When You Wish You'd Never Been Born
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
When You Wish You’d Never Been Born
When You Wish You’d Never Been Born
When You Wish You’d Never Been Born
There are those who make it seem that a healthy Christian should be happy all the time – Never down – they would have Jesus laughing at the tomb of Lazarus. I’m not sure what they would do with . This is not a happy passage. This is one of the darkest places in the entire Bible. Most of us have not been here, thankfully. You’ve seen the thunderclouds come across the horizon. You’ve felt the downpour drenching you in harsh, frigid rain … you know suffering. But most of us have never been here. Maybe someone here is in Job’s place.
You didn’t think the Christian life would be like this. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you knew that it wouldn’t be all sunshine and roses .... you knew there would be suffering - you were ready for it. But you didn’t sign up for this.
SPURGEON - The Crystal Cathedral. When somebody shouted “FIRE” in a crowded building holding around 10 thousand people, gathered to worship and hear him preach - there was no fire, but there was a stampede and many were killed as people trampled each other to get out of the building. Spurgeon spiralled into a pit of darkness - couldn’t preach for several months. ..... Moses, Elijah - there were periods in their lives - - Elijah so low he asked the Lord to take his life.
Jeremiah, in chapter 20, quotes from , word for word. He has just been beaten for speaking God’s message. He’s put in the stocks and left there overnight. The next day he goes home and cries out his lament. Jeremiah the weeping prophet - success in his ministry doesn’t mean a big church and flattering crowds … it means preaching a message of Judgment from God that his people don’t want to hear … and he quotes in his lament, “Cursed be the day on which I was born,” which makes it seem that he has this chapter memorized. What a strange passage to memorize!
You ask someone, 'what's your favorite passage of Scripture?' - - usually it's a passage you have memorized. So what would it be? ; ; , etc.
But this?!! This is awkward, uncomfortable - a passage we may want to avoid or .... explain away. But here it is.
Maybe you’re wondering why this chapter is here at all? If God gave you the chance to put together the Bible yourself - - decide what goes in and what stays out … would this chapter be in YOUR Bible?
Maybe you’re embarrassed by it. No Christian should say things like this.
Did Job sin here? Some Christians think he does. They want to rush in and condemn him for the things he’s said .... QUICKER than God Himself. But that’s not the point. You need to listen to him.
This chapter divides into two halves. First is a curse, followed by a lament.
- The Curse
- The Lament
1 THE CURSE, vv. 1-10
Job begins his speech with a curse. Verse 1 tells us, “Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”
Verse 3, “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived’.” Have you ever been in a place so low that you truly wished you had never been born?
This is a venting. Have you ever been through a rough, rough time - you received devastating news - - you had to do something you never dreamed you would have to do - - bury a child; bury a spouse - you knew it was coming - but not now. Not yet. And in the middle of the trial and in the days immediately following - you had such strength. People commented on how courageous you were. And you were.
Last week, I read a CBC news report about an incident that happened last Sunday – A mother and her 4 year-old daughter, in Hantsport NS were on their way to a birthday party, when her car hit black ice, rolled down an embankment into an icy pond. The car rolled upside down, the mom managed to get out – but the little girl was strapped into her seat. The freezing water rushing into the car.
She tried to open her daughter's door from the outside.
"I finally did get it open, but I had slush and ice all over my hands and everywhere and my hand slipped and the door slammed shut. So I'm freaking out trying to think, what do I do?" For the briefest moment, Holland thought she wouldn't be able to save Macy. The car was sinking too fast. Her numb hands and legs were working too slowly.
But she didn't give up. Climbed over the car, went in through the back window and managed to pull her out, carry her to shore and push her up onto the embankment, "It was really icy and slushy and I was having a really hard time because I thought I was going to pass out. I was freezing so I was having a hard time getting up the hill, and I just said to her, 'Run, you need to run, go,' because I saw there was a car coming our way and I didn't want them to miss us."
"How they were even able to get out of that car was a miracle," said the captain of the fire department. "To be able to swim to shore and get up over that embankment is totally unheard of … I'll be honest with you, in my last 26 years I've been to many similar incidents and unfortunately they're usually very fatal."
I’ve read of situations like this before - someone finds herself or himself in a moment of great crisis - a loved one is trapped - nobody else is around to help. In desperation, the person finds superhuman - Hulk-like strength and gets the person out - saves a life. And it is not unknown to hear that, days later, after the crisis is over and everything is calm .... the one who had shown such miraculous strength in the emergency, now breaks down and cries for no apparent reason.
Like the mother in the story - you seemed to have super-human strength or calmness of heart - even able to praise the Lord in the storm.
But the days do by. It starts to sink in: “This isn’t a dream”. When tragedy first hits - you keep thinking, “I’m dreaming this. This isn’t real and anytime now, I’m going to wake up and she’ll be back; he’ll be back; this suffering will be gone … everything will be back to normal again.” But the days go by - it sinks in that this IS real; this is your life now; this is the new normal. You go to pick up the phone to call dad or mom or grandma - - and you realize - ‘just put down the phone. There’s nobody on the other end to answer.’ And your strength melts away.
That’s where Job is now. Chapter 3 is an outpouring of grief. He has been so strong. When everything was taken from him - his money was all gone, his business empire came crashing to the ground, his reputation is gone … and his children - all 10 of them, are dead. And he responded with great faith: (Chapter 1:21) “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Then when God gives the Satan permission to strike Job’s own body - and he is hit with a suffering that is sucking the life out of him and causing excruciating pain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
He responded with a tenacious faith that all of us pray that we will have if we find ourselves anywhere CLOSE to that kind of suffering.
Now Job’s wife is gone … never to appear in the book again. That’s telling. Satan is gone … never to reappear. That’s telling, too. Only Job remains.
Days have gone by. At the end of chapter 2, Job’s 3 friends showed up. They come to comfort him - but so badly deformed is he by the suffering Satan has inflicted on him - that when they first show up ... they can’t even recognize him.
What do you say to a person in that situation? What can you say? Chapter 2:13, “And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Job’s friends don’t say a thing. For a whole week - not a word. And actually, that’s probably the best thing they could have done. These friends were at their best when their mouths were shut. A lesson for us?
Finally, the silence is broken. From the numbed shock of seven silent days and seven silent nights … after all that he’s been through - - after the wordless week … sitting in the garbage dump, sitting on the ashes, every moment pain - - the anguish has been boiling up within him. Now, finally, the man can take no more - - as with a shriek, Job breaks the silence himself.
Verse 3, “Let the day perish on which I was born … Verse 4, “Let that day be removed from the calendar - as if it had never been.” Look at the rest of v. 4, “May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” That’s interesting. Remember back to the very beginning of the Bible:
, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void …
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” That was the first day of the creation of the universe - and God said, “It is good”. But Job is saying, “Why can’t you UN-Create the day I was born.” In fact, “Not only the day I was born, but do the same with the night I was conceived - as v. 3 puts it, “The night that said ‘A man is conceived’.” V. 6, “THAT night - let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.”
“God, can you erase every trace of my existence from the earth - even the calendar?! Bring un-creation on me.”
Interesting - that at the beginning of this book - we read about the regular celebrations that Job’s kids shared in - they celebrated each other’s birthdays. These were days of joy. Now they’re all gone - and a birthday to Job now, is a reminder of a life of unrelieved suffering.
V. 8, “Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan” - “Poke Leviathan”. We are going to meet Leviathan again in chapter 41 and we will get into more detail then, but for now, you need to know that Leviathan was the storybook sea monster of chaos, in Job’s day - the great enemy of God the Creator, whose mission was to undo the order and beauty God had made. “Somebody whistle for him - stir him up from the depths - to swallow up the creation of ME.”
Remember in the Lord of the Rings, when the Fellowship of the Ring is passing through the mines of Moria, and one of the hobbits accidentally stirs up Balrog - that giant monster … and the horrible consequences - the fight with Gandalf that comes as a result? This is kind of like that - except that Job wants Leviathan to be stirred up on purpose.
A battle of faith is going on in Job’s mind. His belief in God. His understanding of who God is - what God is life … he’s battling.
