Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. He said:
“May the day of my birth perish,
    and the night that said, ‘A boy is conceived!’
That day—may it turn to darkness;
    may God above not care about it;
    may no light shine on it.
May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more;
    may a cloud settle over it;
    may blackness overwhelm it.
That night—may thick darkness seize it;
    may it not be included among the days of the year
    nor be entered in any of the months.
May that night be barren;
    may no shout of joy be heard in it.
May those who curse days curse that day,
    those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
May its morning stars become dark;
    may it wait for daylight in vain
    and not see the first rays of dawn,
for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me
    to hide trouble from my eyes.
“Why did I not perish at birth,
    and die as I came from the womb?
Why were there knees to receive me
    and breasts that I might be nursed?
For now I would be lying down in peace;
    I would be asleep and at rest
with kings and rulers of the earth,
    who built for themselves places now lying in ruins,
with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child,
    like an infant who never saw the light of day?
There the wicked cease from turmoil,
    and there the weary are at rest.
Captives also enjoy their ease;
    they no longer hear the slave driver’s shout.
The small and the great are there,
    and the slaves are freed from their owners.
“Why is light given to those in misery,
    and life to the bitter of soul,
to those who long for death that does not come,
    who search for it more than for hidden treasure,
who are filled with gladness
    and rejoice when they reach the grave?
Why is life given to a man
    whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
For sighing has become my daily food;
    my groans pour out like water.
What I feared has come upon me;
    what I dreaded has happened to me.
I have no peace, no quietness;
    I have no rest, but only turmoil.”

• Job 3:1-26

Job 3:23  ”Divine sovereignty is an ocean without a bottom and without a shore; all we can do is to set our sail and steer by the chart he has given us. To try to cross such a sea without rudder or chart or compass-this would be some piece of sailing that we had better not undertake.”

• Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from his sermon illustrations

The Message

Job starts his first lament by begging that his day of birth is never celebrated.  He could have said that he wished that he had never been born, but this is poetic language.  He does so by asking for the day to be blotted from the calendar, that the sun never to shine that day, for those who want to curse a day to curse his day of birth, and on and on for the first ten verses, nearly half the chapter.

But then, in a way, he wishes he was never born by asking why did he not die at birth, why were there knees to receive him.  Now wait.  I have seen women in movies and my own wife with our second son, not counting the woman in the other delivery room where my nurse first sent me, just to scream, “Wrong delivery room?”  None of these ladies are in a seated position, waiting for someone to calmly hand her the birthed child.  They are on their backs, knees in the air, and the doctor is yelling “Push”, then all of a sudden “Hold it.  Don’t push!”  I cannot remember with our second child whether he was breach or the umbilical cord was around his neck, but the doctor reached his hand inside and fixed the problem between contractions.  The next contraction my wife hardly pushed.  The baby came flying out unexpectedly fast.  But that phrase of lamenting that knees were there to receive the baby has nothing to do with wanting Job’s mother to not have knees.  He was poetically saying that he would have been better off to have died then of an accident at birth or simply failure to thrive (not being nurtured while at his mother’s lap).  “Lap” making is what the knees are for in this poetic language.

He then gives the positives to being stillborn, or near stillborn.  The child is resting with the kings.  The child has no pain.  The child has never had to endure the sufferings of this world and the wickedness.  And if the child was of a slave, a child who dies at birth becomes free.

And then the subject changes ever so slightly for the last seven verses, roughly one quarter of this lament.  He talks about further positives for anyone who dies.  Their suffering is over.  If there pain has been great, they will rejoice on that day.

My parents told me of my grandfather’s passing.  He had been suffering with cancer for a few years.  His eyes opened.  His face shone like he was in the spotlight.  He smiled.  And then he breathed his last.  He got a glimpse of Heaven, and his soul was running to be with Jesus.

But at this point in Job’s suffering, he just wants the pain to stop.  Sighing is all there is in his life.  No peace, no quietness…

But before he makes these final laments, we catch one small glimpse into Job’s psyche.  He feared this would happen.

Remember in the first chapter that he offered sacrifices when his children partied.  They were good kids, but they might have done a minor sin during the party and Job had to make a sin offering on their behalf.

For one. That does not work so well.  I heard someone ask if they could say the salvation prayer for someone else.  You can say anything you want, but the person that needs to say that prayer must say it, understand it, and mean what they are saying.  I was saved the night I refused to say that prayer again.  I simply surrendered unconditionally.  And then God had the last laugh when I went on the mission trails and prayed with people during altar calls.  So, if the children sinned, that was their need to make the offering, not dear old Daddy.

But for another thing, Job worried that some sin might slip by and he would go to hell for the one he forgot.  When the Law of Moses came out, there was even an offering for those unintentional sins that you may not even know about.

But Jesus told us not to worry.  Do not fear what you cannot control.  Yet, Job was a micromanager, trying to control the uncontrollable and how could God find any fault with that?  Job does not pass the blame to God, but when he says that he feared the worst and the worst happened…

Job is not accusing.  He simply wants answers, and he wants the pain to go away.

And now let us sing.

The following song is He Will Restore All.  This is sung by Hearts Praise.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Lord, we suffer.  We are broken creatures, and sometimes we do not do as told.  But, Lord, we love You.  We owe our very lives to You.  You have a purpose for us.  And with each time that we suffer, we need to do some self-examining.  Is there purpose in the suffering that we do not see?  Can we learn from it?  And will the only way to alleviate the pain be to go home to be with You?  I owe you the praise and glory regardless of the answers to my questions.  With You, there is Hope.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.