But when I hoped for good, evil came and when I waited for light, darkness came.
– Job 30:26
This is such a relatable verse, an important verse for us to hear and understand.
Job 30:26 reminds us that our ultimate waiting must be in God and not in our circumstances.
It’s relatable because I’m guessing we all are familiar with times when you were hoping for something good to happen or a certain circumstance to come about, and the exact opposite came even evil. Or when you were waiting for light and darkness came, you were hoping for praying for light, and instead, darkness came. This is a reality in this fallen world, and things are not always right and good. It’s not always light that we experience to use that imagery. But here is why this verse is so important and why your ultimate hope, my ultimate hope and your ultimate waiting, and my ultimate waiting must be in God and not circumstances in this fallen world.
Because ultimately our hope is in God, the Author of all that is good and the one who even when evil comes, is working for our good and we wait ultimately not for this or that circumstance. Yes, we pray for that, but ultimately we are waiting for God who we know no matter what the circumstances are, will faithfully provide for us, will accomplish his good purposes.
So we wait for God and when we hope for God and wait for God, we will always, always have good and light because he is light and he is good. Just let this soak in amidst all the things you’re hoping for right now in your life and waiting for in your life. Ultimately, don’t stop at just hoping for waiting for circumstances to change or circumstances to turn out this way or that way. Yes, ask for that. Pray for that as a child before our Father.
Job 30:26 reminds us God is always working His good purposes.
Express your desire for those things and at the same time, know and trust and not just resign to trust, but delight in the fact that no matter what the circumstances may be, you will have the good God who is for you and working in you for his good purposes, based on his good promises to you, and you will have light no matter what darkness you face in this world, you will have the light of life in you, A light that supersedes all darkness, that death itself cannot overcome.
You will have life and light when you hope for and wait for God. So God, we pray help us amidst our longing for circumstances to change much like Job was, and especially in times when what we’re asking for and are hoping for, and longing for, and praying for when the exact opposite may come about. God, we praise you that you are our ultimate hope and you are our ultimate light, which means when we hope for you and we wait for you, we will always have what we most need.
You and your goodness, you and your light, oh Jesus, we praise you for making this hope possible for us, for the hope ultimately of being with you, and evil being no more of being with you, and darkness being no more death, being no more sorrows, sin, suffering, circumstances that are not good, that are evil circumstances, that are dark, that they will one day be no more, and you will wipe every tear from our eyes.
Prayer for the Lost
Oh God, we hope for you. We wait for you and we pray for people who don’t know You. As we pray every day on this podcast, oh God, for thousands of people groups, billions of people who don’t have the light of life in Jesus, God, we pray for the spread of your grace, your glory to them the day might have the hope we have in Jesus. And God, we pray that you’d help us to share that hope faithfully with somebody around us today who doesn’t have it. We pray all this according to your word in Job 30:26. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
