Job 3-4
Job 3
1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.
2 He said: 3 “May the day of my birth perish, and the night that said, 'A boy is conceived!' 4 That day—may it turn to darkness; may God above not care about it; may no light shine on it. 5 May gloom and utter darkness claim it once more; may a cloud settle over it; may blackness overwhelm it. 6 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.
7 May that night be barren; may no shout of joy be heard in it. 8 May those who curse days curse that day, those who are ready to rouse Leviathan. 9 May its morning stars become dark; may it wait for daylight in vain and not see the first rays of dawn,10 for it did not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide trouble from my eyes.
11 “Why did I not perish at birth, and die as I came from the womb? 12 Why were there knees to receive me and breasts that I might be nursed? 13 For now I would be lying down in peace; I would be asleep and at rest 14 with kings and rulers of the earth, who built for themselves places now lying in ruins, 15 with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. 16 Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? 17 There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. 18 Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver's shout. 19 The small and the great are there, and the slaves are freed from their owners.
20 “Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, 22 who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? 24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.
25 What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me. 26 I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil.”
Job 4
1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: 2 “If someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking?
3 Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. 4 Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. 5 But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. 6 Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?
7 “Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?
8 As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. 9 At the breath of God they perish; at the blast of his anger they are no more. 10 The lions may roar and growl, yet the teeth of the great lions are broken. 11 The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12 “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. 13 Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, 14 fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. 15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. 16 It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:
17 'Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker? 18 If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, 19 how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth! 20 Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever. 21 Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?'
SNAPSHOT 16: BAD TO THE BONE
Job 3-4
Job 3
Job has the birthday blues at this point. I can almost hear it: On the day I was born, all the people gathered around, the boy was cursed, no joy to be found. Wanna' be yours pretty baby…oops, wrong song. Job's life feels bad to the bone. He wants his birthday marked off the calendar. He wants to know why he did not die at birth. He wants to be dead and resting in peace. He does not understand why he is on earth at all – suicidal thoughts. Dark thoughts.
There is a dramatic tone to the dialog: 24 For sighing has become my daily food; my groans pour out like water.
He is in the depths of despair. Satan was correct that the medical issues impacted Job more than losing his possessions and family did. Maybe it was just everything piled up. But Job lost all hope. Wait, I thought suffering = hope. Not in the short term, but if you stick with God in the process it does.
Job 4
The “Terminix” guy (Eliphaz the Termanite) is the first to respond to what is bugging Job. Sorry, had to. It starts out constructive. You have advised a lot of people, would you be impatient to receive some advice now? He does not wait for an answer, so that was more of a “you dish it, now you are going to take it” sort of question.
He next compares Job to someone weak who has stumbled. There was no evidence of Job stumbling, just an assumption. He goes on: when has an innocent person ever died? (um, everyone dies). When were upright people destroyed? (um, every day). Trouble comes from bad behavior.
So, Terminix is “comforting” Job by telling him that all of this is Job's fault. It gets worse. Terminix says he had a dream from the spirit and had a message straight from God. Ever have someone give you a crazy message they said was from God? If you ignore it, you are ignoring God, not me. I have a very pretty friend and three different guys told her that God told them that they were going to marry her. Either God wanted her to have a little harem or the guys were worshipping the god of wishful thinking. Same sort of thing going on here, but without a pretty girl.
Terminix says that people are less righteous than God and sometimes get squashed like a moth. Hey, the moth thing is in there, so don't bug shame me this time!
Notice that there are truths in this material. God is holy. Evil can lead to suffering. This message is worse because it contains enough truth to make it credible. It could have been true if Job was living in sin. Terminix thinks that Job is to blame and that God is taking out the trash. Kick a brother while he is down! With friends like that…
TJ: Job's friends were not completely lame. At least they showed up. They were sad for him and mourned with him. This makes me worry about comforting others. Sometimes you can make things worse.