Job 3:1-26
Job Deplores His Birth
1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2 And Job spoke, and said:
3 “May the day perish on which I was born,
And the night in which it was said,
‘A male child is conceived.’
4 May that day be darkness;
May God above not seek it,
Nor the light shine upon it.
5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;
May a cloud settle on it;
May the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, may darkness seize it;
May it not rejoice among the days of the year,
May it not come into the number of the months.
7 Oh, may that night be barren!
May no joyful shout come into it!
8 May those curse it who curse the day,
Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
9 May the stars of its morning be dark;
May it look for light, but have none,
And not see the dawning of the day;
10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.
11 “Why did I not die at birth?
Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
12 Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet,
I would have been asleep;
Then I would have been at rest
14 With kings and counselors of the earth,
Who built ruins for themselves,
15 Or with princes who had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver;
16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,
Like infants who never saw light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
And there the weary are at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together;
They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there,
And the servant is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
And life to the bitter of soul,
21 Who long for death, but it does not come,
And search for it more than hidden treasures;
22 Who rejoice exceedingly,
And are glad when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
And whom God has hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat,
And my groanings pour out like water.
25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,
And what I dreaded has happened to me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
Like Job, some find it easy to enter self-pity when doing something right and suffering while others do wickedly and appear not to have the same problems. King David wrote about this in his song when facing constant attacks from evil adversaries (Psalm 73:3-5, 12-13, 21-22) until he saw it from God’s eternal perspective (Psalm 73:17-19, 27) and knew their judgment in the end would overtake their eternal destiny. He did what was right in God’s eyes and refused to give in to self-pity and wish he was dead as Job began doing when faced with such suffering from the enemy unknown to him as David’s was known. Trusting the sovereignty and purpose of God is the necessary focus in troubling times such as these. Job cursed the day of his birth because he thought all the good he had done was for naught and thought if he did well to please God, that he would not suffer like that. We know now that living a godly for the Lord will result in persecution (2 Timothy 3:12, Matthew 5:10, John 15:20, Acts 14:22, 2 Corinthians 4:8, Philippians 1:29, 1 Thessalonians 3:3), entering the kingdom of God through many tribulations which some try to avoid through a belief in a rapture before His coming as if to escape the tribulations that shape our faith to trust Him in the difficult times. Job did not have this knowledge and his faith was sorely tested to the point where he thought it would have been better to not have been born if he had to suffer for no apparent reason as he loved a righteous life. He could not see the enemy behind the attacks as one of God’s favored ones and so gave in to despair instead as this account makes all too clear. He wished for darkness to keep sun from rising on the day he was born and wished that the shadow of darkness and death took him the day he entered life on the earth. He imagined it would have been better to be stillborn to avoid the wicked and the troubles of oppressors that led him to misery and the bitterness that longed for death to end his suffering. He had no peace, no rest, only fear and trouble as he suffered greatly. When we who are in Christ with the same hope made more clear than king David had do suffer under the attacks of the adversary, we can trust and hope in the judgment of vindication to come when the hidden adversary who attacked Job and us is held eternally accountable in the lake of fire. We therefore take heart and do not give in to depression of hopelessness or self-pity in the face of suffering for doing what is right (1 Peter 2:20, 3:14, 4:16-17, Matthew 5:10) for,the sake of the Lord and the gospel of our deliverance from that judgment and lake of eternal suffering prepared for the devil our adversary (Matthew 25:41, 46, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Revelation 20:10) who attacked Job and us now. Pity those not in Christ (1 John 3:8) who destroyed the works of the destroyer, not ourselves in our suffering for doing what is right in God’s eyes and not our own. We have rest and peace in knowing the hidden attacks will be avenged (Revelation 6:10, 11:18) in the end.
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