CS Lewis, “A Grief Observed”
“We were promised suffering. We were even told, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and I accept it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”
“Not that I am in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him.”
You’ve been there - you are a Christian - think back to your worst heartache - the lowest point of your life. Were you tempted to chuck your belief in God to the curb? Probably not. Probably not. It’s much more likely that you were tempted to think of God as a heavenly monster. A God who doesn’t care about your joy … or worse. That’s where Job is too. He isn’t being tempted to chuck all belief in God and join the atheist team … His temptation is to believe about God … THIS. “So THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE!”
THAT’S THE TEMPTATION Job is struggling with right here - tempted to believe that God is arbitrary, a divine cat, playing with a mouse … and Job is the mouse. That there’s a mean streak in God. Oh God is working out His Sovereign plan … and I’m just a toy to Him.”
Have you ever been tempted like this? Tempted to say, “If this is life - I wish I’d never been born!”? Of course you have … if you’ve suffered enough. You know that God exists. You can’t help but believe in Him - there’s just too much evidence … but you are tempted to doubt His goodness. Tempted to see Him as a tyrant.
- is the man of faith wrestling with the very same thing. Is Job wrong here? Of course he’s wrong - but he is a person of faith in progress - dealing with real life. And what this text says to me is this: That God saves REAL PEOPLE - not robots.
Job is not a Stoic philosopher. Christianity sometimes gets confused with Stoicism. The stoics were the philosophers who had as their goal, to remain unmoved no matter the circumstances. not to let the fierce fires of passion disturb their tranquility. Mind over matter, if you will. But Job is a man who is bereaved, he’s humiliated and he is in excruciating pain. His skin is festering, his nerves are on fire and his heart is broken. In this kind of situation – you may be unmoved, if you’re made of stone or bronze - but a real man is living through a storm. God’s test is not to find out if Job can sit, unmoved like a piece of wood. His test is to prove that, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STORM - Job will hold on tight.
That’s the God Who has called you as well, Christian.
2 THE LAMENT, vv. 11-26
Starting at v. 11, Job changes direction. He has finished cursing the day of his birth. From v. 11 to the end of the chapter, Job laments his life. And his lament comes through a series of questions. Verse 11, “Why did I not die at birth?
Verse 12, “Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts that I should nurse?”
Verse 16, “… why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?”
V. 20, “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not and dig for it more than for hidden treasures.”
V. 23, “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?”
Why, WHY, O LORD - - WHY?!!
You know people who have asked that question. Looking at the place they find themselves in - they can see only black … black all around them, in the heavens above - only ebony clouds - - on the road ahead - only darkness. There is no light that they can see - no hope to cling to .... and they don’t understand God’s plan - so they cry out, “WHY?” Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you are there right now.
Job’s getting close to the danger zone - his faith in God’s goodness has carried him through all of the unbelievable hits he has taken … but that faith in God is being pushed to its limit.
Did you notice in v. 23, how he says that God has ‘hedged him in?’ Remember back in chapter 1:10, Satan said that the only reason Job worships and serves God is because God has ‘hedged him in’? Job says, “Ya - I’m hedged in.” But this is a very different kind of hedge. Satan was talking about a hedge of protection - God keeping his servant Job safe from evil and suffering - - - “You’ve wrapped Job in bubble-wrap”, Satan was saying. “There is so much suffering in the world, but none of it touches your servant. Job has life way too easy”.
Oh but the hedge that Job feels now is a cage of despair. He is caught in God’s trap - and there’s no way out.
What’s the point of existence? What’s the point of life?!
Job is enduring a suffering so deep that he can see no way out. He sees no light at the end of the tunnel - remember, we’ve seen behind the curtain into what’s happening in heaven. We know about God’s permission to the Satan; we know about God’s love for Job. He hasn’t heard a THING from God. The heavens are silent.
Verse 24, “For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.” In other words, “In all of my life - I never gave a thought about my next meal - Day after day, there was food on the table - feasting. Never a thought of hunger. But, as plentiful as food USED to be … now it is sighs and groaning in this pain that are my 3 square meals.”
Verse 25, “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” Remember when you were a kid and there were so many things to terrify you in the night. You couldn’t go to bed in the dark, because there was a monster under your bed - - - you just knew he was down there - and if you walked too closely to your bed – the monster would grab your feet and drag you under.
Parents reassured you - - “No, no, no - don’t be silly. There is no monster under the bed. No dragon in the closet. You’re letting your mind play tricks on you.” You’d turn on the light and look under the bed, just to appease. Turn on the light and open up the closet for examination. “Put your mind at rest”.
Not for Job - his mind could not have dreamed this suffering up - To lose … ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING … AND NOW BE SUFFERING PHYSICALLY TO THE POINT OF DEATH? “The thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.”
The chapter ends with four staccato complaints, four sharp cries coming from the dagger stabs of pain. Verse 26, “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
No happy endings - not yet.
So, now what? What do we do with this chapter? How do we apply?
FIRST: First thing we need to do is recognize that this chapter is part of the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Job chapter 3 is every bit as much as part of the Living, Active Word of God, as and and
… It is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.
Believers as strong and powerful and righteous as Job can wrestle in their pain - God says, “THIS IS A GODLY MAN” .... and he finds himself here. Comfort for you who are in that place.
SECOND: See the character of God in this hard chapter. God doesn’t speak, but that’s partly the point. God doesn’t speak. Some of us want to rush in and stop Job from speaking like this. Should Job have said these things? Should he have wished he’d never been born and cursed the day of his birth? No, of course not. But when many of us would have stopped him mid-speech … God doesn’t. God doesn’t say a thing until chapter 38. See the patience of God on display! When we were going through the book of James - remember
and how it pointed back to Job: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job.” - The patience of Job … well look at the patience of God!
Joni Erickson Tada – diving accident when 17 years old left her a quadriplegic- been in a wheelchair for 40plus years :
“One of the first places I turned after my accident was to the Book of Job. What meant the most to me in my suffering was that God never condemned Job for his doubt and despair. For some odd reason it comforted me to realize that God did not condemn me for plying Him with questions. He wanted me to express the true contents of my heart, to dump out all the jumbled, jagged shards of my soul before Him. Sometimes we’re afraid to talk to God this way-like Job crying out in the night on the ash heap behind his house, like the psalmist treading water in the dark, like a furious teenager welded into bed with a broken neck and bolts in her head. We repress those murky, edgy emotions about our suffering. We choose to be polite, speaking sanitized words, or not speaking at all. We bottle up our troubling questions and unspeakable feelings toward God, hiding behind an orthodox, evangelical glaze as we “give it all over to the Lord.”
Strong emotions open the door to asking really hard questions-and I asked so very many of them in the early days of my paralysis. Does life make sense? Is God good? More to the point, our deep emotions reveal the spiritual direction in which we are moving. Are we moving toward the Almighty or away from Him?
….. The newly paralyzed Joni, for all her seething rage at the God-behind-the-ceiling-tiles, was aiming those emotions at Him. Whether she understood it at the time or not, she was moving toward Him in her despair, venting her disappointment, expressing hurt, and even questioning His goodness. But she wasn’t talking about God behind God’s back. She was angry enough to engage Him head-on. And then the anger melted into tears, and she was a scared little girl again, calling out to a daddy she couldn’t see.
THIRD: Third and final application is also the most important one — take comfort from this chapter. As much as you can identify with Job in his pain, in his feeling so far from God and utterly hopeless … there is another identification you need to make.
- “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
What does Jesus know about the darkness of ?
. He knows what it is to fall on his face, in the darkness, alone in a Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what is coming for him that very night and sweat great drops of blood, pleading, “Father, is there any other way?”
He knows what it is to find himself in the place where He loses every ounce of assurance of God’s presence and the fellowship that He had enjoyed with God the Father from all eternity past .... crying out, “My God, My God - Why have you forsaken me?”
We have a Savior who knows what it is to feel like God has abandoned Him and turned away from Him .... the difference between Jesus in His suffering and you in your suffering is that in His case, God really HAD abandoned him. The Father turned His face away - - - from Him.
