Job’s Lament
Job 3:1-26
September 6, 2015
Well tonight we get in to the long dialogue of the book of Job.
From chapters 3 through 31 Job is going to have a constant debate
With his three friends regarding his suffering.
In chapter 32 a young man named Elihu will take over
And in chapter 38 God will answer.
But before all that we get 29 chapters of debate.
As I told you from the beginning, you will get to see the prosperity gospel reveal its ugly head and show itself for what it really is.
But it all starts in chapter 3 with Job’s Lament.
Now, let me remind you of our foundations one more time.
1) Job was righteous
2) Job’s suffering was not a result of his sin
3) Job’s friends loved Job
I probably should remind you of one more
That will help you discern what you are about to read.
The whole premise behind Job’s suffering was that
Satan contended that he could cause Job to sin and curse God.
If at any time in the book Job does that,
Then Satan is right and the book has no point.
But that is not going to happen.
Let me fast forward to the end with you momentarily.
The time when God gives His final verdict.
Job 42:7 “It came about after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is right as My servant Job has.”
That verse occurs at the end of the book, after all of the debate.
And we are able to use that verse to help discern what we’ll be reading.
According to God’s final estimation of all that is about to be said.
Will Job be speaking what is right or what is wrong?
– He’s speaking what is right
Will Job’s friends be speaking what is right or what is wrong?
– They are speaking what is wrong
Remember that as we study. Job is not sinning, but his friends are.
Well, with those foundations in place,
Let’s turn to chapter 3 and see Job’s Lament.
For the first time in 7 days Job is about to speak.
The last thing he said was to rebuke his wife
For speaking like a foolish woman.
He’s been sitting for at least 7 days contemplating his condition.
• After a week of sitting in the ashes and scraping his sores.
• After a week of mourning the death of his children.
• After a week of contemplating his financial ruin.
• After a week of pondering the foolish council of his wife.
Job speaks.
His statement is raw and honest.
3 main things Job does.
#1 HE CURSES HIS LIFE
Job 3:1-10
No one can deny that this is in fact a harsh statement from Job.
The Bible says that he “cursed the day of his birth.”
He actually looks back in time, not only to his birth,
But even to the night in which he was conceived by his parents
And strongly appeals that God
Would reach back in time and just “undo” that day.
You’ll see Job use the word “Let” 11 times.
He has 11 wishes for the day of his conception and birth.
(3-6) “Let the day perish on which I was to be born, And the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ “May that day be darkness; Let not God above care for it, Nor light shine on it. “Let darkness and black gloom claim it; Let a cloud settle on it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it. “As for that night, let darkness seize it; Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.”
Job speaks there in the language of creation.
The first thing God created was light – “Let there be light”
It was the light that began creation
And Job seems to play on that reality
By repeatedly asking God to leave his day of creation in the dark.
Look at all the references to no light and darkness.
Job is speaking to the Creator of the universe
And basically asking Him to just “undo” the day he was created.
(7-9) “Behold, let that night be barren; Let no joyful shout enter it. “Let those curse it who curse the day, Who are prepared to rouse Leviathan. “Let the stars of its twilight be darkened; Let it wait for light but have none, And let it not see the breaking dawn;”
• Instead of letting his mother be fertile, let her womb be barren.
• Instead of his father rejoicing at a son, let his father be silent.
• Don’t’ let that day be a day of rejoicing let it be a day of cursing.
• And let the strong cursers curse it.
Don’t let it come to fruition at all.
Do you see his pain?
In Job’s mind it would have been better to have never existed at all than to have existed and had to suffer such pain.
Just uncreate me
WHY?
Why does Job want that day to be “undone”?
(10) “Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb, or hide trouble from my eyes.”
Job curses that day because that was the day that started it all.
Job just stared a reality in the face that many of you have already learned.
• LIFE IS HARD
• LIFE IS PAINFUL
• SUFFERING IS REAL
• LIFE IS UNFAIR
It is indeed a bitter day when we each learn that lesson
That this life is going to bring pain.
It is like the writer of Ecclesiastes
Who repeatedly told his reader to take off his rose colored glasses
And see that this life is hard.
Well, Job received his spoonful of reality
And responded by saying, “If this is the way life is, I’d just as soon to have never experienced it.”
Just undo my beginning.
That’s pretty harsh isn’t it?
He Curses His Life
#2 HE CRAVES DEATH
Job 3:11-19
There is some more harsh sentiment.
