Job 3 Notes

Introduction

Our world today is uncomfortable with anything approaching discomfort, let alone pain and suffering. We violently recoil against anything that looks like even a mild inconvenience. We entertain, distract, and even medicate ourselves out of any hint of suffering or anguish.

This same mindset has unfortunately seeped into the church and it’s been adopted by many Christians, just with more spiritual language. It can feel like a grieving Christian is an oxymoron, after all, aren’t we supposed to be joyful? Hopeful? Carefree? Some Christians don’t know what to do with grief, both in themselves and in others. Well-meaning platitudes can get thrown around in the face of grief - “God has a plan,” “everything works together for good,” “it will get better!” and of course, “have you tried trusting God more?”

These statements, that have merit and truth to them, can be weaponized in a way to passively project shame onto the sufferer, or perhaps protect ones’ own shallow theology of suffering.

Prosperity gospel preachers will tell you that God’s plan for your life is that you would be happy and healthy and wealthy - and if you aren’t - something’s wrong with you. As one of these well-known pastors said:

“I refuse to create a theology that allows for sickness.”

Beyond even that, we have a different kind of prosperity gospel - an emotional prosperity gospel. Maybe God doesn’t want you to have a brand new sports car, a private jet, and perfect health, but he at least wants you to be happy, fulfilled, never experiencing any turmoil or emotional pain in your own life.

Many of you have experienced great pain - loss of a loved one, illness, tragedy, chronic pain, relational destruction, the list goes on and on. Others of you may deal with things day-to-day that aren’t that bad but still, we all have things to grieve. Our world’s disdain for pain, and a “happy-clappy” Christianity can lead us to feel like grieving over any suffering or pain in our own life might be…wrong.

There’s at least one problem with this mindset: and his name is Job.

Do you feel like God is uncomfortable with your grief? Your pain? Maybe you visualize God looking down at you in the midst of your grief kind of like this picture - awkwardly looking away until you get it together. Do you feel that way sometimes?

There is at least one thing that we can say so far in our study of the book of Job:

It is not a sin to grieve, but in your grief, do not sin.

Setting the scene

Job has lost everything - his wealth, his family, his health. His bereavement is comprehensive and complete. There is nothing left.

He sits on the heap of rubble that used to be his wealth, scraping his open boils with a shard of broken pottery

His three friends show up and join him in his grief - speaking no word to him for seven days (typical time of mourning)

They will let him speak first

Chapter 3 then begins with - “After this” - the 7 days - he finally breaks the silence

Anticipation: what will Job say?

Job 3 CSB

After this, Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born. He said: May the day I was born perish, and the night that said, “A boy is conceived.” If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above not care about it, or light shine on it. May darkness and gloom reclaim it, and a cloud settle over it. May what darkens the day terrify it. If only darkness had taken that night away! May it not appear among the days of the year or be listed in the calendar. Yes, may that night be barren; may no joyful shout be heard in it. Let those who curse days condemn it, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. May its morning stars grow dark. May it wait for daylight but have none; may it not see the breaking of dawn. For that night did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, and hide sorrow from my eyes. Why was I not stillborn; why didn’t I die as I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me, and why were there breasts for me to nurse? Now I would certainly be lying down in peace; I would be asleep. Then I would be at rest with the kings and counselors of the earth, who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child, like infants who never see daylight? There the wicked cease to make trouble, and there the weary find rest. The captives are completely at rest; they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice. Both small and great are there, and the slave is set free from his master. Why is light given to one burdened with grief, and life to those whose existence is bitter, who wait for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with much joy and are glad when they reach the grave? Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in? I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water. For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I cannot relax or be calm; I have no rest, for turmoil has come.

Just a little light reading on this Sunday morning.

This chapter is widely regarded as the darkest chapter in the book of Job, and potentially one of the darkest in the whole Bible.

It indicates a shift in the book of Job from prose (narrative), to poetry, which is going to dominate the rest of the book. As a poem, it uses visceral, emotional language to communicate its point.

Job 3 is clearly a distinct poem of anguish and pain - one that we would typically call a “song of lament.”

The book of Psalms has a lot of “lament” psalms. But, Job 3 is unique even among them. Many lament psalms will at least end with some kind of expectation of God’s deliverance - some hope. But this one doesn’t. It shares that in common with only a couple of other similar poems like Psalm 88 and part of Jeremiah 20.

