Text: Job 3:1-26
We have been exploring the book of Job in a series of lessons and have come to chapter 3. By this time you may be thinking, that this series is a bit like the suffering of Job. But putting that thought aside for now, think instead of how patient you’ll be by the time that we finish
Let’s start with a quick review and then dive into the text for today.
In Job chapter one we were introduced to a man who was one of a kind. He was righteous, god-fearing and blameless – so God had blessed him. Everything that he did turned out well. He had a good home life with a large family and managed his own agricultural enterprises. He sat at court among the elders and was a pillar of the community. It is easy to see God at work, in the life of a man who worshipped and served Him, for the rule was – that God bestowed a special measure of his providence upon those who honoured him.
But chapter one also introduces us to the concept of – worthiness to suffer. This was an exception to the rule, highlighting the conflict between God and Satan. Our eyes are opened to the presence of spiritual beings who actively oppose God and vie for the hearts and souls of men and women. And for that reason…Satan’s alliance with ungodly people is the most common source of suffering among God’s people. It happened when Cain killed Abel. He did it because his brother was righteous. Abel suffered because he was righteous and Cain acted as an agent of Satan. In a similar way and throughout the Old Testament, God’s prophets were persecuted in just this way.
When it came to Job, Satan’s goal was to turn him against God, once and for all. This then is the the story behind the story of Job. It is the spiritual reality behind the day to day events that Job experienced.
By chapter 3, Job had lost his wealth, his children, his health and the people around him were avoiding him like the plague. There seems to be nothing left to lose…except his relationship with God…and that of course is the point. For as it turns out, that relationship is what life is actually all about. It is the very thing we were created for and everything else is just ‘window dressing’.
So the question raised by the book is: what is the true nature of Job’s relationship with God? If Satan is right, then it is just utilitarian and Job is in it…for what he can get out of it. He is bought and paid for by God. But if God is right, then this relationship is a thing of value in itself and treasured by Job.
Satan claimed that no created being who has to depend upon God, loves God for himself. People hate being dependent. Therefore all of us are in it with God, to get God to ‘pay-up’. Take that away, and we will have no use for Him and curse God to his face.
So, God allowed Satan to take it all away…yet Job refused cursed God.
Job had not done so, even at the urging of his wife, who argued argued that while Job remained righteous, it obviously did not pay. When Job’s friends arrived, they argued that righteousness actually does pay. The problem is that Job is no longer righteous. He used to be, but has gone off the rails.
So it appears that Job is caught between these two arguments – with no logical way out. By the way…Satan is perfectly willing to argue both sides to get what he wants. He does that, because with him, truth is only of value when it leads to a false conclusion.
We may be tempted at times to play ‘the devil’s advocate’. To state his case- just to see how strong it is…or to bedevil and aggravate others. It may start as a game, just an intellectual exercise to sharpen the debate. Or it might be to explore new and creative ways of defeating Satan. But we may in that process, fall into the trap of becoming the Devil’s advocate. We might so impress ourselves, that we become our own first converts. And having been clever by too much, become fools in the sight of God. Satan does not need our help, but he will use it, and us, if we are willing.
Well, this brings us to chapter 3 and to that moment…when Job finally did utter a curse, but it was not against God. Job cursed the day that he was born. Given a choice, which of course he had not had…he preferred ‘not to be’, rather than the existence that was now his.
It’s important to realize that Job was suffering on several different levels. His physical suffering was excruciating. He was psychologically beaten down and socially isolated. And it all took place in the context of a worldview that was deeply theological. Job was trying to make sense of things under great duress.
Even the physical part was overwhelming. Satan struck him with boils and sores to the extent, that no part of his body was sound. Back in that day, infections of this sort were usually short lived. You either got better or you died, but you did not linger. The problem was, that Job did. He lingered on and it was not a blessing. His illness became chronic, and he suffered with no end in sight. It pushed him to the brink. It wore him out, tried his patience and must have made it very hard to think straight.
But he kept on thinking, which was where a good deal of his suffering took place. It seemed that while he had kept God’s rules, God had let him down. Abandoning his usual practice of rewarding good – God turned the world upside down. Job could think of nothing that he had done, for which God could be punishing him. He was stuck. He was stuck with no way out. If only there was some sin to confess and of which to repent. There was a solution to that…but not to this.
These dimensions of Job’s suffering take place against the background of his spiritual life. Later in the book God’s responded to all that has been said and did so in light of his overarching plan. But apart from a knowledge of that plan, life must have seemed absurd to Job…in the sense that it lacked meaning. His values had been unravelled and the consequences seemed disconnected from reality.
