Job 3: 1 – 26
Happy Birthday
1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job spoke, and said: 3 “May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’ 4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. 5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months. 7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! 8 May those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. 9 May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day; 10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. 11 “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest. 14 With kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves, 15 Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. 16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? 17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master. 20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, 21 Who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures; 22 Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water. 25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
In counseling I often here people bemoan that they are not happy. Oh, really? I agree with them. If you look up the word ‘happy’ it means ‘seldom’. So, if you are ever ‘happy’ then rejoice for it will soon disappear. What’s the old saying, ‘Life stinks, and then you die.’ That pretty much sums it up wouldn’t you say? However for us this is something more. Something called hope.
We read in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 this, “1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.” The writer now takes up and expands on the word, ‘But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrink back, my soul has no pleasure in him,’ by outlining from Scripture the lives of those who have proved their righteousness by their faith. They were justified in God’s eyes by faith (Genesis 15.6) and they were then justified in men’s eyes by their works. They are intended to be a spur and encouragement to his readers as they consider the faith of those who have gone before, and see how it resulted in godly living.
Faith is to see as substantial fact what is hoped for on the basis of taking God’s promises seriously. It is to be assured of it, and to be convinced that what God has declared will be, seeing it as proved because He said it, even when it has not yet come about and is invisible. Thus it is to accept it as proved, on the basis of His word. Faith underpins hope in respect to what God has promised. Hope looks at what is to come with confidence; faith is satisfied that it will be so. The one who believes is satisfied that God has some better thing for him who is at present not seeable with our current eyes.
This was what believers of the past did and that is why we have a record of their lives. Faith is to hear God’s word spoken by His Spirit and to respond to it. These people did not act on a whim or a conjured up belief, but on the solid basis of revelations received from God, and of the word of God, sometimes spoken, sometimes written, as it was communicated through the prophets, Abraham, Moses, and the like. They believed God and responded accordingly.
The elders are those who lived in ancient times who had witness borne to them by God of things hoped for and things not seen, which they accepted as sure through their faith, and which they passed on down to us. Our faith is in part thus based on the valid religious experience of men and women as it has been established through history, religious experience which testifies to itself in our hearts. But additionally, in these last days, as the writer has been emphasizing, it is faith in the Son Who has come and revealed Himself through His life and teaching, and through His death and resurrection.
We have begun our study of the book of Job. This righteous man did not know what was going on in the spiritual world. Our Holy and Great God El Shaddai, has watched a faithful servant and so has His angels including the fallen ones. Our Creator has spoken out that He Is proud of Job. This does not please God’s former ‘anointed’ cherub.
We fight the world, the flesh, and the devil in our daily lives. Just think, we have three strikes against us before our feet even hit the floor. We see all three areas come into play against our brother Job. Job has been suffering for some time and starts to beat himself up of course with the prodding of Satan. Then to add insult to the pain the enemy of our souls sends along some lousy counselors who beat Job up with their tongues.
1 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job spoke, and said: 3 “May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, ‘A male child is conceived.’
After the seven days' mourning was over, there being no prospect of relief, Job is represented as thus cursing the day of his birth and thus he gave vent to the agonies of his soul, and the distractions of his mind. Like most of us, Job's first response is to turn inward. Self-centered pity is the response of the ‘natural’ man. It leads Job to despair. “Despair is a killer, it takes away all opportunities for deliverance”.
Job's cry is a deep lament out of the great pain that he is suffering. While the hand of his oppressor is that of Satan, he knows that the authority is God's. While previously Satan was hedged out (1:10), Job is now “hedged in” (3:23) by God. He is not yet trying to reason out why he is suffering. This is a cry of agony, “I wish I was never born”. There is no criticism or blame assigned. Job is no longer putting on the brave face. Deep and powerful as this chapter is, there is a formal dignity about it.
Chapter 1 gives us a clue as to why this is now going on in the mind of Job. We read starting in verse 4”And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.”
It appears that ‘birthdays’ were a big deal to Job and his family. We read that Job’s sons and daughters were close. When it came to one of their birthdays then they would all gather to celebrate. Job knew of this happening and with his love and concern for them and intercedes and would offer sacrifices for them just in case anyone might have sinned. Satan had all of Job’s children killed on a birthday celebration.