Reading through it you can almost see the despair dripping off the page as Job cries out in anguish. It’s brutal, depressing, awful.

Exegesis

1-10: Curse

Job’s Words

In the first two chapters a lot has been said about “cursing God.”

Job 1:5 “Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.”

Job 1:11 “But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.””

Job 2:5 “But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.””

Job 2:9 “His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!””

Cursing God

At best it means to refute belief in God, at worst it means to wish God was dead, or non-existent. It is the line Satan wants Job to cross - it is Satan’s goal that Job would curse God

So now Job finally opens his mouth and curses…

The day of his birth, not God

That does not mean that what comes out of Job’s mouth is “good” - it is obviously horrifying

Job is in agony on every level, physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual, and now he erupts in this overwhelming outpouring of grief and pain

Job is not speaking to anyone in particular - he is just pouring out his despair

His friends hear him, and obviously God hears him, and Job is aware but that is not his focus. He is not delivering a speech to his friends or to God - he is just shrieking (literally) out his pain

Cursing the day of his birth does not mean that Job is not just “wishing he had never been born.”

He is cursing not just the day of his birth but the night of his conception

He curses not just his own existence but the very day and night that caused him to exist

Creation language

The poem repurposes creation language in reverse to describe what Job is wishing would happen

Echoes of Genesis 1 - instead of light to darkness Job is wishing for darkness to consume the light

“Let there be darkness” vs. “let there be light.”

He is literally wishing for the day of his birth to be “un-created.”

He calls on those who “curse days”

“Cursing experts” - NLT - some of you may be like “you called?” I have a laminated card - not that kind of cursing

Rouse Leviathan - the mythological dragon who consumed sun, moon and stars, to consume the day of his birth

Job shifts slightly in verse 11 from “cursing” to “lamenting” - emphasis on regret over his the fact he is alive.

11-19 - Lament

Job curses the day of his birth, and now laments the fact that he survived being conceived and born.

He longs for death as a relief from his suffering, finally he would be at rest in the grave

He desires death as the great equalizer, something that does not care about your status

Slaves, masters, small, great, kings, and princes all are equal in the grave. It gives rest from striving, from working, from trouble, and in Job’s case, from suffering

Job would have given up every good thing that he had in his life, everything that he had experienced, in order to not feel this pain he does now

Illustrates the selective amnesia that intense suffering gives us - the inability to look forward or backward as we are trapped in the moment

Job shifts slightly again at the beginning of verse 20, now using plural language to consider all who are “burdened with grief,” or whose “existence (or soul) is bitter,” all the “righteous sufferers,” and why life is given to them at all.

20-26: Longing for Death

What is the purpose of a life this miserable? Why is life wasted on one so miserable? Why are they still alive?

For these sufferers, death is a gift, a treasure, something they long for. It is really all they have to look forward to - the end of their suffering in the release of death.

Job doesn’t want his life - why is it being forced on him? Especially when others who desire life have it taken from them.

Job may never have asked these questions before - suffering has a way of bringing deep questions to the forefront of our mind that we have never asked before.

The poem flips language from chapter 1 - Satan claimed that God had had hedged Job in with protection - now God hedges in his suffering

In this he implicitly acknowledges his pain as a work of God (23)

Even the light and life of v. 20 has to come from somewhere or someone

Job has not denied God exists and has a hand in all this - he just doesn’t know why God makes him keep on living.

All of Job’s greatest fears have come to pass and…

Literally - “I cannot relax, (and) I cannot settle, (and) I cannot rest, (and) agitation keeps coming back!”

This poem is a tough one for us to deal with. There’s no comfort in it, no pretty bow to tie it up. It’s kind of like a story, perhaps a movie, where you expect the hero to somehow overcome incredible odds to prevail…and then they don’t. They lose. This kind of dark, desperate cry can make us feel…bad. Wrong. It just doesn’t feel right for there to be this type of hopeless explosion of emotion with no immediate resolution. Since this feel so wrong to us, we have to ask, did Job sin what he says here?

Application

Grief

Well, for Job’s sake, and for the sake of all those faithful, righteous sufferers who have cried out in the midst of their pain, I really hope not. And I think I can back that up.