(11-12) “Why did I not die at birth, Come forth from the womb and expire? “Why did the knees receive me, And why the breasts, that I should suck?”
In Job’s mind
If God wouldn’t refuse to undo his creation, then why didn’t God at least have the mercy to kill Job during birth?
Why let me be born for this?
Why let my mother nurse me for this?
Why didn’t I just die at birth?
(13-15) “For now I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept then, I would have been at rest, with kings and with counselors of the earth, who rebuilt ruins for themselves; or with princes who had gold, who were filling their houses with silver.”
It would have been better for me to die during birth.
Then I would be at rest, without all this turmoil.
Job actually sees being created, being born,
And then being allowed to survive as a cruel thing.
(16-19) “Or like a miscarriage which is discarded, I would not be, As infants that never saw light. “There the wicked cease from raging, And there the weary are at rest. “The prisoners are at ease together; They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster. “The small and the great are there, And the slave is free from his master.”
Man, listen to Job talk about how great death is.
• There are no wicked in death.
• The weary rest in death.
• There are no prisoners or slaves.
• There is no prejudice
Job is setting in the ash heap and saying
DEATH IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN LIFE!
The writer of Ecclesiastes said:
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 “Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun.”
That was Job’s sentiment exactly.
Life is too painful, it would be better if I was dead.
Now, remember Job isn’t sinning here.
• That means he hasn’t become suicidal.
• He’s not contemplating taking his own life.
He’s just honestly telling you how he feels in the midst of his affliction.
And his genuine, honest, raw answer is that life is so hard,
It would be better if it were cut short, or never lived at all.
I know some of you have reached that point before in your suffering.
• I’ve been in hospital rooms…
• I’ve been in living rooms…
• I’ve been in funeral homes…
• I’ve heard people say, “Why can’t I just die?” “Why is God leaving me here?”
People reach a point of such pain and anguish
That death becomes a welcomed relief.
Now, I do need to inject a little reality here,
To make sure no one gets the wrong idea.
Death is not to be feared, if you are in Christ.
But if you enter death without Jesus, you’ve not even begun to suffer.
Furthermore death may in fact appear more pleasant than life in your pain.
But we never have the right to seek it out.
Don’t assume Job is planning his own death – he isn’t.
Job is not suicidal.
Job is merely setting his painful life
In comparison with death as one of God’s children
And he honestly says, “Death is better”
CAN I SHOCK YOU REAL QUICK?
JOB IS RIGHT.
I read about eternity, and I’m convinced like Job that it will be better.
Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!'” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
Revelation 21:3-4 “And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
There is not a doubt in my mind that that is better.
I don’t have the right to try and hasten it, but I sure can anticipate it.
Paul had a good perspective on it.
Philippians 1:21-26 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.”
Death is better, but life has a purpose.
But, if nothing else, suffering and pain sure is effective
At getting a person to contemplate eternity.
That’s not a bad thing.
So He Curses His Life He Craves Death
#3 HE COMMUNICATES HIS CONFUSION
Job 3:20-26
Here is where we want to settle in a little while this evening.
Based on the fact that life is so brutal…
Based on the fact that death is so favorable…
Job has a couple of questions.
(20-22) “Why is light given to him who suffers, and life to the bitter soul, who longs for death, but there is none, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice greatly, and exult when they find the grave?
1) If there are people living who prefer death to life, why does God continue to keep them alive?
Then another question:
(23) “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, And whom God has hedged in?”
Notice the word there.
“hedged” in.
That was the same word Satan said to God as to why he couldn’t touch Job.
“Have You not placed a hedge about him..?”
What Satan saw as a protective barrier, Job saw as a prison.
2) He wanted to know why God would give and sustain life to a person whom He has chosen to afflict.
WHY WOULD JOB ASK THAT?
(because that was Job)
(24-26) “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 befalls me. “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”
Job says I am that person.
• I am full of pain and groaning and suffering.
• I am living in my worst nightmare.
• I am receiving everything I fear.
• I am not at ease
• I am not at rest
• I am full of turmoil and pain
And his question is an intense one.
God, since You are God, and you know all things, why would you create me and sustain me and give life to me when You know what is going to happen to me?
Or broaden it beyond Job.
• Why would you create a person for such suffering?
• Why would you keep alive a person who is in such pain?
• Why would you give life to a person if that life is going to be so hard?
