“Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For sighing comes to me instead of 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 3:23-26)
Satan’s goal is to get Job to curse God. The best he can do, however, is to get Job to curse the day of his birth and to question why God would give him life.
Job’s lament is probably the most emotional lament in all of Scripture…though Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet,” said similar words in Jeremiah 20:14-18. Job curses the day of his birth. He wishes that his birthday was never on the calendar. If the day never existed, then he would never exist and would be free from his unspeakable grief. If the day must exist, then Job wishes that he was born dead so that he would be in grave free from pain.
Job’s primary question seems to come in vese 20: “Why is light given to those in misery and life to the bitter of soul?” In other words, why does God give life to someone who must suffer so much? Or why does God give life to the child in a third world country who must suffer in poverty and hunger only to die before he reaches age ten? There are some things about suffering that simply do not make sense. Job has “no peace, no quietness, no rest, only turmoil.” In such a state, why live?
As I think about Job 3, several thoughts come to my mind:
1. God desires honesty in our prayers. God not only hears Job’s lament but thinks it is so important that He puts it in His Word. This tells me that God is not threatened by our questions, struggles and cries. He would rather us be honest and pour out our soul, then sit back in some apathetic state, spouting out religious cliches.
2. The “why” question is our biggest question in life. As a father of four boys, I hear the “why” question all the time. Why can’t we stay up later? Why can’t Daddy stay home all day and play games with us? Why does Nate get to go to the birthday party and we don’t? Why do we have to eat our vegetables when Daddy doesn’t ;>)? At the root of our being is a desire to make sense of things, to know that there is meaning and reason to life. This to me is evidence that we are not accidents of nature but rather created in the image of God. We are designed with a purpose and we long to know what that is. Suffering brings this to the surface like nothing else. Suffering often just doesn’t make sense. If God exists, and He is good, why do we suffer? Job sees no reason for his suffering. This makes his condition all the worse. But behind the scenes, there is a reason.
3. We grow in the struggle. If there is a reason for Job’s suffering, why doesn’t God just intervene immediately and tell Job what is going on? Why make Job suffer and question so long? None of us like to struggle but it is only in the struggle that we grow. It is in “fighting with God” and struggling with His purposes that we often grow stronger in our faith and closer to Him. I can’t help but think of the butterfly coming out of the cocoon. The struggle of getting out of the cocoon is necessary to strengthen its wings. If, in our sympathy, we cut short the struggle and remove the butterfly gently from its cocoon, the butterfly will never be able to fly. The same is true with us.
Lord, thank You for hearing my prayers, for inviting me to come boldly before Your throne, for listening to my questions, for giving purpose to my struggles in life.