Job’s righteousness is affirmed in 1:8, 2:3, 42:7

Job 1:8 “Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.””

Job 2:3 “Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.””

Job 42:7 “After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.”

He is held as an example of righteousness in Ezekiel 14:14 “Even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, they would rescue only themselves by their righteousness.” This is the declaration of the Lord God.” and Ezekiel 14:20 “Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live”—the declaration of the Lord God—“they could not rescue their son or daughter. They would rescue only themselves by their righteousness.”

James 5:11 “See, we count as blessed those who have endured. You have heard of Job’s endurance and have seen the outcome that the Lord brought about—the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

Job is shown as an example of endurance and patience in suffering.

Job does not curse God.

This has been Satan’s goal, but Job will not do that.

Job isn’t really even addressing God here. He isn’t addressing anyone. He is just crying out in sheer agony because he cannot hold it inside for any longer.

He may have lost his reflexive trust in God, the very framework of his reality has been shaken, but Job does not curse God.

Job does not curse others.

He comes close to blaming his own parents for bringing him into this world, but he focuses on the day of his birth and his conception more than who was involved.

He doesn’t even curse the people who brought about much of his suffering - remember - it was the Sabeans and Chaldeans who took much of his livestock, a great portion of his wealth.

Job does not know about the narrative occuring in heaven - all he knows is that these hostile people have come and taken his livestock and killed his servants.

Job does not immediately set out for revenge or curse the people who took so much from him. He simply grieves his loss.

He has not completely give up hope.

There is still a small spark of hope, revealed in the “why?” (vs. 20-23)

He still wants to know why so he is still hopeful

A restless man is not a defeated man - Ash, 83

There is still hope - he has not lost all hope in God

But still…

You just don’t want to believe [that this is the same man from chapters 1-2]. Why? Partly because we have a skewed idea that anybody who walks this closely with God lives happily ever after. After all, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”

Charles Swindoll, 58

Although it is a temptation for Christians to be uncomfortable with with suffering and pain, and even have an aversion to it, we must remind ourselves…

It is not a sin to grieve.

There’s no comfort in this chapter - no “bow” to tie it up

This is an important chapter for contemporary Christianity - “happy clappy” Christianity

A Christianity that embraces “easy triumphalism,” without acknowledging the darkness of grief.

We sometimes don’t deal very well with suffering - maybe we don’t know what to do with it.

A lot of our preaching, teaching, books, even music all have to deal with our victory, triumph, success - so when we experience suffering we may be ill-equipped to know how to process it, or even think maybe we are “wrong” for feeling this way.

Job 3 speaks to the guilt a Christian may feel for feeling low.

Sometimes that guilt can be made worse by well-meaning Christians who have been conditioned to be uncomfortable with grief (things will get better, all things work together for good, God has a plan, trust God more, etc.)

Good and true things can be wielded as a weapon, a dismissal, or a symptom of someone’s discomfort with grief

Somewhere along the way, we may have confused stoicism for holiness.

Stoicism, in a very general sense, seeks freedom from human emotions by transcending them - pure mind without feeling

Although there is nothing wrong with mastering our emotions, Christians do not seek to be emotionless, aloof drones

Dever - Christianity is an honest religion.

It does not pretend that reality is not reality - or try to force us out of

God created us human, he wants us to be human, and we will be human for eternity, and emotions are part of that. God created your emotions.

You will feel things in heaven, though not grief.

Here is a great tension: a Christian is meant to be joyful, but a Christian can also grieve.

Here is wisdom: A joyful Christian can also be a grieving Christian.

A true Christian believer may be taken by God through times of deep and dark despair. This may happen to a man or woman who is affirmed by God as a believer before the darkness, who remains a believer in the darkness, and who will finally be vindicated by God as a believer after the darkness. He or she may be taken through this darkness even though he or she has not fallen into sin or backslidden from faith in Jesus Christ. This is a very important truth.

Christopher Ash, 66

But, just because grief is not inherently sinful, what does it look like to grieve as a Christian?

Sin

You may think you get a “free pass” because of your grief.

You “deserve” to act this way.

And who is gonna correct a grieving person, anyway?

Think back to what Job did not do - he did not curse God and he did not even curse others.

When you grieve, do you immediately begin to lash out at others? At God?