THAT’S REAL ISN’T IT?
Job wants an explanation for human suffering.
And this is a fair question.
Unfortunately it is a question that OFTEN GETS ANSWERED WRONGLY.
I’ll give you an example.
Recently a movie called “God’s Not Dead” came out and I’ll be honest the more I analyze the message of this movie the less I like it. Obviously I agree that God is not dead, but beyond that this movie endorses some really misguided behavior and misguided theology.
One of these areas is when the movie
Tries to answer the question of human suffering.
The student (who is the one debating that God is not dead) tries to tackle the question of human suffering, or more exactly, the presence of evil in the world.
Here is what he says:
“Evil is atheisms most potent weapon… If God is all good and God is all powerful, why does He allow evil to exist? The answer at its core is remarkably simple, “Free Will”. God allows evil to exist because of free will. From the Christian standpoint God tolerates evil in this world on a temporary basis so that one day those who choose to love Him freely will dwell with Him in heaven free from the influence of evil, but with their free will intact. In other words God’s intention concerning evil is to one day destroy it.”
So this movie says that God tolerates evil or suffering temporarily,
Just so He can make sure you have free will to choose Him or not.
It paints the picture of a God who just sits by as we suffer,
Not willing to interfere in our lives
For fear of offending our loss of freedom.
That doesn’t at all sound like the God we read about
In the first two chapters of Job.
The God we saw was very much in control, on the throne,
Sovereign over every ounce of Job’s affliction.
In fact we saw “evil” answering to God.
But the movie said that God just tolerated it
So that you could keep your free will
And that God will one day destroy evil.
To this the atheist professor responds:
Well how convenient, “One day, I will get rid of all the evil in the world, but until then you will just have to deal with all the wars and holocausts, tsunamis, poverty, starvation, and AIDS, have a nice life.”
Now let’s be honest, If the movie were really trying to answer in truth they would have addressed what the professor just said, but they don’t.
Instead in the movie script the atheist just changes the subject and says,
“Next you will be lecturing us on moral absolutes…”
And the dialogue changes to a different and more winnable argument.
So, the movie makes the point that
God allows suffering just to give people the opportunity to choose Him
In the midst of horrific circumstances.
Oddly enough the atheist in the movie has the perfect argument to this
As he portrays God as a cruel, and selfish being who is only interested in seeing if you’ll choose Him no matter how bad it gets.
And the movie has no answer for that, the writers just moved on.
That Christian movie gave a wrong and incomplete answer
To the question of suffering,
And unfortunately Christianity has a lot of that today.
So Job wants to know:
• What is the point to all this human suffering?
• Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?
• Why does God allow bad things to happen to any people?
• Why does God create people when He knows they will suffer?
• Why does God keep people alive who would rather be dead?
(AND HE’S GOT A VALID POINT)
I mean, read
Psalms 139:16 “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.”
Listen to what Paul told the people in Athens
Acts 17:26 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation,”
Those verses clearly indicate that
God is well aware of the affliction that is coming mans’ way,
And yet He chooses to give and sustain life in the middle of it.
And Job wants to know why?
Well, thanks to the rest of Scripture (which Job did not have)
• We do know “why” evil is here don’t we?
Genesis 3:17-19 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”
This world is cursed as a result of sin.
The world was once “evil free” with no hint of suffering, but sin changed all that.
But listen, that isn’t even really Job’s question.
He’s not asking where did suffering come from, or how did it get here.
Job wants to know WHY God would allow it to continue.
Or more specifically, why He would force those who are suffering
To just sort of sit there and take it.
Why not just put people out of their misery?
Why not just stop the pain with death?
Or better yet, read Your book of appointed days, and when You come across a person who is going to have an especially difficult road, just stop that life in the womb. Let them be miscarried.
• Wouldn’t it be better for a person to never be born than to be born with a deformity?
• Wouldn’t it be better to never be born than to be born and contract Leukemia at a young age?
• Wouldn’t it be better to never live and have children than to see those children crushed under the roof of their oldest brother’s house?
I mean, God you knew all this was coming,
Why in the world would you make people walk through it?
I assure the answer is not, “Free Will”
Then what is the answer?
The answer is not “free will”, the answer is “His Will”
God allows all these things, even orchestrates these things
In order to accomplish His will.
He uses suffering. He uses tragedy. He uses sickness. He uses pain.