No matter where you are in your suffering or ever will be … you have a Savior who has gone before you -
You have a Savior who knows the darkness of Job chapter 3, and you can go to him and fall at his feet and say, “Carry me - I cannot take another step.” And he will do just that
- Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
In preparing for this morning, I thought about William Cowper. I’ve talked about him here before, but many of you may not be familiar with his story. He was a great Christian poet and hymn-writer. Wrote some of our most precious hymns .... EG, “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood”.
Cowper had far from an easy life. First stab of pain came when his mom died - he was only 6 at the time. Her loss created such a big hole in his life that when someone sent him a portrait of her - 53 years later .... He’s almost 60 years old now - but you can tell that his grief was still fresh after all this time. He wrote a poem in response: “I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, and turning from my nursery window, drew a long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!”
Cowper’s father sent him away to a boarding school where he was cruelly bullied - and though he doesn’t say it outright - it seems that there was some kind of abuse there. He was further damaged.
Then he was engaged to the love of his life - two years engaged … but after 2 years, his fiancee’s father forbade the marriage. He wasn’t a Christian yet and, in his early years of adulthood, Cowper went through repeated episodes of deep depression. “I was struck with such a dejection of spirits, as none but they who hafe felt the same, can have the LEAST conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in horror, and rising up in despair.”
At age 31, Cowper had a catastrophic breakdown, he tried 3 times to take his own life and was put in an asylum (a psychiatric hospital it would be called today). An evangelical Christian ran the asylum and, 6 months later, Cowper met the Lord Jesus Christ and found salvation. Listen to how he describes his conversion:
“Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport; I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, OVERWHELMED with WONDER AND LOVE.”
What a change took hold of his life. I wish I could say, “And William Cowper found the love of his life and lived happily ever after in the joy of his Lord. The end.” But that’s not how his life worked out. On 4 more occasions in his life, he went through deep, deep depression. Shortly before he died in 1800, one of the LAST things he said was, “I feel unutterable despair.”
William Cowper was a Christian - a real Christian who wrote for the Church some of our greatest, deepest hymns. In moments of clarity he was able to write the words to the hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” We’re going to close the service with this hymn, but listen to some of the words of trust that this man wrote - this man who knew the darkness of despair:
“Oh fearful saints, new courage take: the clouds that you now dread, are big with mercy and will break … in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.”
“God’s purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err .... and scan his work in vain. God is His own interpreter … and He will make it plain.”
When You Wish You’d Never Been Born
is not a happy passage. This is one of the darkest places in the entire Bible. Most of us have not been here, thankfully. You’ve seen the thunderclouds come across the horizon. You’ve felt the downpour drenching you in harsh, frigid rain … you know suffering. But most of us have never been here. Maybe someone here is in Job’s place.
You didn’t think the Christian life would be like this. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you knew that it wouldn’t be all sunshine and roses .... you knew there would be suffering - you were ready for it. But you didn’t sign up for this.
SPURGEON - The Crystal Cathedral. When somebody shouted “FIRE” in a crowded building holding around 10 thousand people, gathered to worship and hear him preach - there was no fire, but there was a stampede and many were killed as people trampled each other to get out of the building. Spurgeon spiralled into a pit of darkness - couldn’t preach for several months. ..... Moses, Elijah - there were periods in their lives - - Elijah so low he asked the Lord to take his life.
Jeremiah, in chapter 20, quotes from , word for word. He has just been beaten for speaking God’s message. He’s put in the stocks and left there overnight. The next day he goes home and cries out his lament. Jeremiah the weeping prophet - success in his ministry doesn’t mean a big church and a big reputation … it meant preaching a message of Judgment from God that his people don’t want to hear … and he quotes in his lament, “Cursed be the day on which I was born,” which makes it seem that he has this chapter memorized. What a strange passage to memorize!
You ask someone, 'what's your favorite passage of Scripture?' - - usually it's a passage you have memorized. So what would it be? ; ; , etc.
But this?!! This is awkward, uncomfortable - a passage we may want to avoid or .... explain away. But here it is.
Maybe you’re wondering why this chapter is here at all? If God gave you the chance to put together the Bible yourself - - decide what goes in and what stays out … would this chapter be in YOUR Bible?
Maybe you’re embarrassed by it. No Christian should say things like this.
Did Job sin here? Some Christians think he did. They want to rush in and condemn him for the things he’s said .... QUICKER than God Himself. But that’s not the point. You need to listen to him.
This chapter divides into two halves. First is a curse, followed by a lament.
- The Curse
- The Lament
1 THE CURSE, vv. 1-10
Job begins his speech with a curse. Verse 1 tells us, “Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”
Verse 3, “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived’.” Have you ever been in a place so low that you truly wished you had never been born?
This is a venting. Have you ever been through a rough, rough time - you received devastating news - - you had to do something you never dreamed you would have to do - - bury a child; bury a spouse - you knew it was coming - but not now. Not yet. And in the middle of the trial and in the days immediately following - you had such strength. People commented on how courageous you were. And you were.
Last week, I read a CBC news report about an incident that happened exactly a week ago today – A mother and her 4 year-old daughter, in Hantsport NS were on their way to a birthday party, when her car hit black ice, rolled down an embankment into an icy pond. The car rolled upside down, the mom managed to get out – but the little girl was strapped into her seat. The freezing water rushing into the car.
She tried to open her daughter's door from the outside.
"I finally did get it open, but I had slush and ice all over my hands and everywhere and my hand slipped and the door slammed shut. So I'm freaking out trying to think, what do I do?" For the briefest moment, Holland thought she wouldn't be able to save Macy. The car was sinking too fast. Her numb hands and legs were working too slowly.
But she didn't give up. Climbed over the car, went in through the back window and managed to pull her out, carry her to shore and push her up onto the embankment, "It was really icy and slushy and I was having a really hard time because I thought I was going to pass out. I was freezing so I was having a hard time getting up the hill, and I just said to her, 'Run, you need to run, go,' because I saw there was a car coming our way and I didn't want them to miss us."
"How they were even able to get out of that car was a miracle," said Capt. Ryan Richard of the Brooklyn volunteer fire department, who arrived at the scene shortly after the pair made it out of the water.
"To be able to swim to shore and get up over that embankment is totally unheard of … I'll be honest with you, in my last 26 years I've been to many similar incidents and unfortunately they're usually very fatal."
I’ve read of situations like this before - someone finds herself or himself in a moment of great crisis - a loved one is trapped - nobody else is around to help. In desperation, the person finds superhuman - Hulk-like strength and gets the person out - saves a life. And it is not unknown to hear that, days later, after the crisis is over and everything is calm .... the one who had shown such miraculous strength in the emergency, now breaks down and cries for no apparent reason.
Like the mother in the story - you seemed to have super-human strength or calmness of heart - even able to praise the Lord in the storm.
But the days do by. It starts to sink in: “This isn’t a dream”. When tragedy first hits - you keep thinking, “I’m dreaming this. This isn’t real and anytime now, I’m going to wake up and she’ll be back; he’ll be back; this suffering will be gone and everything will be back to normal again.” But the days go by - it sinks in that this IS real; this is your life now; this is the new normal. You go to pick up the phone to call dad or mom or grandma - - and you realize - ‘just put down the phone. There’s nobody on the other end to answer.’
That’s where Job is now. Chapter 3 is an outpouring of grief. He has been so strong. When everything was taken from him - his money was all gone, his business empire came crashing to the ground and his children - all 10 of them, are dead. And he responded with great faith: (Chapter 1:21) “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Then when God gives the Satan permission to strike Job’s own body - and he is hit with a suffering that is sucking the life out of him and causing excruciating pain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
He responded with a tenacious faith that all of us pray that we will have if we find ourselves anywhere CLOSE to that kind of suffering.
Now Job’s wife is gone … never to appear in the book again. That’s telling. Satan is gone … never to reappear. That’s telling, too. Only Job remains.
Days have gone by. At the end of chapter 2, Job’s 3 friends showed up. They come to comfort him - but so badly deformed is he by the suffering Satan has inflicted on him - that when they first show up ... they can’t even recognize him.
