Sermon Tone Analysis

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.