And He uses it to accomplish His perfect will.
Do you want to know what His perfect will is?
Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”
His perfect will is the salvation, sanctification, and glorification of all His elect, so that they can glorify His Son for all eternity.
And God uses the evil in this world to accomplish that will.
I read you that verse from Acts were Paul spoke to the Athenians.
Let me give you the rest of it:
Acts 17:26-27 “and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;”
God ordains man’s days (even the bad ones)
With the intent of using all of those things to cause men to seek God.
And there is a reason people must seek God.
Acts 17:31 “because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
God uses everything in life to drive people to Him.
He uses pain and suffering as a tool
To accomplish His perfect will in people’s lives.
Listen to Peter:
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
God is not willing for any of His elect to parish.
He is bringing them to salvation.
This is His will.
And there is not a single tragedy that He does not use
To bring this “will” to absolute fruition.
Listen to the writers of Scripture remind you of this over and over.
Philippians 1:29-30 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”
1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.”
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Hebrews 12:9-11 “Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
The writers of Scripture assured people that
• Their suffering was not some sort of oversight on God’s part.
• NOR was it a result of God choosing to do nothing just so He could see if you’d choose Him.
According to the writers of Scripture
Every single drop of suffering and affliction
Was carefully crafted in the hand of God
To be used as a tool to lead His elect
To Christ-like-ness and salvation.
All suffering has a purpose.
Remember Joseph’s betrayal, sale, wrongful conviction, and neglect?
Genesis 45:7-8 “God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. “Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”
Remember the man born blind?
John 9:1-3 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
Or how about Israel having to suffering 430 years as slaves in Egypt?
Genesis 15:12-16 “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
Egypt prepared Israel’s heart to desire deliverance
And at the same time bought time for sinners to repent.
How about Israel’s 70 year captivity in Babylon?
Jeremiah 29:10-14 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”
Do you see the point?
Suffering was a tool that God used to perfectly accomplish His will.
I only tell you this because if you are suffering
I do not want you to think that God is just up there watching you squirm
With no other interest than to see whether or not you’ll still choose Him.
Friends God knows your heart and He knows
Whether you’ll choose Him before you ever suffer at all.
(God knew Job’s heart and that is why He selected Job for this)
Now I don’t know what God is up to in your life.
But I can give you some hypotheticals.
• What if your suffering is the thing God will use to bring your family to salvation? (It was with Joseph)
• What if your suffering is the thing God will use to reveal Jesus to the lost in your community? (It was with the man born blind)
• What if your suffering is the thing God will use to make you look more like Jesus? (that’s what James and the writer of Hebrews said)
• What if your suffering is the thing God will use to encourage other believers when they suffer? (Job certainly does)
Do you get the point?
• I don’t begrudge Job for a second for asking these questions. He’s hurting!
• I don’t begrudge anyone for asking these questions in the midst of their pain.
But thank God for the truth of Scripture that we know
It isn’t all just some series of random events
That God is just watching to see how you’ll do.
Friends God gives “light to him who suffers”
And “life to the bitter of soul”
Because that is what is necessary for Him to accomplish His perfect will of salvation, sanctification, and glorification of His children.
God gives light “to a man whose way is hidden,
and whom [He] has hedged in”
Because that is exactly what is required to bring about His perfect plan.
If I can put it to you another way.
YOUR SUFFERING ISN’T BEING WASTED
Psalms 44 is written by the sons of Korah
From the perspective of suffering.
They (like Job) don’t know why it is happening and long for relief.
At one point they say:
Psalms 44:11-12 “You give us as sheep to be eaten And have scattered us among the nations. You sell Your people cheaply, And have not profited by their sale.”
They think their suffering has no benefit, but that isn’t true.
“God causes all things to work together for good…”
Some day in eternity, we’ll all know why.
But I think you can understand why Job is so distressed.
He didn’t get to read the first two chapters of this book.
He, like you, is in the dark.
And his response has probably been your response.
Can I give you a very important thing to remember here?
• Job did in fact curse the day of his birth.
• Job did in fact express confusion over the reality of suffering.
• Job did in fact wish he’d never been born to have to see this.
But Job did not curse God.
His character is still ringing true.
So, take heart if you’ve felt Job’s frustrations.
Take heart is you’ve asked Job’s questions.
Take heart if you’ve walked in Job’s pain.
Just know that in the midst of it, God has a perfect plan.
