Job 3

Seven days of silence, sitting in the dust with his three friends. No words. Just being together in Job’s time of grief and suffering. Did Job’s wife make food for them, some bread or meat? Did it rain? What about bathroom breaks, a place to sleep, bugs, heat, cold? So many questions. Maybe none of that mattered – a man can forget what food tastes like, and rain can go unnoticed. Job speaks.

“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, “A man is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.”

Job 3:3-4

Job curses the day of his birth and the night of his conception. He wishes not for death but for non-existence. To have never been born at all. His lament in this chapter bring to mind six foundational beliefs:

1. Life begins at conception (v3).
2. The birth of a child is a joyful, light-filled day (v. 4, 9).
3. The birth of a child is decided by God (v. 4).
4. The birth of a child should be celebrated and remembered (v. 6-7).
5. All men are equal in death (v. 11-19).
6. A life of fear is worse than death (v. 25-26).

Job’s faith peeks out from under his blanket of sorrow. He wishes he was never born, that joy was never sparked on the day he entered the world. He recognizes the abiding rest found at the end of life. He blames his current, lived-out misery on God, the giver of life. Yet, he cannot escape the truths buried in his suffering! God gives life. God decides when life is over.

“Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

Job 3:23-26

Such a scene! A dramatic monologue, driven by torment and dismay. Job is clear in his raw sorrow. He feels it all. He doesn’t hold back. The reader knows the reason behind his suffering, but Job was left in the dark. He is gutted, wrecked, and the reader sees the whole thing from origin to end. It’s a good story. It ends well, that is to say, there is resolution and redemption in the end. But there is turmoil and conflict first, hardship and grief…trouble comes.