Job first gives vent to his thoughts. Unless they had been better, it would however have been well if he had kept them to himself. In short, he cursed his day, the day of his birth, wished he had never been born, could not think or speak of his own birth without regret and vexation. Whereas men usually observe the annual return of their birth-day with rejoicing, he looked upon it as the unhappiest day of the year, because the unhappiest of his life, being the day into all his woe.
I observe the heartache of many people who lost a love one over the Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays. When they look at everyone in love and coming together they are really burdened and have a hard time just getting through these joyous days.
We find in scripture that others felt the same. The prophet Jeremiah himself expressed his painful sense of his calamities in language not much unlike this: Woe is me, my mother that thou hast borne me! [ Jeremiah 15:10] . Cursed be the day wherein I was born, Jeremiah 20:14.
If there were not another life after this, and divine consolations to support us in the prospect of it, so many are the sorrows and troubles of this lifetime that we might sometimes be tempted to say that we were made in vain, and to wish we had never been.
If you went to any prison and had the opportunity to ask the inmates if they were sorry or regretful for being there I would guess that you would get almost 100% saying they were. In truth most if not all are not sorry for committing the crime but in getting caught.
So too there are those in hell who with good reason wish they had never been born, as Judas. But, on this side hell, there can be no reason for so vain and ungrateful a wish. It was in Job’s weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may understand that when they are said to be perfect it is meant that they were upright, not that they were sinless.
To curse the day of our birth because then we entered upon the calamitous scene of life is to quarrel with the God of nature, to despise the dignity of our being, and to indulge a passion which our own calm and sober thoughts will make us ashamed of. Certainly there is no condition of life a man can be in this world but he may in it (if it be not his own fault) so honor God, and work out his own salvation, and make sure a happiness for himself in a better world, that he will have no reason at all to wish he had never been born, but a great deal of reason to say that he had his being too good purpose. Yet it must be owned.
But we all need to cheer Job. What he said was not as bad as Satan promised himself. Job cursed his day, but he did not curse his God—was weary of his life, and would gladly have parted with that, but not weary of his religion; he resolutely cleaves to that, and will never let it go. The dispute between God and Satan concerning Job was not whether Job had his infirmities, and whether he was subject to like passions as we are (that was granted), but whether he was a hypocrite, who secretly hated God, and if he were provoked, would show his hatred; and, upon trial, it proved that he was no such man. All this may consist with his being a pattern of patience; for, though he did speak unadvisedly with his lips, yet both before and after he expressed great submission and resignation to the holy will of God and repented of his impatience; he condemned himself for it, and therefore God did not condemn him, nor must we, but watch the more carefully over ourselves, lest we sin after the similitude of this transgression.
We see here that in the depth of grief there is an animation of the night and the darkness as if all the forces of nature had conspired to bring about a curse
Job wished that he had never lived. He used many words to explain this thought. He imagined that the skies were dark on the day of his birth. Such a day would be a terrible day.
4 May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. 5 May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it. 6 As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months. 7 Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! 8 May those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. 9 May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day;
Everything is indeed as it is with God; that day is honorable on which he puts honor, and which He distinguishes and crowns with His favor and blessing, as He did the seventh day of the week; but Job says ‘let my birthday never be so honored let it be marked as with a black coal for an evil day by him that determines the times before appointed.
So Job then thought about the night when his parents came together. On that night, Job’s life began, so Job regretted that night also. Of course, every night belongs in the calendar. But Job did not want that date to be in the calendar. Job wished that he had never lived.
In the book of Genesis we learn that our Father God appointed the greater light to rule the day and the less light to rule the night; but Job asks that his birthday be darkness. Let the gloominess of the day represent Job’s condition, whose sun went down at noon. And as for the night of his birthday too, let it want the benefit of moon and stars, and let darkness seize upon it, thick darkness, darkness that may be felt, which will not befriend the repose of the night by its silence, but rather disturb it with its terrors. He asks that all joy might forsake it: "Let it be a melancholy night, solitary, and not a merry night of music and dancing. Let no joyful voice come therein (v. 7); let it be a long night, and not see the eye-lids of the morning (v. 9), which bring joy with them. - That all curses might follow it (v. 8).