What do you say to a person in that situation? What can you say? Chapter 2:13, “And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Job’s friends didn’t say a thing. For a whole week - not a word. And actually, that’s probably the best thing they could have done. They were at their best when their mouths were shut. A lesson for us.
Finally, the silence is broken. From the numbed shock of seven silent days and seven silent nights … after all that he’s been through - - after the wordless week … sitting in the garbage dump, sitting on the ashes, every moment pain - - the anguish has been boiling up within him. Now, finally, the man can take no more - - as with a shriek, Job breaks the silence himself.
Verse 3, “Let the day perish on which I was born … Verse 4, “Let that day be removed from the calendar - as if it had never been.” Look at the rest of v. 4, “May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” That’s interesting. Remember back to the very beginning of the Bible:
, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void and
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” That was the first day of the creation of the universe - and God said, “It is good”. But Job is saying, “Why can’t you UN-Create the day I was born.” In fact, “Not only the day I was born, but do the same with the night I was conceived - as v. 3 puts it, “The night that said ‘A man is conceived’.” V. 6, “THAT night - let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.”
“God, can you erase every trace of my existence from the earth - even the calendar?! Bring un-creation on me.”
Interesting - that at the beginning of this book - we read about the regular celebrations that Job’s kids shared in - they celebrated each other’s birthdays. These were days of joy. Now they’re all gone - and a birthday to Job now, is a reminder of a life of unrelieved suffering.
V. 8, “Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan” - “Poke Leviathan”. We are going to meet Leviathan again in chapter 41 and we will get into more detail then, but for now, you need to know that Leviathan was the storybook sea monster of chaos, in Job’s day - the great enemy of God the Creator, whose mission was to undo the order and beauty God had made. “Somebody whistle for him - stir him up from the depths - to swallow up the creation of ME.”
Remember in the Lord of the Rings, when the characters who make up the Fellowship of the Ring are passing through the mines of Moria, and one of the hobbits accidentally stirs up Balrog - that giant monster … and the horrible consequences - the fight with Gandalf that comes as a result? This is kind of like that - except that Job wants Leviathan to be stirred up on purpose.
A battle of faith is going on in Job’s mind. His belief in God. His understanding of who God is - what God is life … he’s battling.
CS Lewis, “A Grief Observed”
“We were promised suffering. We were even told, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and I accept it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”
“Not that I am in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him.”
You’ve been there - you are a Christian - think back to your worst heartache - the lowest point of your life. Were you tempted to chuck your belief in God to the curb? Probably not. Probably not. It’s much more likely that you were tempted to think of God as a heavenly monster. A God who doesn’t care about your joy … or worse. That’s where Job is too. He isn’t being tempted to chuck all belief in God and join the atheist team … His temptation is to believe about God … THIS. “So THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE!”
THAT’S THE TEMPTATION Job is struggling with right here - tempted to believe that God is arbitrary, a divine cat, playing with a mouse … and Job is the mouse. That there’s a mean streak in God. Oh God is working out His Sovereign plan … and I’m just a toy to Him.”
Have you ever been tempted like this? Tempted to say, “I wish I’d never been born!”? Of course you have … if you’ve suffered enough. You know that God exists. You can’t help but believe in Him - there’s just too much evidence … but you are tempted to doubt His goodness. Tempted to see Him as a tyrant.
- is the man of faith wrestling with the very same thing. Is Job wrong here? Of course he’s wrong - but he is a person of faith in progress - dealing with real life. And what this text says to me is this: That God saves REAL PEOPLE - not robots.
Job is not a Stoic philosopher. Christianity sometimes gets confused with Stoicism. The stoics were the philosophers who had as their goal, to remain unmoved no matter the circumstances. not to let the fierce fires of passion disturb their tranquility. Mind over matter, if you will. But Job is a man who is bereaved, he’s humiliated and he is in excruciating pain. His skin is festering, his nerves are on fire and his heart is broken. In this kind of situation - a man made of stone or bronze may be unmoved - but a real man is living through a storm. God’s test is not to find out if Job can sit, unmoved like a piece of wood. His test is to prove that Job will hold on tight - in the middle of the storm.
That’s the God Who has called you as well, Christian.
2 THE LAMENT, vv. 11-26
Starting at v. 11, Job changes direction. He has finished cursing the day of his birth. From v. 11 to the end of the chapter, Job laments his life. And his lament comes through a series of questions. Verse 11, “Why did I not die at birth?
Verse 12, “Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts that I should nurse?”
Verse 16, “… why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?”
V. 20, “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not and dig for it more than for hidden treasures.”
V. 23, “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?”
Why, WHY, O LORD - - WHY?!!
You know people who have asked that question. Looking at the place they find themselves in - they can see only black … black all around them, in the heavens above - only ebony clouds - - on the road ahead - only darkness. There is no light that they can see - no hope to cling to .... and they don’t understand God’s plan - so they cry out, “WHY?” Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you are there right now.
Job is getting close to the danger area - his faith in God’s goodness has carried him through all of the unbelievable hits he has taken … but that faith in God is being pushed to its limit.
He just can’t understand why the result of God’s gift of life would be that those who have it want to be rid of it. Did you notice in v. 23, how he says that God has ‘hedged him in?’ Remember back in chapter 1:10, Satan said that the only reason Job worships and serves God is because God has ‘hedged him in’? Job says, “Ya - I’m hedged in.” But this is a very different kind of hedge. Satan was talking about a hedge of protection - God keeping his servant Job safe from evil and suffering - - - “You’ve wrapped Job in bubble-wrap”, Satan was saying. “There is so much suffering in the world, but none of it touches your servant. Job has life way too easy”.
Oh but the hedge that Job feels now is a cage of despair. He is caught in God’s trap - and there’s no way out.
What’s the point of existence? What’s the point of life?!
Job is enduring a suffering so deep that he can see no way out. He sees no light at the end of the tunnel - remember, we’ve seen behind the curtain into what’s happening in heaven. We know about God’s permission to the Satan; we know about God’s love for Job. He hasn’t heard a THING from God. The heavens are silent.
Verse 24, “For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.” In other words, “In all of my life - I never gave a thought about my next meal - Day after day, there was food on the table - feasting. Never a thought of hunger. But, as plentiful as food USED to be … now it is sighs and groaning in this pain that are my 3 square meals.”
Verse 25, “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” Remember when you were a kid and there were so many things to terrify you in the night. You couldn’t go to bed in the dark, because there was a monster under your bed - - - you just knew he was down there - and if you walked too closely to your bed – the monster would grab your feet and drag you down there.
Parents reassured you - - “No, no, no - don’t be silly. There is no monster under the bed. No dragon in the closet. You’re letting your mind play tricks on you.” You’d turn on the light and look under the bed, just to appease. Turn on the light and open up the closet for examination. “Put your mind at rest”.
Not for Job - his mind could not have dreamed this suffering up - To lose … ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING … AND NOW BE SUFFERING PHYSICALLY TO THE POINT OF DEATH? “The thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.”
The chapter ends with four staccato complaints, four sharp cries coming from the dagger stabs of pain. Verse 26, “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
No happy endings - not yet.
So, as we wrap things up - what do we do with this chapter?
FIRST: First thing we need to do is recognize that this chapter is part of the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Job chapter 3 is every bit as much as part of the Living, Active Word of God, as and and
… It is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.
Believers as strong and powerful and righteous as Job can wrestle in their pain - God says, “THIS IS A GODLY MAN” .... and he finds himself here. Comfort for you who are in that place.
SECOND: See the character of God in this hard chapter. God doesn’t speak, but that’s partly the point. God doesn’t speak. Some of us want to rush in and stop Job from speaking like this. Should Job have said these things? Should he have wished he’d never been born and cursed the day of his birth? No, of course not. But when many of us would have stopped him mid-speech … God doesn’t. God doesn’t say a thing until chapter 38. See the patience of God on display! When we were going through the book of James - remember
and how it pointed back to Job: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job.” - The patience of Job … well look at the patience of God!
