RiffTrax and MST3K episodes. Some day he’d love to travel to the Lutheran homeland in Germany, but for now he spends time in Minnesota with his wife, son, daughter, and cat, and looks forward to Holy Week every year.