So Job argued for the value of non-existence. He was not saying that nothing at all should exist, or that it would be better for there to be no God. He was thinking specifically of himself, and wishing that he had never seen the light of day.
But before considering some of what he says – it fits our times, to a tee. Many have adopted a worldview that excludes eternal mind. And if there is no eternal mind, there is also, no over-arching purpose to life or being
They suppose instead, that matter is eternal. That that which is not mind – is ultimate. And therefore, that there is no purpose behind anything that exists. To look for meaning where there is none, is an exercise in futility. Existentialists come at the problem one way and Nihilists another.
The Existentialist says: since we live in a meaningless world, yet feel the need for meaning, it is up to us to create our own. You can have yours and I’ll have mine, and it can be anything at all. It only has to last from moment to moment, and a series of these will just expire when we do. This kind of meaning is utilitarian, here today and gone in a heartbeat. But don’t look so glum, be the best you that you can, because in the end, nothing really matters anyway
The Nihilist pushes back and to say: Get Real. Suck it up and take it like a man and stop playing mind-games. We are not here for any purpose at all. We have come from nowhere and going nowhere. The world is as dark as a black hole and has no meaning. Therefore, embrace absurdity and hold on tight. And actually, if you are brave enough, go ahead and blow your brains out. To be or not to be…that is the question. Have the courage, not to be.
If philosophers agree on anything, it is that a point without a context is an absurdity. Individual things or people have no meaning ‘in themselves’. If there is to be meaning at all, it must come from the things around us. But if the context – if the universe in which we find ourselves, is a collection of individual things – each of which have no meaning, then what you have is a bunch of zero’s all of which still add up to – you got it, zero. And in that case, the whole show is nothing but nonsense.
Furthermore…meaning is a function of mind and not matter. But a collection of other minds like our own, each searching for meaning… is still a collection of zero’s. What is needed is a divine mind, from whom eternal meaning and purpose may be had.
This then is the background for what Job says in chapter 3 – to our day and time.
Job was neither an existentialist nor a Nihilist. For him, God is real and life has meaning. He just does not know what it is. He does not know that God so loves the world, that one day he would send his Son, so that whosoever believes in him should not perish – but have eternal life. And to make matters more difficult, he does not know that he is suffering for righteousness sake.
When Jesus taught his disciples to count the cost, it was because they would be persecuted for their faith. So when the Sanhedrin beat the apostles, they put two and two together and praised God who had counted them worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus. When they stoned Paul, and left him for dead…he knew that he was suffering to advance the gospel
But when Job suffered for righteousness…he made no such connection. The context was out of sight – leaving him with a dilemma. Imagine how different things would have been…had he only known?
This raises the very real possibility, that this kind of suffering might still exist. That we may suffer for the sake of righteousness and not know that that is the reason. That would after all serve Satan’s purposes the most. But like Job, we must be prepared to trust God enough to wait for his answers and enough to accept them when given.
A quick overview of what Job said chapter 3.
In Verses 1-3 – Job cursed the day of his birth. Nothing happens in space and time except at a particular time. And Job wished that that time, that that day, had never arrived. He reasoned that the value of my life cannot be found in it’s value to others. I wish that my parents had never celebrated my birth. That I had never been their source of pride and happiness, for the benefit to them has in no way been worth the cost to me.
It is not just my parents. May God above not care for it. This one is hard to understand, except that, given that I have obviously not been pleasing to God, how much better for me not to have been born. Surely the mere existence of a single human life is not so significant that God should put value upon it, especially knowing how it would turn out. How much better for God to blow out the candle, than to set the the whole house on fire..
Now, while Job’s conclusions were wrong…his insights are actually quite profound. They recognized something that God has shared with those made in his image. And that is the ability, which is almost a necessity, to confer value upon things outside of oneself.
By the way, meaning and value are connected. Value is related to purpose. A thing has value or lacks it, as it advances or fails to advance a purpose. So, Job had value to his parents. They now had a son or yet another male heir. The ancestral name would be preserved, and perhaps as well, they had a son to care for them in their old age.
Job also had value to God, first as a part of his creation. And while the non-thinking part of that creation could not refuse to declared his praise, Job was born to thank God, to honour him and to praise Him as a matter of choice. He was born to set an example in word and deed. But praise is hard if God seems less than worthy, and thankfulness dries up when when tangible reasons for it, disappear.
Beyond this, what may be hinted at in the book of Job is something not revealed until the coming of Jesus. Not only is there such a thing as suffering for righteousness sake, but it is done for the glory of God…who alone is truly righteous. There is also such a thing as necessary suffering for the sake of righteousness, in order to extend eternal righteousness to the world of men.