Joni Erickson Tada: “One of the first places I turned after my accident was to the Book of Job. What meant the most to me in my suffering was that God never condemned Job for his doubt and despair. For some odd reason it comforted me to realize that God did not condemn me for plying Him with questions. He wanted me to express the true contents of my heart, to dump out all the jumbled, jagged shards of my soul before Him. Sometimes we’re afraid to talk to God this way-like Job crying out in the night on the ash heap behind his house, like the psalmist treading water in the dark, like a furious teenager welded into bed with a broken neck and bolts in her head. We repress those murky, edgy emotions about our suffering. We choose to be polite, speaking sanitized words, or not speaking at all. We bottle up our troubling questions and unspeakable feelings toward God, hiding behind an orthodox, evangelical glaze as we “give it all over to the Lord.”
Strong emotions open the door to asking really hard questions-and I asked so very many of them in the early days of my paralysis. Does life make sense? Is God good? More to the point, our deep emotions reveal the spiritual direction in which we are moving. Are we moving toward the Almighty or away from Him? Anger makes Someone the issue of our suffering rather than some thing. And that’s moving in the right direction. The newly paralyzed Joni, for all her seething rage at the God-behind-the-ceiling-tiles, was aiming those emotions at Him. Whether she understood it at the time or not, she was moving toward Him in her despair, venting her disappointment, expressing hurt, and even questioning His goodness. But she wasn’t talking about God behind God’s back. She was angry enough to engage Him head-on. And then the anger melted into tears, and she was a scared little girl again, calling out to a daddy she couldn’t see.
THIRD: Third and final application is also the most important one — take comfort from this chapter. As much as you can identify with Job in his pain, in his feeling so far from God and utterly hopeless … there is another identification you need to make.
- “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
What does Jesus know about the darkness of ?
. He knows what it is to fall on his face, in the darkness, alone in a Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what is coming for him that very night and sweat great drops of blood, pleading, “Father, is there any other way?”
He knows what it is to find himself in the place where He loses every ounce of assurance of God’s presence and the fellowship that He had enjoyed with God the Father from all eternity past .... crying out, “My God, My God - Why have you forsaken me?”
We have a Savior who knows what it is to feel like God has abandoned Him and turned away from Him .... the difference between Jesus in His suffering and you in your suffering is that in His case, God really HAD abandoned him. The Father turned His face away - - - from Him.
No matter where you are in your suffering or ever will be … you have a Savior who has gone before you -
You have a Savior who knows the darkness of Job chapter 3, and you can go to him and fall at his feet and say, “Carry me - I cannot take another step.” And he will do just that
- Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
William Cowper - thought of him in looking at our text for this morning. I’ve talked about him here before, but many of you may not be familiar with his story. He was a great Christian poet and hymn-writer. Wrote some of our most precious hymns .... EG, “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood”.
Cowper had far from an easy life. First stab of pain came when his mom died - he was only 6 at the time. Her loss created such a big hole in his life that when someone sent him a portrait of her - 53 years later .... He’s almost 60 years old now - but you can tell that his grief was still fresh after all this time. He wrote a poem in response: “I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, and turning from my nursery window, drew a long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!”
Cowper’s father sent him away to a boarding school where he was cruelly bullied - and though he doesn’t say it outright - it seems that there was some kind of abuse there. He was further damaged.
Then he was engaged to the love of his life - two years engaged … but after 2 years, his fiancee’s father forbade the marriage. He wasn’t a Christian yet and, in his early years of adulthood, Cowper went through repeated episodes of deep depression. “I was struck with such a dejection of spirits, as none but they who hafe felt the same, can have the LEAST conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in horror, and rising up in despair.”
At age 31, Cowper had a catastrophic breakdown, he tried 3 times to take his own life and was put in an asylum (a psychiatric hospital it would be called today). An evangelical Christian ran the asylum and, 6 months later, Cowper met the Lord Jesus Christ and found salvation. Listen to how he describes his conversion:
“Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport; I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, OVERWHELMED with WONDER AND LOVE.”
What a change took hold of his life. I wish I could say, “And William Cowper found the love of his life and lived happily ever after in the joy of his Lord. The end.” But that’s not how his life worked out. On 4 more occasions in his life, he went through deep, deep depression. Shortly before he died in 1800, one of the LAST things he said was, “I feel unutterable despair.”
William Cowper was a Christian - a real Christian who wrote for the Church some of our greatest, deepest hymns. In moments of clarity he was able to write the words to the hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” We’re going to close the service with this hymn, but listen to some of the words of trust that this man wrote - this man who knew the darkness of despair:
“Oh fearful saints, new courage take: the clouds that you now dread, are big with mercy and will break … in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.”
“God’s purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err .... and scan his work in vain. God is His own interpreter … and He will make it plain.”
Last week, I read a CBC news report about an incident that happened on Sunday. It began this way:
“As her car skidded across black ice and began rolling down an embankment toward an icy pond, Ashley Holland thought she was going to die.
But moments later, the Hantsport, N.S., woman found the strength to not only save herself, but also her four-year-old daughter who was strapped in the backseat as freezing water rushed in.
"When something like that happens, it's like your parental instincts just kick in, right? And you do what you need to do to get your child to safety," Holland, 24, told CBC Radio's Mainstreet on Monday, a day after the terrifying ordeal.
She lost control of the vehicle and it ended up rolling down an embankment.
She lost control of the vehicle and it ended up rolling down an embankment.
"Terrifying, completely terrifying. My daughter just started screaming and I was just thinking in my head, 'The water, please just don't go in the water, like please,'" said Holland.
"Then we hit the water."
As the car rolled, her daughter Macy kept screaming, "Mom, I'm going to die!" The car initially landed on its roof and both passenger side windows smashed to pieces on impact.
Water started gushing in, filling up the Toyota Corolla.
Holland unbuckled herself, falling onto the roof of the car, and crawled out a window into the water. She tried to open her daughter's door from the outside.
"I finally did get it open, but I had slush and ice all over my hands and everywhere and my hand slipped and the door slammed shut. So I'm freaking out trying to think, what do I do?"
For the briefest moment, Holland thought she wouldn't be able to save Macy. The car was sinking too fast. Her numb hands and legs were working too slowly.
For the briefest moment, Holland thought she wouldn't be able to save Macy. The car was sinking too fast. Her numb hands and legs were working too slowly.
But she didn't give up.
Holland climbed over the car and went back in through a window and worked with her daughter to free her from the car seat. Macy undid the top straps while Holland unbuckled the bottom ones.
"I just grabbed her and pulled her out and I tried to keep her above the water. I didn't want her to be hypothermic. So from the waist down she was soaked, but I mean her hair didn't even get wet and I don't know how I did it."
She managed to carry Macy to shore and push her up onto the embankment, but Holland's body had reached its limit.
"It was really icy and slushy and I was having a really hard time because I thought I was going to pass out. I was freezing so I was having a hard time getting up the hill, and I just said to her, 'Run, you need to run, go,' because I saw there was a car coming our way and I didn't want them to miss us."
"How they were even able to get out of that car was a miracle," said Capt. Ryan Richard of the Brooklyn volunteer fire department, who arrived at the scene shortly after the pair made it out of the water.
"To be able to swim to shore and get up over that embankment is totally unheard of," he told CBC Radio's Maritime Noon.
"I'll be honest with you, in my last 26 years I've been to many similar incidents and unfortunately they're usually very fatal."
I’ve read of situations like this before - someone finds herself or himself in a moment of great crisis - a loved one is trapped - nobody else is around to help. In desperation, the person finds superhuman - Hulk-like strength and gets the person out - saves a life. And it is not unknown to hear that, days later, after the crisis is over and everything is calm .... the one who had shown such miraculous strength in the emergency, now breaks down and cries for no apparent reason.
is is not a happy passages. This is one of the darkest places in the entire Bible. Most of us have not been here, thankfully. You’ve seen the thunderclouds come across the horizon. You’ve felt the downpour drenching you in harsh, frigid rain … you know suffering. But most of us have never been here.
Thinking things you never thought you’d think. Outbursts
You didn’t think the Christian life would be like this. When you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you knew that it wouldn’t be all sunshine and roses .... you knew there would be suffering - you were ready for it. But you didn’t sign up for this.