The game afoot in the background is to bring Job to curse God. Job does not curse God, but curses his circumstances. Job calls for a curse on the day of his birth “Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning” (3:8). This could indicate paid specialists who call up blessings or curses, as Balaam is hired by Balak like we see in the book of Numbers 22:5-6. In the Hebrew we see that it represents – ‘those who are prepared to rouse Leviathan”. ‘Leviathan’ is a sea monster or ‘a writhing serpent’. There is some uncertainty as to whether this indicates some form of black arts to awaken Leviathan; It is a possibility that the belief at the time was that the Leviathan during an eclipse would swallow the moon, thereby erasing a day. We will see that the allusion to sea monsters carries throughout the book of Job. Deep waters are the perfect allegory for the depths of a man. So in Job’s deep despair, it seems to follow that Job could be calling for someone to conjure up Leviathan to swallow the day of his birth.
The stars of the twilight may here refer to the planets Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury, as well as to the brighter fixed stars. People are glad to see light in the early morning. Then, they know that daylight is beginning. Then, their troubles in the night will not continue. Perhaps they were afraid during the night. But they would be safe during the daytime. But Job was not glad that he saw the light. He wished that he was dead.
10 Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. 11 “Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? 13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest.
Job wishes that he was never conceived and born; because, had he never been brought into existence, he would never have seen trouble.
The verbiage used by Job is speaking of the umbilical cord, by which the fetus is nourished in its mother's womb: had this been shut up, there must have been a miscarriage, or he must have been dead born; and thus sorrow would have been hidden from his eyes.
Then Job reasons about why then did not other possible circumstances did take place, why was I not still-born, without the possibility of reviviscence? or, as this did not occur, why did I not die as soon as born? These three things appear to me to be clearly intended here: -
1. Dying in the womb, or never coming to maturity, as in the case of an abortion.
2. being still-born, without ever being able to breathe.
3. Or, if born alive, dying within a short time after.
Job imagined that he had died as a child. Job thought that death was beautiful because of his terrible troubles. He thought about dead bodies. Dead bodies seem to be asleep. And Job wished that he could sleep too. Job thought that his body would sleep after his death. He would not suffer then, he thought.
His condition would have been much better than now it was (v. 13): "Then should I have lain still, and been quiet, which now I cannot do, I cannot be, but am still tossing and unquiet; then I should have slept, whereas now sleep departed from my eyes; then had I been at rest, whereas now I am restless.’’
Job’s ideas about death were not wholly right. Later in the Book of Job, Job would learn many more things about death. For example, Job learned that he will live after his death (Job 19:26).
We need to stop and understand this fact. Life is often put for all good, and death for all evil; yet Job here very absurdly complains of life and its supports as a curse and plague to him, and covets death and the grave as the greatest and most desirable bliss. Surely Satan was deceived in Job when he applied that maxim to him, All that a man hath will he give for his life; for never any man valued life at a lower rate than he did. Here Satan threw at our Holy Creator that as a man Job would yield to save his skin. On the contrary, Job cried out for death.
14 With kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves, 15 Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. 16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? 17 There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master.
Job’s simple idea is, that, had he died from the womb, he would have been equally at rest, neither troubling nor troubled, as those defunct kings and planners of wars and great designs are, who have nothing to keep even their names from perishing, but the monuments which they have raised to contain their corrupting flesh, moldering bones, and dust.
In death Job figures that his condition would have been as good as that of the best: I would have been (says he, v. 14) with kings and counselors of the earth, whose pomp, power, and policy, cannot set them out of the reach of death, nor secure them from the grave, nor distinguish theirs from common dust in the grave. Even princes, who had gold in abundance, could not with it bribe Death to overlook them when he came with commission; and, though they filled their houses with silver, yet they were forced to leave it all behind them, no more to return to it. These men worked hard. They built palaces. They led great armies. They achieved many things. But now, they must sleep. Their palaces are heaps of stone. Someone else owns their gold and silver now. And their bodies lie near the body of a child whom nobody knew.
If we do not trust God, we waste our lives. Our greatest possessions will be worth nothing when we die. We will lose all our wealth on this earth. So we should live our lives to prepare for heaven.
In the grave the oppressors of men cease from irritating, harassing, and distressing their fellow creatures and dependents. Those that now are troubled will there be out of the reach of trouble: There the wicked cease from troubling. When persecutors die they can no longer persecute; their hatred and envy will then perish.
Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust.
When the persecuted die they are out of the danger of being any further troubled. Had Job been at rest in his grave, he would have had no disturbance from the Sabeans and Chaldeans, none of all his enemies would have created him any trouble.
