Don't Trust the Opinions of People

Many times we let what people say about us really stick. Especially in times of hardship. That's what happens to Job in Job 30. He spent the previous chapter reminiscing about the glory days of his past. Now in chapter 30, he's talking about the devastating effects his suffering has had on his standing in the community. 

Job 30:1 (ESV) “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.

I would say that Job has sort of backtracked here. He's no longer interested in a response from God. He's looking at the response of people. This is a fool's errand in so many ways. People are never the proper barometer of our life. So what that they laugh? Their laughter betrays their ignorance. They have no idea that God was bragging about Job's righteous ways - that there was none like him in all the Earth (Job 1:8).

He continues later:

Job 30:8–11 (ESV) A 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. 10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me; they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me. 11 Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.

Notice the slight dig here. Because of what God has done, people hate Job. I wonder how many times we subconsciously do that. We blame God for the way He made our lives and that's why no one respects us. Again, this is the fruit of looking to people to gain a perspective of self. 

Job 30:19–23 (ESV) God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. 21 You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me. 22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. 23 For I know that you will bring me to death and to the house appointed for all living.

One of the hard things about studying Job is how long the speeches are because there's no resolve for a long time. At this point, we want to shake Job and tell him what's really going on. But perhaps the lesson for us is to be patient in our own affliction, certain that God is indeed at work. 

God is at work even when people shame us and slander us. They do so because they do not have the whole picture of what God is working to do. I have been through some tough seasons where people made accusations about my life that were not true but their words still made me wonder if a part of those words were true. 

Yet looking back, and I hope this helps you, I can see God was simply readying my life for blessing in the future in spite of what those people said or thought. 

This is why you must stop measuring your life by what people say about it. This life is God's to do with what He wants. And He wants to bless you. He wants to bring you through. He wants to use your life to bring glory to Christ and point the world to Him. He also was despised by men. And He, unlike Job, knew exactly how to handle it - disregard it and trust the Father. 

John 2:24–25 (ESV) Jesus on His part did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for He Himself knew what was in man.