All gave some. Some Gave All. Lest we forget.

Daily Devotional Thursday 19th August 2021

by William Moody

Job 3

Job Laments His Birth

3:1 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,
10   because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
    nor hide trouble from my eyes.
11   “Why did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
12   Why did the knees receive me?
    Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13   For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
    I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14   with kings and counselors of the earth
    who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15   or with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
16   Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
17   There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at rest.
18   There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
19   The small and the great are there,
    and the slave is free from his master.
20   “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
    and life to the bitter in soul,
21   who long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22   who rejoice exceedingly
    and are glad when they find the grave?
23   Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
24   For my sighing comes instead of1 my bread,
    and my groanings are poured out like water.
25   For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.
26   I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
    I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

Footnotes

[1] 3:24 Or like; Hebrew before

(ESV)

After a week of sitting silently with his friends Job now unburdens his heart. Job’s suffering means he now wishes he had never been born. In very elegant language he curses the day he was born (v2-10). His depression is so bad that for him life doesn’t appear to be worth living.

This raises a vital question, what makes life worth living? In losing his possessions, his family and his wealth, Job thought life was not worth living. Was he right? Paul would disagree when he wrote that all things in life are rubbish compared to knowing Christ (Phil. 3 v8). We must never downplay the suffering people experience, but we must declare that hope, purpose and worth in life are to be found in knowing Christ, even when all else is lost.

Job then speaks of how it would be better if he had died at birth (v11-16) and he exalts the blessing of the grave (v17-22). Death is gain, but only for the Christian (Phil. 1 v21-23), and only when it is God’s time for us.

Job speaks of himself as a man hedged in (v23); he feels trapped and wants to escape. As well as all the great emotional and physical suffering he has endured, fear also has a real grip on Job (v24-26). Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit, is the only one who can drive out fear (Romans 8 v15).

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.