All men begin and end life alike; all sorts and conditions of men are equally blended in the grave, and ultimately reduced to one common dust; and between the bond and free there is no difference. The grave is "The appointed place of rendezvous, where all these travelers meet."
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, 21 Who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures; 22 Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? 23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in? 24 For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water. 25 For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. 26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.”
Job, finding it to no purpose to wish either that he had not been born or had died as soon as he was born, here complains that his life was now continued and not cut off. He thinks it hard, in general, that miserable lives should be prolonged. Job asks timeless and difficult questions: “wherefore is light given to him that is in misery?” (3:20). Why are some born to suffer? Why do some find that the life they have been given causes them to long for death, who “dig for it more than for hid treasures” (3:21). The darkness of despondency is closing around Job. His thoughts are turned inward. “Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?” (3:23). Job's entire life has become a black suffocating blanket that has left him hovering on the brink of death, but he does not die. The glory of this past is swallowed up; he can see no future but suffering until death blesses him.
Job was able to sympathise with other people because of his own troubles. Job always cared about other people (Job 29:12-17). But now Job knew how they suffered.
Wherefore is light in life given to those that are bitter in soul? Bitterness of soul, through spiritual grievances, makes life itself bitter. Why doth he give light?: he means God, yet does not name him, though the devil had said, "He will curse thee to thy face;’’ but he tacitly reflects on the divine Providence as unjust and unkind in continuing life when the comforts of life are removed. Life is called light, because pleasant and serviceable for walking and working. It is candle-light; the longer it burns the shorter it is, and the nearer to its lifetime. This light is said to be given us; for, if it were not daily renewed to us by a fresh gift, it would be lost. But Job reckons that to those who are in misery it is doron adoron —gift and no gift, a gift that they had better be without, while the light only serves them to see their own misery by. Such is the vanity of human life that it sometimes becomes a vexation of spirit; and so alterable is the property of death that, though dreadful to nature, it may become desirable even to nature itself. He here speaks of those;
1. Who long for death, when they have out-lived their comforts and usefulness, are burdened with age and infirmities, with pain or sickness, poverty or disgrace, and yet it comes not; while, at the same time, it comes to many who dread it and would put it far from them.
The continuance and period of life must be according to God’s will, not according to ours. It is not fit that we should be consulted how long we would live and when we would die; our times are in a better hand than our own.
2. Who dig for it as for hidden treasures, that is, would give anything for a fair dismissal out of this world.
3. Who bid it welcome, and are glad when they can find the grave and see themselves stepping into it. If the miseries of this life can prevail, contrary to nature, to make death itself desirable, shall not much more the hopes and prospects of a better life, to which death is our passage, make it so, and set us quite above the fear of it? It may be a sin to long for death, but I am sure it is no sin to long for heaven.
The devil complained that God was protecting Job. The devil said that God was like a hedge round Job. Job was also aware of this. But Job did not realise that God was protecting him. Job was saying that his troubles were like a hedge round him. So Job could not escape from his troubles.
For my sighing cometh - Some think that this refers to the ulcerated state of Job's body, mouth, hands, etc. He longed for food, but was not able to lift it to his mouth with his hands. But perhaps it is most natural to suppose that he means his sighing took away all appetite.
When Job says, “the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me”. He is admitting that his fear is fear of the Lord's retribution. This is the fear of a small child who has done wrong and is afraid, not of what mom and dad think or feel, but of what mom and dad will do. Small children are by nature self-centered. Fear of retribution is self-centered. Job has carefully kept himself at the bottom of the retribution list. He is not receiving retribution. When fear of retribution is held onto for a long time, a person will pursue self-protection and self-reliance. Job is not relying on God, he relying on his righteousness. This is a form of rebellion against God and makes for a heart of stone (41:24). Fear of retribution works against Job in a severe way, for he is sure that God is angry with him. Job is convinced that this level of oppression can mean only one thing: he has done something to deeply offend God.
Was I not in safety? Had I not rest? Was I not in comfort? Yet trouble came. It is well known that, previously to this attack of Satan, Job was in great prosperity and peace. We see here Job’s reference to the quick succession of the series of heavy evils by which he was tried. There is a similar thought in Psalm 42:7: ‘Deep crieth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me’ - One evil treads on the heels of another.
Whew! Heavy stuff