SPURGEON - The Crystal Cathedral. When somebody shouted “FIRE” in a crowded building holding around 10 thousand people, gathered to worship and hear him preach - there was no fire, but there was a stampede and many were killed as people trampled each other to get out of the building. Spurgeon spiralled into a pit of darkness - couldn’t preach for several months. ..... Moses, Elijah - there were periods in their lives - - Elijah so low he asked the Lord to take his life.
Jeremiah, in chapter 20, quotes from , word for word. He has just been beaten for speaking God’s message. He’s put in the stocks and left there overnight. The next day he goes home and cries out his lament. Jeremiah the weeping prophet - success in his ministry doesn’t mean a big church and a big reputation … it meant preaching a message of Judgment from God that his people don’t want to hear … and he quotes in his lament, “Cursed be the day on which I was born,” which makes it seem that he has this chapter memorized. What a strange passage to memorize!
You ask someone, 'what's your favorite passage of Scripture?' - - usually it's a passage you have memorized. So what would it be? ; ; , etc.
But this?!! This is awkward, uncomfortable - a passage we may want to avoid or .... explain away. But here it is.
This is a lament. This is the heart expressed by real people in our day - in counseling rooms ... silently in one's own heart.
Maybe you’re wondering why this chapter is here at all? If God gave you the chance to put together the Bible yourself - - decide what goes in and what stays out … would this chapter be in YOUR Bible?
Maybe you’re embarrassed by it. No Christian should say things like this.
Did Job sin here? Some Christians think he did. They want to rush in and condemn him for the things he’s said .... QUICKER than God Himself. But that’s not the point. You need to listen to him.
You want to rush in and condemn him for the things he’s said .... QUICKER than God Himself. BUt that’s not the point. You need to listen to him
This chapter divides into two halves. First is a curse, followed by a lament.
- The Curse
- The Curse
But the days do by. It starts to sink in: “This isn’t a dream”. When tragedy first hits - you keep thinking, “I’m dreaming this. This isn’t real and anytime now, I’m going to wake up and she’ll be back; he’ll be back; this suffering will be gone and everything will be back to normal again.” But the days go by - it sinks in that this IS real; this is your life now; this is the new normal. You go to pick up the phone to call dad or mom or grandma - - and you realize - ‘just put down the phone. There’s nobody on the other end to answer.’
That’s where Job is now. Days have gone by. At the end of chapter 2, Job’s 3 friends showed up. They came to comfort him - so badly deformed is he by the suffering Satan has inflicted on him - that when they first show up - they can’t even recognize him.
What do you say to a person in that situation? What can you say? Chapter 2:13, “And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Job’s friends didn’t say a thing. For a whole week - not a word. And actually, that’s probably the best thing they could have done. They were at their best when their mouths were shut. A lesson for us.
Finally, the silence is broken. From the numbed shock of seven silent days and seven silent nights, Job’s friends have said nothing … after all that he’s been through - - after the wordless week … sitting in the garbage dump, sitting on the ashes, every moment pain - - the anguish has been boiling up within him. Now, finally, the man can take no more - - as with a shriek, Job breaks the silence himself.
- The Lament
Finally, the silence is broken. From the numbed shock of seven silent days and seven silent nights, Job’s friends have said nothing … after all that he’s been through - - after the wordless week … sitting in the garbage dump, sitting on the ashes, every moment pain - - the anguish has been boiling up within him. Now, finally, the man can take no more - - as with a shriek, Job breaks the silence himself.
Chapter 3 is an outpouring of grief. He has been so strong. When everything was taken from him - his money was all gone, his business empire came crashing to the ground and his children - all 10 of them, are dead. And he responded with great faith: (Chapter 1:21) “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Then when God gives the Satan permission to strike Job’s own body - and he is hit with a suffering that is sucking the life out of him and causing excruciating pain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
ain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
ain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
He has responded with a tenacious faith that all of us pray that we will have if we find ourselves anywhere CLOSE to that kind of suffering.
Now Job’s wife is gone … never to appear in the book again. Satan is gone … never to reappear.
In the first two chapters of the book - we have WATCHED the loneliness of Job. Now we LISTEN to his loneliness. Job is not speaking here to anyone. Those conversations will begin in chapter 4. Job isn’t speaking to God, either. He is
- The Curse
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:
“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.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
Let clouds dwell upon it;
let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night—let thick darkness seize it!
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
let it not come into the number of the months.
Behold, let that night be barren;
let no joyful cry enter it.
Let those curse it who curse the day,
who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
let it hope for light, but have none,
nor see the eyelids of the morning,
because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
nor hide trouble from my eyes.
“Why did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
with kings and counselors of the earth
who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
“Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,
who long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
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.”
- The Lament
____________________________________________________________________
1 THE CURSE, vv. 1-10
Job begins his speech with a curse. Verse 1 tells us, “Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.”
Verse 3, “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived’.” Have you ever been in a place so low that you truly wished you had never been born?
This is a venting. Have you ever been through a rough, rough time - you received devastating news - - you had to do something you never dreamed you would have to do - - bury a child; bury a spouse - you knew it was coming - but not now. Not yet. And in the middle of the trial and in the days immediately following - you had such strength. People commented on how courageous you were. And you were.
MOTHER ILLUSTRATION
Like the mother in the story - you seemed to have super-human strength or calmness of heart - even able to praise the Lord in the storm.
But the days do by. It starts to sink in: “This isn’t a dream”. When tragedy first hits - you keep thinking, “I’m dreaming this. This isn’t real and anytime now, I’m going to wake up and she’ll be back; he’ll be back; this suffering will be gone and everything will be back to normal again.” But the days go by - it sinks in that this IS real; this is your life now; this is the new normal. You go to pick up the phone to call dad or mom or grandma - - and you realize - ‘just put down the phone. There’s nobody on the other end to answer.’
That’s where Job is now. Chapter 3 is an outpouring of grief. He has been so strong. When everything was taken from him - his money was all gone, his business empire came crashing to the ground and his children - all 10 of them, are dead. And he responded with great faith: (Chapter 1:21) “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away, blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Then when God gives the Satan permission to strike Job’s own body - and he is hit with a suffering that is sucking the life out of him and causing excruciating pain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
He responded with a tenacious faith that all of us pray that we will have if we find ourselves anywhere CLOSE to that kind of suffering.
Now Job’s wife is gone … never to appear in the book again. That’s telling. Satan is gone … never to reappear. That’s telling, too. Only Job remains.
In the first two chapters of the book - we have WATCHED the loneliness of Job. Now we LISTEN to his loneliness. Job is not speaking here to anyone. Those conversations will begin in chapter 4. Job isn’t speaking to God, either. He is crying out in pain and despair.
Days have gone by. At the end of chapter 2, Job’s 3 friends showed up. They come to comfort him - but so badly deformed is he by the suffering Satan has inflicted on him - that when they first show up ... they can’t even recognize him.
Days have gone by. At the end of chapter 2, Job’s 3 friends showed up. They come to comfort him - but so badly deformed is he by the suffering Satan has inflicted on him - that when they first show up ... they can’t even recognize him.
What do you say to a person in that situation? What can you say? Chapter 2:13, “And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.”
Job’s friends didn’t say a thing. For a whole week - not a word. And actually, that’s probably the best thing they could have done. They were at their best when their mouths were shut. A lesson for us.
Finally, the silence is broken. From the numbed shock of seven silent days and seven silent nights … after all that he’s been through - - after the wordless week … sitting in the garbage dump, sitting on the ashes, every moment pain - - the anguish has been boiling up within him. Now, finally, the man can take no more - - as with a shriek, Job breaks the silence himself.
Verse 3, “Let the day perish on which I was born … Verse 4, “Let that day be removed from the calendar - as if it had never been.” Look at the rest of v. 4, “May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” That’s interesting. Remember back to the very beginning of the Bible: , “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void and
Then when God gives the Satan permission to strike Job’s own body - and he is hit with a suffering that is sucking the life out of him and causing excruciating pain at the same time, when his wife tells him: “Just curse God and die” - be done with it. You are going to die anyways - just put an end to your suffering now .... Job responds in chapter 2:10, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
He has responded with a tenacious faith that all of us pray that we will have if we find ourselves anywhere CLOSE to that kind of suffering.
