“…may that night be barren…” Job 3:7a
/After the seven days of sharing silent sorrow with his friends, Job exposed the weakness of his faith when he cursed the day he was born. Is it possible that he had come to a personal breaking point, wishing he had never been born? Anyone could understand it, if he did. He was quite thorough in describing the depth of his despair:
“May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is born!’” (v.3);
He said the day of his birth should have turned into darkness and wished God would not care about it; even to the point that, “…no light shine upon it.” (v.4);
Job wished for a cloud to settle over the day of his birth – that thick darkness would seize it – so much so that blackness would overwhelm its light (v.5);
Job was so distraught that he wished his birthday be omitted from the calendar (v.6);
In fact, if he could place a curse on his birthday, Job would make the night “barren” so no shouts of joy could ever be heard in it (v.7);
Job invited others to join him in cursing the day of his birth, comparing those doing so as dragon slayers and whale hunters, being courageous enough to participate in delighting over a day’s demise (v.8);
His exasperation led to wishing the morning stars of his birthday become dark so that the first rays of dawn are never seen (v.9);
All those curses were spoken by Job because his conception wasn’t prevented, which would have hidden the troubles from his eyes (v.10).
This is more than a personal pity-party, these are the thoughts of a broken heart articulating the desire for the pain to stop. Perhaps he thought his prayers for such had gone unheard. He had held it in for so long; as a man he may have wanted his despairing wife to witness his strength. But it was all for naught; for he, too, reached the end of his personal strength. Despair was all that was left… and perhaps, just perhaps those desperate words may move the heart of God.
This passage paints a vivid picture of a man who might very well be completely broken and desperate for a change. Most people can understand how one may not be able to make sense of losing one’s children, home, possessions, business, and then suffer even more humiliation and pain through possibly what we know now as a severe case of shingles. It all came crashing down on him.
Why would God include such dialogue in His Word? Why would He preserve such talk for generations of faith-walkers to read? I believe that God respects and admires truth. There is no attempt to hide the reality of devastation… bad things do happen to good people. One strength of God’s Word is that it presents stories of both evil and good, sadness and joy, weakness and strength. Believers who study God’s Word are fully informed of how God works all things out for the good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (read Romans 8:28).
So, how is this passage to direct us today? Primarily, we can know and accept that God understands our circumstances and our pain. He has not left us. He is still for us. He has a plan and we can trust Him to work it out – even if that plan includes pain or death. Our perspective can rise above our pain by looking forward to our heavenly home and anticipating the joy and peace we will find there.
Trust God in your time of pain… and don’t pretend to be super-human. You can be just as real as Job was… with a better perspective, thanks to the life of Job. It’s OK to cry… God hears you.
Have a blessed day…