Death: Reviled, Revealed, Revered, Reveled”

“Death: Reviled, Revealed, Revered, Reveled”

Job 10:1, 18-22 (NKJV)

Job 10:1, 18-22

1 “My soul loathes my life; I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

18 ‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

19 I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few? Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,

21 Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

22 A land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness.’”

“Death: Reviled, Revealed, Revered, Reveled”

Job 10:1, 18-22 (NKJV)

Job 10:1, 18-22

1 “My soul loathes my life; I will give free course to my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

18 ‘Why then have You brought me out of the womb? Oh, that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

19 I would have been as though I had not been. I would have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not my days few? Cease! Leave me alone, that I may take a little comfort,

21 Before I go to the place from which I shall not return, To the land of darkness and the shadow of death,

22 A land as dark as darkness itself, As the shadow of death, without any order, Where even the light is like darkness.’”

The first Sunday after Resurrection Sunday, I would like us to revisit the event that brought us to the empty tomb and Jesus’ reunion with his disciples.

Death is what the father chose as his way to save humanity. Death is what Satan thought would end the ministry of Jesus Christ. Death is what the lord planned as his way to give us eternal life. Death is the way that God chose as the way to welcome believers into his forever family.

Our text draws us to Job, a very familiar friend in the Old Testament. It has often been said that Job was a very patient man, but this text belies his patience, because as we heard in the reading, by the 10th chapter Job is despairing of life itself.

As you probably know, Job was the most righteous man in the land of UZ. Job, was also the wealthiest man in the land of Uz. Job, was recognized by God as a paragon of faith and devotion to the lord. And when Satan was looking for a new project, he asked and was granted permission by God to assault Job. God gave Satan permission to take everything that Job had, and in the words of the lord, “very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (Job 1:12). You probably know the rest of the story, within a brief period of time, Job had to bury his children and his hired servants. All of Job’s livestock were stolen or destroyed. And then shortly thereafter, Job was stricken with a condition of painful boils from head to toe (so Satan went out from the presence of the lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.) . Much of his property was destroyed, and in a moment, Job went from riches to rags. He went from being a family man to a bereaved father, And when his wife, grew disgusted by their ordeal, and by the sight of his body covered with sores, even she cried out, why you don’t just curse God and die.

In time, his friends came to visit, initially to commiserate with him, but then they quickly became like a courtroom of prosecutors and jurors who were convinced that he must have committed a grave sin to have deserved so much destruction and suffering.

Our text lifts up one of the saddest portions of the book of Job. While his losses of children and finances were sad, nothing could compare with the depths to which his faith had fallen. Job got to the place where he wished that he had never been born. Even worst, he soon longed for his own death, as a means of ending all of his personal suffering.

I was challenged to preach about death, after reading about Job’s unique perspectives about death. In (Job 10:21-22 KJV) we hear Job saying: before I go to the place of no return, to the land of gloom and utter darkness to the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.”