“A base and nameless brood…” Job 30:8

There had always been those who had despised Job’s success. Job does not give them the honor of providing their names, and chose, instead, to describe the constant threat to his assets and family. They had competed with him in the marketplace and left emptyhanded, and their sons followed in their fathers’ contemptuous footsteps, like hyenas circling an injured water buffalo that had only enough fight to chase off the lions.

The sons of those Job disdained now mocked him in his pitiful state (v.1). Their fathers had roamed the desert by night gathering salt and herbs which they used to season their staple of broom tree roots (vv. 3 – 4). They had grown from juveniles to adult delinquents who had been banished from the village for their reckless,
irresponsible behavior (vv. 5 & 8), and forced to live in holes within the rocks and ground of dry stream beds (v.6). Like the jackasses they were, they brayed among the bushes to announce their dominion of the wasteland (vv. 3 & 7).

Though Job had testified of lending aid to the needy and providing protection to the poor (see 29:12 & 16), the men he was speaking of had been cast off from society for good reason: they were disruptors of civility, presenting an ever-present danger to those who might cross their path at night. Their personalities were
best reflected in their preferred time for activity… and their work was just as dark. Job confessed he would not have even allowed their fathers to sleep with his sheep dogs for warmth in the cool of a desert night (v.1b). Their night activities robbed them of their strength, leaving them useless for daytime earning capabilities (v.2).

These men were so repulsive to Job that he curtly referred to them as “a base and nameless brood” (v.8). In the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy, God sets His covenant before the nation Israel. Within the covenant is a provision describing the consequences to those who abandon the covenant – even applying it to an
entire nation for doing so (read verses 14 – 25, and gasp, for we may very well be living out such a judgment upon our own country). Those who forsake God’s covenant, written in blood, are cast off, like the ruffians Job described, and their names are forgotten.

Just as those misfits were so repulsive to Job, so our sin is before God, Who is pure holiness. However, God made a provision for our offense and is willing to forgive, forget and forge a new and abundant relationship with all who come to Him in faith through Jesus Christ.

Do we want to be a forgotten generation – cast off by God as garbage? O, people, wake up and see the wonder of God’s hand. Turn to Him in faith and receive Christ as your Savior, Redeemer, and Restorer… The One Who knows your name and will remember it forever. Become a member of God’s family, not a brooding den of vipers headed for the firepit of eternity.

Have a blessed day…