This is what Jesus did. To become an atoning sacrifice, Jesus had to suffer. He had to die, to confer this blessing. Life on the other side of death and blessings arising from suffering is the last thing that the world expected. Yet this was in the mind of God from the beginning and a necessary part of his divine plan. This in turn was the ultimate context, which for Job, remained out of sight.
Now it comes out in chapter 29 that Job had been an incredible blessing in the lives of others. He had shared his wealth with the poor….hired people who needed a job. He had delivered justice for the oppressed. God had blessed him and he had paid it forward. People were blessed by the very knowledge that men like Job would hear their case and set things right. As a result…the name of the Lord had been praised.
It is very easy, when things go badly wrong, for us to underestimate the value of the good that God has accomplished through us and continues to do. The danger of tunnel vision is very real. Our horizons are too close and we do not see as God does. This was true of job and accounts for much of Job said in this chapter.
Job did not how many countless thousands were going to be blessed by his example and his faith. Happily ever after stories hardly ever match up with real life…but this one does.
In verses 4-19, Job recognized all of the forces that had made him and sustained him. Time and space were the venue. His parents conceived him, Midwives delivered him to his mother who fed and nurtured. It was all very much…out of his control .
Yet he wished that at least one link in this chain of events – had never taken place.
- That he had never been conceived.
- That the day of his birth had not dawned
- That the midwives had not delivered him
- That he had failed to thrive.
- Or that his mother had not cared for him.
- Or better still – that he had been still-born
- If only…
How much better, not to be…than to be. Or having come into being, to die. To go to the place of the dead and just skip all of life. To enjoy rest with those who first had to endure life.
What did Job think that that would be like?
He would keep company with the good and the bad, with kings and counsellors, the high and mighty, the rich and successful. And also with the wicked whose wicked work is at an end.
Ever felt that way? Wish I had never been born? Why did Job feel that way? Because he was convinced that death is better than life for in death:
- Prisoners find liberty and slaves are set free
- The weary are at rest…and all are finally equal.
- The small are not small any longer and the great are no longer great.
- In death, all men are undone and unwound, to once again be made equal.
Like a prerecorded show, where we skip the commercials, Job, wanted to just skip life…and fast forward past the end…to death.
We find his reason in Verses 20-26. Life without meaning is not worth living. Job introduces the thought that there is such a thing as a life not worth living. That the value of life cannot possibly be found within itself or in the experiences of which it is made up.
Job asks:
“Why is light given to one burdened with grief, And life to the bitter of soul,
Who long for death, but there is none, And dig for it more than for hidden treasures; Who are filled with jubilation, And rejoice when they find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has shut off?
For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, And my cries pour out like water.
For what I fear comes upon me, And what I dread encounters me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”
Do you see the connection between light and life? He may be using them as synonyms to mean the same thing. Thus, life is not life at all without light in the sense of understanding. How terrible to be a man whose way has been hidden? What after all is a person’s life, without meaning?
Of what value is it to be alive and miserable? Alive and confused? Alive, but with no reason to go on and thus really not alive at all. Implicit in our need for meaning is the promise that it is out there to be had. If it is not, then why did God plant that need so deeply within?
It seems that to be truly like God, we must have it, and for it to do what God wants it to, it must be of God. All of which raises the possibility, that ultimate meaning is not something outside of God, but God himself.
Not knowing, Job concludes, that he would be much better off dead. Yet, as we read on, this book hints that death is not the end. That being does not dissolve into non-being when we die…nor does consciousness fade to oblivion. Death may actually be better than life, because it includes rest, and comfort and peace.
Something that Job said raises an important question: given that Job longs for death, why can he not find it? He says that he prefers to die. Is this a call for help? Is it like a suicidal person who does not really want to pull the trigger? Is there within Job, an ethical boundary that he is not yet prepared to cross?
Why not just kill himself and end it all? Job longs for God to take him, he is not willing yet, to take his own life. This restraint prolongs his suffering, but more importantly it keeps him from preempting God. This book is then a solemn reminder, a warning, for us not to judge things prematurely or to act rashly.
The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in I Cor 4:5: “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of human hearts; and then praise will come to each person from God”.
We really do not know what we do not know and certainly not the end from the beginning. Believers are not doing God’s work, when we beat ourselves up. That is Satan’s job and he does not need help.
Let us instead take our fingers off of the ‘fast-forward’ button, and wait upon the Lord. Let’s not confuse difficult times, with failure. Our lives are not over on this earth, until they are. And even then, they are not over when we die, for in Christ, they have only just begun.
Barrie ON