Not in a way that pours out your heart in raw honesty, asking questions, wondering “why,” but in a way that “curses” God or others

Don’t do that to God

Don’t drive away other people

So while grief is not sinful…

In your grief, do not sin.

In a strange way, a lot of sin in grief comes from avoiding grief.

We medicate with sinful behaviors, we attack those closest to us, even get close to cursing God ourselves - all in an effort to not deal with the harsh truth:

The unthinkable has happened, and we are broken by it.

Some of you need to grieve.

You may think your stoicism has been holiness, but there are things in your life that are worth grieving but you have avoided - perhaps for years.

It may be too painful, or maybe you think God would rather you just put on a brave face, stuff down your feelings, and pretend everything is fine.

Some of it may even be due to your own actions and failures.

Not grieving keeps the wound open - and the pain can redirect in other ways.

Redirects inward to self-loathing, shame, guilt, insecurity - or your grief just never really getting any better.

Redirects outward in cruelty, selfishness, bitterness - driving others away and them blaming them for leaving.

All because you have avoided “good grief” that hurts but will heal.

You never get over your grief completely until you express it fully.

Swindoll, 71

So what do we do? How do we handle grief without sinning?

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (1989)

Every obstacle they face (long grass, deep river, oozy mud, etc.) they face with the same refrain:

“We can’t go over it, we can’t go under it, oh no, we’ve got to go through it.”

There’s no other way.

Although every inclination we have may be to recoil against grief, suffering, anything negative, that is not the way to healing. It is not the way to holiness.

We must lean in, not away. We must go through it. It will hurt more, right now, but it will hurt less later.

Much of our sin within grief comes about because of our avoidance of it, not from feeling it. If would lean into it, actually feel it, deal with it, we might find ourselves grieving in a way that is still raw and painful, but ultimately more redemptive and healing.

We have one more question to ask: Where is God in all of this? Okay, grief is not sinful, but even if you don’t sin within your grief, isn’t God still kinda uncomfortable with it? After all, he’s God. So although you might not sin - wouldn’t it make sense that he just kind of checks out until you pull yourself together?

Salvation

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is John 11:35 “Jesus wept.”

In John 11, one of Jesus’s friends named Lazarus had died. When Jesus goes to see his sisters, Mary and Martha (who are also his friends), they take him to the tomb where everyone is grieving. The Bible says that all around him there were people crying - and what does Jesus, the Son of God incarnate, do? Does he awkwardly back away, excuse himself, or just tell everyone to get over it?

He weeps.

There’s been a lot of speculation about why Jesus wept, but I like to take Scripture very plainly whenever I can.

So here’s a stunning interpretation for you: I think that Jesus wept because he was sad. His friend Lazarus was dead, and he was sad.

But, but, but…he’s Jesus, he’s gonna raise Lazarus from the dead, he’s gonna die on the cross for our sins, he’s going to redeem all things - yes. But in that moment, he weeps with those who are weeping. He is fully God and fully man, and he is sad.

Here is a comfort:

God does not abandon you in your grief.

I don’t know about you, but I take great comfort in the fact that Jesus wept, but Jesus never sinned.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.”

Jesus took on all that it means to be human, while retaining all that it means to be God. That also means that he felt what we feel. There is not a thing that you have felt that Jesus has not also felt. He knows what it is like to grieve.

When he is in the garden the night before his crucifixion, sweat pouring off him, desperately pleading for another way for the plan of salvation to be accomplished.

He cries out “why have you forsaken me?” on the cross - a very Job-like cry.

Jesus is not uncomfortable with our grief and our suffering - he inhabits it. He knows it. The darkest depths of your grief, your despair, your pain, are not so deep that Jesus has not ventured down there.

But that is not all - what is the rest of the Lazarus story?

Jesus is weeping - surrounded by grieving people - walks right up to the tomb, to the reason, the focus of everyone’s grief - and wiping tears from his eyes says “roll this stone away (v. 39).” Practical Martha says, “Lord, he’s been dead four days, the smell of death and decay is going to be overwhelming.”

John 11:40 “Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?””

The stone is removed, and Jesus, I’m sure still wiping the tears from his eyes, looks up to the heavens and prays (v. 41). Then he looks directly at the tomb - surrounded by the smell of death and decay - he stares the object of our grief, my enemy and yours - death - in the face and shouts “Lazarus, come out! (v.43)”

And then, the unimaginable happens. Lazarus walks out.

