Job 3:1-26

I think all of us have many questions that we would love to be able to ask God.  Having answers to some of those questions will be one of the delights of heaven.  Job certainly has a ton of questions that He would love to have answered.  Having questions for God is much different than questioning the attributes of God.  Job is not doubting God as he opens this dialogue with his friends; he is simply questioning God about his own personal plight.  Job is clearly at the breaking point and beyond.  There are times when we hurt and cannot understand the plight of our lives because we cannot see it from God’s perspective.  During these times I think that we should feel free to do as Job did and pour out our hearts before the Lord.  He is big enough to handle our questions and I believe He prefers our honest despair over our phony faith.

JOB DESPISES THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH: Job is in such great pain on every level of his life that he wishes that he had never been born.  He curses the day that he was born and wants it to cease to exist.  His misery has become so great that the day that marks his birth he wants to be a day of mourning and never be celebrated.  He not only wants to stop living; he wishes that he had never lived.  Certainly he faces a pain that is beyond what many or any of us have experienced.  The reality of this situation is that we need to understand that God will allow his children to experience circumstances that are terrible because it ultimately brings glory to Him.  Just because we love and serve God does not mean that we should expect a pain free life.

JOB DESIRES THE DAY OF HIS DEATH: Job sees death as being a rest from the pain and suffering of his life.  He wishes that he had been born dead or that his mother would have simply let him starve.  Death is freedom from the pain of this life for the believer.  He longs for this rest and relief from the excruciating pain that has devastated his life.  Job’s pain has given him amnesia about all of the great blessings he experienced prior to the events of the last days.  The pleasures of the past will always fade in the pain of the present.  This is true of our life here on earth, but it is even truer of those who pass into their eternal lives without Christ.  We must learn to have hope in the midst of suffering based on the blessings of God in our pasts as well as the promises of God for the future.

JOB DESPAIRS THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE: Job’s worst fears have come true.  Every time that he thought that he had hit bottom another problem more serious and difficult came upon him.  His life has become an exercise in desperation and he longs for it to be over.  He is given no rest, no peace and has lost all of his hope.  Once again I think that it is important to point out that it is possible for a very godly believer to come to this point in his life.  God obviously allows it and we should not question His goodness because of it but we should also not doubt or attach the character of those who face despair in their lives.  The other lesson that I think is important for us to remember is what this level of pain revels about the character of Satan.  He delights in the despair of others and loves to inflict pain on the children of God.  No matter how dark de days of despair may be, we must learn to trust and hope in the Lord.