Now Job’s wife is gone … never to appear in the book again. That’s telling. Satan is gone … never to reappear. That’s telling, too. Only Job remains.
In the first two chapters of the book - we have WATCHED the loneliness of Job. Now we LISTEN to his loneliness. Job is not speaking here to anyone. Those conversations will begin in chapter 4. Job isn’t speaking to God, either. He is crying out in pain and despair.
That’s where Job is. Verse 4, “Let that day be removed from the calendar - as if it had never been.” Look at the rest of v. 4, “May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” That’s interesting. Remember back to the very beginning of the Bible: , “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void and
That’s where Job is. Verse 4, “Let that day be removed from the calendar - as if it had never been.” Look at the rest of v. 4, “May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” Remember back to the very beginning of the Bible: , “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and void and
“And God said, ‘Let there be light’ and there was light.” That was the first day of the creation of the universe - and God said, “It is good”. But Job is saying, “Why can’t you UN-Create the day I was born.” In fact, “Not only the day I was born, but do the same with the night I was conceived - as v. 3 puts it, “The night that said ‘A man is conceived’.” V. 6, “THAT night - let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months.”
“Let that day be removed from the calendar - as if it had never been.”
“God, can you erase every trace of my existence from the earth - even the calendar?! Bring un-creation on me.”
Interesting - that at the beginning of this book - we read about the regular celebrations that Job’s kids shared in - they celebrated each other’s birthdays. These were days of joy. Now they’re all gone - and a birthday to Job now, is a reminder of a life of unrelieved suffering.
V. 8, “Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan” - “Poke Leviathan”. We are going to meet Leviathan again in chapter 41 and we will get into more detail then, but for now, you need to know that Leviathan was the storybook sea monster of chaos, in Job’s day - the great enemy of God the Creator, whose mission was to undo the order and beauty God had made. “Somebody whistle for him - stir him up from the depths - to swallow up the creation of ME.”
Remember in the Lord of the Rings, when the characters who make up the Fellowship of the Ring are passing through the mines of Moria, and one of the hobbits accidentally stirs up Balrog - that giant monster … and the horrible consequences - the fight with Gandalf that comes as a result? This is kind of like that - except that Job wants Leviathan to be stirred up on purpose.
A battle of faith is going on in Job’s mind. His belief in God. His understanding of who God is - what God is life … he’s battling.
A battle of faith is going on in Job’s mind. His belief in God. His understanding of who God is - what God is life … he’s battling.
CS Lewis, “A Grief Observed”
“We were promised suffering. We were even told, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and I accept it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”
“Not that I am in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him.”
You’ve been there - you are a Christian - think back to your worst heartache - the lowest point of your life. Were you tempted to chuck your belief in God to the curb? Probably not.
Probably not. It’s much more likely that you were tempted to think of God as a heavenly monster. A God who doesn’t care about your joy … or worse. That’s where Job is too. He isn’t being tempted to chuck all belief in God and join the atheist team … His temptation is to believe about God … THIS. “So THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE!”
THAT’S THE TEMPTATION Job is struggling with right here - tempted to believe that God is arbitrary, a divine cat, playing with a mouse … and Job is the mouse. That there’s a mean streak in God. Oh God is working out His Sovereign plan … and I’m just a toy to Him.”
Have you ever been tempted like this? Tempted to say, “I wish I’d never been born!”? Of course you have … if you’ve suffered enough. You know that God exists. You can’t help but believe in Him - there’s just too much evidence … but you are tempted to doubt His goodness. Tempted to see Him as a tyrant.
is the man of faith wrestling with the very same thing. Is Job wrong here? Of course he’s wrong - but he is a person of faith in progress - dealing with real life. And what this text says to me is this: That God saves REAL PEOPLE - not robots.
You may not have been HERE - not to this depth of pain - but someone around you
Job is not a Stoic philosopher. Christianity sometimes gets confused with Stoicism. The stoics were the philosophers who had as their goal, to remain unmoved no matter the circumstances. not to let the fierce fires of passion disturb their tranquility. Mind over matter, if you will. But Job is a man who is bereaved, he’s humiliated and he is in excruciating pain. His skin is festering, his nerves are on fire and his heart is broken. In this kind of situation - a man made of stone or bronze may be unmoved - but a real man is living through a storm. God’s test is not to find out if Job can sit, unmoved like a piece of wood. His test is to prove that Job will hold on tight - in the middle of the storm.
That’s the God Who has called you as well, Christian.
____________________________________________________________________
2 THE LAMENT, vv. 11-26
Starting at v. 11, Job changes direction. He has finished cursing the day of his birth. From v. 11 to the end of the chapter, Job laments his life. And his lament comes through a series of questions. Verse 11, “Why did I not die at birth?
Verse 12, “Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts that I should nurse?”
Verse 16, “… why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?”
V. 20, “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not and dig for it more than for hidden treasures.”
V. 23, “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?”
Why, WHY, O LORD - - WHY?!!
You know people who have asked that question. Looking at the place they find themselves in - they can see only black … black all around them, in the heavens above - only ebony clouds - - on the road ahead - only darkness. There is no light that they can see - no hope to cling to .... and they don’t understand God’s plan - so they cry out, “WHY?” Maybe you’ve been there. Maybe you are there right now.
Job is getting close to the danger area - his faith in God’s goodness has carried him through all of the unbelievable hits he has taken … but that faith in God is being pushed to its limit.
He just can’t understand why the result of God’s gift of life would be that those who have it want to be rid of it. Did you notice in v. 23, how he says that God has ‘hedged him in?’ Remember back in chapter 1:10, Satan said that the only reason Job worships and serves God is because God has ‘hedged him in’? Job says, “Ya - I’m hedged in.” But this is a very different kind of hedge. Satan was talking about a hedge of protection - God keeping his servant Job safe from evil and suffering - - - “You’ve wrapped Job in bubble-wrap”, Satan was saying. “There is so much suffering in the world, but none of it touches your servant. Job has life way too easy”.
Oh but the hedge that Job feels now is a cage of despair. He is caught in God’s trap - and there’s no way out.
What’s the point of existence? What’s the point of life?!
Job longs for death.
This isn’t suicide. Can a Christian commit suicide? Yes they can. I’ve been to funeral services of some who have. They just couldn’t hold on anymore. I was under the understanding, as a young person, that suicide was the ‘unforgivable sin’, spoken of in the New Testament. No it’s not. There is no unforgivable sin except rejecting Jesus Christ as your only Savior and Lord. That’s unforgivable - that’s grieving the Holy Spirit.
This isn’t suicide. Can a Christian commit suicide? Yes they can. I’ve been to funeral services of some who have. They just couldn’t hold on anymore. I was under the understanding, as a young person, that suicide was the ‘unforgivable sin’, spoken of in the New Testament. No it’s not. There is no unforgivable sin except rejecting Jesus Christ as your only Savior and Lord. That’s unforgivable - that’s grieving the Holy Spirit.
Suicide is not that sin - Oh hear me well - suicide is not an out. Not a legitimate option for any Christian - it solves nothing and is the height of selfishness - if you have ever battled with those kinds of thoughts - you need to think past yourself - think of the people who love you and how devastated they will be, if you ever did such a thing. Their lives will never be the same. So talk to somebody. When you feel so down that you don’t know how to live - - when you want to hurt yourself - - talk to someone you can trust.
But I have known some Christians, who just couldn’t hold on any longer in the pain -
It’s Roman Catholic theology that says before you can hope for eternal life, there needs to be an act of the Last rights, done by a priest, which obviously can’t be done in the case of a suicide.
Job is enduring a suffering so deep that he can see no way out. He sees no light at the end of the tunnel - remember, we’ve seen behind the curtain into what’s happening in heaven. We know about God’s permission to the Satan; we know about God’s love for Job. He hasn’t heard a thing from God. The heavens are silent.