Jesus identifies with your grief, but he is also the only one who can redeem your grief.

God redeems your grief.

Some of you have so much to grieve.

Physical and mental suffering, loss, death, shattered hopes and dreams, or simply your life just not turning out the way you thought it would.

At times we may even be tempted to give up hope.

Maybe that’s why our world is uncomfortable with suffering. It’s hard to deal with suffering and grief if you don’t have a real, tangible hope to hold on to.

But in Christianity, our hope is different. Our hope is alive, and his name is Jesus.

Jesus does not offer us some kind of abstract, ill-defined hope that one day things will be better.

No - because Jesus walked out of that grave it means that one day you will too.

Because Jesus descends to the darkest of darkness (darker even than what Job describes), and illuminates that darkness.

Job is pictured as the “righteous sufferer,” but we know that although Job is described as “righteous” he was not perfect - he sinned.

Furthermore, Job had no power over suffering, over pain, loss, death. He was helpless.

Jesus, the truly righteous sufferer, is not helpless over any of that.

He suffered more deeply, painfully, and intensely than anyone, and emerged victorious over suffering, and more importantly, the sin that caused that suffering.

Conclusion

1 Thessalonians 4:13–14 “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”

One day, there will be no more need for grief. No more need for tears shed in sorrow, no more pain. For if you repent of your sinful, fallen way, and put your faith in Jesus Christ, then in the same way that he was raised, the same way he raised Lazarus, one day you will be raised from the dead to live with him eternity.

Your body will be raised. But, 1 Corinthians 15 says, our bodies will be different. They will not only rise from the dead, they will be changed. They will be incorruptible.

This is the hope you have in Christ.

But here, in the meantime, we grieve. Sometimes we grieve deeply, as we should. We can connect to Job’s misery especially if we have experienced our own version of anguish as well. But even in our grief we can know that our God has not left us alone. God keeps our tears close to his heart:

Psalm 56:8 “You yourself have recorded my wanderings. Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”

Jesus can also connect to our misery, our pain. He is not unfamiliar or uncomfortable with it.

Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.”

Perhaps, when the hope we have seems distant and faint, it can be a comfort to you that the one who will one day wipe every tear from every eye sits with you in your grief.

It is good to grieve.

We can’t go over it, we can’t go over it, so, oh no, we’ve got to go through it.

It is not a sin to grieve, but in your grief, do not sin.

God has not abandoned you.

Response

What do you need to grieve?

How do you need to grieve well? Where do you need to repent?

Let the comfort of Christ’s presence wash over you.

Supplementary Quotes:

The bourgeois etiquette that has dominated the mores of Wester Christendom, especially in the Puritan tradition, is no guide to the rightness of Job’s speech. Self-control is something quite different from not showing one’s emotions. Job is no Stoic, striving to be pure mind without feeling. The Bible knows nothing of such dehumanizing philosophy; but we stand in a long tradition of a pallid piety that has confused the Christian way with the noble but heathen ethic of the Stoa…Its prescription for the afflicted is a torpid resignation to the unquestionable will of God, a strict curb on all feelings, or at least on the outward expression of them, with disapproval of the weakling majority who cannot walk calmly into the furnace with ‘tranquility undisturbed by the fierce fires of passion.’

Francis I. Anderson, 106-107

Right here in the depth of his misery he knows he has to deal with God. We shall see as the book unfolds that this a great theme in his journey. Even in God’s felt absence he is somehow there. We see this in the word “given” in verse 20. Light and life have been given, given by God, and there it is God that we must deal. Even in his absence God is present as the focus of Job’s loss.

Christopher Ash, 83

If this curse were effective, Job would have ceased to exist. It would be as though he had never been born, never existed. Then it would be impossible for him to have been ravaged by such a painful fate. He would never have experienced such agony.

Job takes this approach as the only immediate way out of his misery. Since he has done no wrong, he has no need to repent. There is no sacrifice that he could offer to relieve his sufferings. To take his own life would be inconceivable in view of his faith in God. Therefore, as the last resort he recites this spell. But his curse is illusory, for not even the greatest wizard could accomplish such a feat. Rather, these words reveal the acuteness of Job’s misery.

John E. Hartley, 102