(REFLECTIONS ON Job 3:1-26)

In all that has happened to Job, he did not curse God. Even when his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” Job did not curse God.

However, in today’s Scripture, we see Job curse the day of his birth. Job cries out,

11 “Why did I not die at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire?

If Job was never born, then he would never have experienced the pain and anguish of his life now. All Job seeks is rest, and he concludes that rest could have been found if he had never been born.

13 “For now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then, I would have been at rest.

17 “There the wicked cease from raining,
And there the weary are at rest.

Yes, he curses the day of his birth because he is now alive and must endure the suffering. For Job death is not an option, hinting that he understands the authority of God over his life. His life was given to him by God, and he cannot take it away himself, and that is why he curses being born in the first place.

25 “For what I fear comes upon me,
And what I dread befalls me.
26 “I am not at ease, nor am I quite,
And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”

Do we seek rest? Do we seek comfort from the chaos? Do we seek peace in a world that just seems to take any ounce of peace away? What do we do when all we have is why?

Today’s Scripture doesn’t give us a conclusion, there is no voice out of heaven comforting Job, but rather his friends will begin to speak, and what they speak aren’t words of comfort.

What do we do when all we have is why? Yes, we can fill in the blanks, give ourselves a conclusion, talk about the grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the comfort and rest that we can find in Him.

But do those things give us true rest in the midst of great suffering and pain? Or, rather is there strength in Job cursing the day he was born?

What do we do when all we have is why? I am reminded that sometimes even our “faith” answers do not really get us to a point of true understanding. Rather we sometimes turn faith, Christ, grace, mercy, and God’s love into another form of self-help psychology rather than providing us with true rest in Him?

Today’s Scripture is a reminder that there is no quick fix or quick answer to the question of why. Let today’s Scripture and Job’s cursing of the day he was born, remind us to go there, that is to not try to avoid the dark places and turn true faith in Christ into just another psychological tool to avoid true spiritual struggle and growth.

The cross of Christ is a dark place. It was for Christ, and perhaps it is there that we must struggle with the question of why. Maybe then we will finally begin to experience what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”

And perhaps that is the only place we can go when all we have is why.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Job 3