Verse 24, “For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.” In other words, “In all of my life - I never gave a thought about my next meal - Day after day, there was food on the table - feasting. Never a thought of hunger. But, as plentiful as food USED to be … now it is sighs and groaning in this pain.”
Verse 24, “For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water.” In other words, “In all of my life - I never gave a thought about my next meal - Day after day, there was food on the table - feasting. Never a thought of hunger. But, as plentiful as food USED to be … now it is sighs and groaning in this pain.”
Verse 25, “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.” Remember when you were a kid and there were so many things to terrify you in the night. You couldn’t go to bed in the dark, because there was a monster under your bed - - - you just knew he was down there - and if you walked too closely to your bed
Parents reassured you - - “No, no, no - don’t be silly. There is no monster under the bed. No dragon in the closet. You’re letting your mind play tricks on you.” You’d turn on the light and look under the bed, just to appease. Turn on the light and open up the closet for examination. “Put your mind at rest”.
Not for Job - his mind could not have dreamed this suffering up - To lose … ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING … AND NOW BE SUFFERING PHYSICALLY TO THE POINT OF DEATH? “The thing I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.”
The chapter ends with four staccato complaints, four sharp cries coming from the dagger stabs of pain. Verse 26, “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
No happy endings - not yet.
So, as we wrap things up - what do we do with this chapter?
“We were promised suffering. We were even told, ‘Blessed are they that mourn,’ and I accept it. I’ve got nothing that I hadn’t bargained for. Of course it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination.”
“Not that I am in much danger of ceasing to believe in God. The real danger is of coming to believe such dreadful things about him.”
That’s where Job is too. He isn’t being tempted to chuck all belief in God and join the atheist team … His temptation is to believe about God … THIS. “So THIS IS WHAT GOD IS LIKE!”
THAT’S THE TEMPTATION Job is struggling with right here - tempted to believe that God is arbitrary, a divine cat, playing with a mouse … and Job is the mouse. That there’s a mean streak in God. Oh God is working out His Sovereign plan … and I’m just a toy to Him.”
Have you ever been tempted like this? Of course you have … if you’ve suffered enough.
So what do we do with this chapter
FIRST: First thing we need to do is recognize that this chapter is part of the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Job chapter 3 is every bit as much as part of the Living, Active Word of God, as and and … It is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.
Believers as strong and powerful and righteous as Job can wrestle in their pain - God says, “THIS IS A GODLY MAN” .... and he finds himself here. Comfort for you who are in that place.
SECOND: See the character of God in this hard chapter. God doesn’t speak, but that’s partly the point. God doesn’t speak. Some of us want to rush in and stop Job from speaking like this. Should Job have said these things? Should he have wished he’d never been born and cursed the day of his birth? No, of course not. But when many of us would have stopped him mid-speech … God doesn’t. God doesn’t say a thing until chapter 38. See the patience of God on display! When we were going through the book of James - remember and how it pointed back to Job: “You have heard of the steadfastness of Job.” - The patience of Job … well look at the patience of God!
Joni Erickson Tada: “One of the first places I turned after my accident was to the Book of Job. What meant the most to me in my suffering was that God never condemned Job for his doubt and despair. For some odd reason it comforted me to realize that God did not condemn me for plying Him with questions. He wanted me to express the true contents of my heart, to dump out all the jumbled, jagged shards of my soul before Him.
Sometimes we’re afraid to talk to God this way-like Job crying out in the night on the ash heap behind his house, like the psalmist treading water in the dark, like a furious teenager welded into bed with a broken neck and bolts in her head. We repress those murky, edgy emotions about our suffering. We choose to be polite, speaking sanitized words, or not speaking at all. We bottle up our troubling questions and unspeakable feelings toward God, hiding behind an orthodox, evangelical glaze as we “give it all over to the Lord.”
Strong emotions open the door to asking really hard questions-and I asked so very many of them in the early days of my paralysis. Does life make sense? Is God good? More to the point, our deep emotions reveal the spiritual direction in which we are moving. Are we moving toward the Almighty or away from Him? Anger makes Someone the issue of our suffering rather than some thing. And that’s moving in the right direction.
The newly paralyzed Joni, for all her seething rage at the God-behind-the-ceiling-tiles, was aiming those emotions at Him. Whether she understood it at the time or not, she was moving toward Him in her despair, venting her disappointment, expressing hurt, and even questioning His goodness. But she wasn’t talking about God behind God’s back. She was angry enough to engage Him head-on. And then the anger melted into tears, and she was a scared little girl again, calling out to a daddy she couldn’t see.
THIRD: Third and final application is also the most important one — take comfort from this chapter. As much as you can identify with Job in his pain, in his feeling so far from God and utterly hopeless … there is another identification you need to make. - “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
THIRD: Third and final application is also the most important one — take comfort from this chapter. As much as you can identify with Job in his pain, in his feeling so far from God and utterly hopeless … there is another identification you need to make. - “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (16) Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
What does Jesus know about the darkness of . He knows what it is to fall on his face, in the darkness, alone in a Garden of Gethsemane, knowing what is coming for him that very night and sweat great drops of blood, pleading, “Father, is there any other way?”
He knows what it is to find himself in the place where He loses every ounce of assurance of God’s presence and the fellowship that He had enjoyed with God the Father from all eternity past .... crying out, “My God, My God - Why have you forsaken me?”
We have a Savior who knows what it is to feel like God has abandoned Him and turned away from Him .... the difference between Jesus in His suffering and you in your suffering is that in His case, God really HAD abandoned him. The Father turned His face away - - - from Him.
No matter where you are in your suffering or ever will be … you have a Savior who has gone before you -
You have a Savior who knows the darkness of Job chapter 3, and you can go to him and fall at his feet and say, “Carry me - I cannot take another step.” And he will do just that
- Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
William Cowper - thought of him in looking at our text for this morning. I’ve talked about him here before, but many of you may not be familiar with his story. He was a great Christian poet and hymn-writer. Wrote some of our most precious hymns .... EG, “There is a Fountain Filled With Blood”.
Cowper had far from an easy life. First stab of pain came when his mom died - he was only 6 at the time. Her loss created such a big hole in his life that when someone sent him a portrait of her - 53 years later .... He’s almost 60 years old now - but you can tell that his grief was still fresh after all this time. He wrote a poem in response: “I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away, and turning from my nursery window, drew a long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!”
Cowper’s father sent him away to a boarding school where he was cruelly bullied - and though he doesn’t say it outright - it seems that there was some kind of abuse there. He was further damaged.
THen he was engaged to the love of his life - two years engaged … but after 2 years, his fiancee’s father forbade the marriage. He wasn’t a Christian yet and, in his early years of adulthood, Cowper went through repeated episodes of deep depression. “I was struck with such a dejection of spirits, as none but they who hafe felt the same, can have the LEAST conception of. Day and night I was upon the rack, lying down in horror, and rising up in despair.”
At age 31, Cowper had a catastrophic breakdown, he tried 3 times to take his own life and was put in an asylum (a psychiatric hospital it would be called today). An evangelical Christian ran the asylum and, 6 months later, Cowper met the Lord Jesus Christ and found salvation. Listen to how he describes his conversion:
“Unless the Almighty arm had been under me, I think I should have died with gratitude and joy. My eyes filled with tears, and my voice choked with transport; I could only look up to heaven in silent fear, OVERWHELMED with WONDER AND LOVE.”
What a change took hold of his life. I wish I could say, “And William Cowper found the love of his life and lived happily ever after in the joy of his Lord. The end.” But that’s not how his life worked out. On 4 more occasions in his life, he went through deep, deep depression. Shortly before he died in 1800, one of the LAST things he said was, “I feel unutterable despair.”
William Cowper was a Christian - a real Christian who wrote for the Church some of our greatest, deepest hymns. In moments of clarity he was able to write the words to the hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” We’re going to close the service with this hymn, but listen to some of the words of trust that this man wrote - this man who knew the darkness of despair:
“Oh fearful saints, new courage take: the clouds that you now dread, are big with mercy and will break … in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face.”
“God’s purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. Blind unbelief is sure to err .... and scan his work in vain. God is His own interpreter … and He will make it plain.”