Read Job 3
Questions from the Scripture text: Who finally opens his mouth (Job 3:1)? But what does he do (Job 3:1-2)? What does he wish upon what (Job 3:3)? What does he repeat three times in Job 3:4-6? What poetic device does he use of it in Job 3:6? What further curses does he pronounce upon it (Job 3:7-9)? Why, what has it done (Job 3:10)? With what rhetorical question (Job 3:11, Job 3:16) are the next nine verses occupied? What advantage would stillbirth have offered (Job 3:13)? What do the accomplishes of kings amount to (Job 3:14-15)? What are some advantages of the dead (Job 3:16-19)? With what rhetorical question (Job 3:20) are the next seven verses occupied? What do they long for (Job 3:21-22)? But what happens to them (Job 3:23)? How “successful” has the friends’ plan (cf. Job 2:11) been?
How should we speak and hear despairing words? Job 3 prepares us for the opening part of public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twenty-six verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should speak despairing words according to biblical values, and humility before God, and hear them as the venting of real pain.
In Job 6:26, after Elpihaz’s poor reply, Job will give us his own interpretation of this speech. They are the words of a despairing man, which are for the wind. They are not meant to be overanalyzed for the precision of their content, but understood as a venting of his anguish.
We can see this, even in our passage, where we have a curse (Job 3:3–10), and two questions (Job 3:11-19, Job 3:20-26). We can see that the curse is figurative, in that it is upon the past (his conception and birth cannot be cursed, because they are history), and upon a day that is spoken of as if it were a person (Job 3:6). Rather, the theme is the greatness of the darkness with which he now views the day (Job 3:4a, verse 4c, Job 3:5a, verse 5b , verse 5c, Job 3:6a, Job 3:9a, verse 9b, verse 9c).
The questions are of a similar kind. The first question (Job 3:11-19) is specific to himself, and the second (Job 3:20-26) is more general. If we read them in our own voice, as the “friends” did, we may conclude that they are angry questions. But, the bulk of the evidence in Job teaches us to read them in a voice of despair and humility. Job genuinely wants to know why he wasn’t just stillborn. After all, Job knows that his “accomplishments” and “wealth” never had eternal value (Job 3:14-15, cf. Job 1:21). And it is true that to depart and be with Christ is better by far (Philippians 1:23). Even if he did not have specific knowledge of the intermediate state, he did know that the Lord had disarmed (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:55) death by making it deliver from the troubling of the wicked (Job 3:17a), give rest to the weary (verse 17b), free the prisoner (Job 3:18a), liberate the oppressed (verse 18b), and emancipate the slave (Job 3:19). There may even be an implication here that the stillborn (Job 3:16) are all elect; we cannot know this for sure from Scripture, but we do know that Job himself is elect.
The second question (Job 3:20-26) is sort of a problem-of-evil question. Job continues to be convinced about God’s sovereignty (Job 3:23), and the question as a whole presumes God’s goodness. But his circumstances have outrun his understanding. He knows that God is in control, and that God must be doing him good, but how it can be for his good, to be suffering like he is at the moment, completely escapes him. By the time the book is over, his faith (cf. Job 19:26), and knowledge of God (cf. Job 42:5) will have grown, which will be the answer to his question.
Job 3 is helpful, because it displays just how intensely the godly may cry out in his suffering and bewilderment. It is a more extended version of Jesus praying for the cup to pass from Him (cf. Matthew 26:39), or crying out the cry of dereliction (cf. Matthew 27:46). Like so many of the Psalms, it takes us to the limits of godly expression of the intensity of our anguish. Praise God, that Christ’s own suffering is the answer to Job’s questions, and that Christ sympathetically suffers with us (cf. Romans 8:17). So, whether from ourselves or others, let us learn how to speak, and to listen to, despairing words that are for the wind.
What despair have you been in? How have you vented the intensity of it? How have you kept this sound and humble?
Sample prayer: Lord, we hear Job’s crying out, and we remember our own crying out, and we thank You that Jesus Christ is the greatest Sufferer that has ever been. Even in our most intense pain, You are always doing us good. And we thank You that it was for the joy that was set before Him that Christ endured the cross. Now, we pray that He would have that joy, of declaring Your Name to us as His brethren, and of singing Your praise in the midst of Your assembly. Grant unto us the ministry of Your Holy Spirit, enabling us to partake of the joy of Christ Himself. For, He is also the greatest Enjoyer of You that there has ever been. So, we ask it in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP102A “To This My Prayer” or TPH231 “Whate’er My God Ordains Is Right”
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