Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Reflections on Job 3

 Job 03(Contemporary English Version)
  1. Finally, Job cursed the day of his birth
  2. by saying to God:
  3. Blot out the day of my birth and the night when my parents created a son.
  4. Forget about that day, cover it with darkness,
  5. and send thick, gloomy shadows to fill it with dread.
  6. Erase that night from the calendar and conceal it with darkness.
  7. Don't let children be created or joyful shouts be heard ever again in that night.
  8. Let those with magic powers place a curse on that day.
  9. Darken its morning stars and remove all hope of light,
  10. because it let me be born into a world of trouble.
  11. Why didn't I die at birth?
  12. Why was I accepted and allowed to nurse at my mother's breast?
  13. Now I would be at peace in the silent world below
  14. with kings and their advisors whose palaces lie in ruins,
  15. and with rulers once rich with silver and gold.
  16. I wish I had been born dead and then buried, never to see the light of day.
  17. In the world of the dead, the wicked and the weary rest without a worry.
  18. Everyone is there--
  19. where captives and slaves are free at last.
  20. Why does God let me live when life is miserable and so bitter?
  21. I keep longing for death more than I would seek a valuable treasure.
  22. Nothing could make me happier than to be in the grave.
  23. Why do I go on living when God has me surrounded, and I can't see the road?
  24. Moaning and groaning are my food and drink,
  25. and my worst fears have all come true.
  26. I have no peace or rest-- only troubles and worries.

Chapter 3 is a rant by Job, disparaging the day he was born. Initially he questioned why the light of day had even shown on the particular day he was born. In effect, he was calling for a reversal of creation. In the beginning there was only darkness until God spoke light into existence and the darkness was dispelled, separating light from darkness. The light was called 'day' and the dark, 'night.' Job wanted the day he was born to be reclaimed by the darkness as if it had never existed, and therefore never appeared in the calendar.

Job expressed a similar sentiment in a couple of additional ways. In the first he wished "no joyful shout" had been heard on the night of his birth expressing joy over the birth of a son as if it had never happened.  Then he called for a curse by those who give a curse on certain days, casting a spell on it so daylight would never shine on it. Obviously, the day of Job's birth had happened and there he was in great suffering and agony. So he shifted his complaint. He had been born - it was a reality. But why hadn't he been stillborn, or why had there been breasts to nurse him, allowing him to survive infancy? But this, too, was a futile rant for he still sat by the ash heap in agony.

Next, he let his mind wander to the benefits of death. In death, he said, there is peace and sleep. In death he could join the company of the great people who have lived in a fate that comes to all. In death, rather than suffering the shame of poverty and the rejection of society due to his disease, he would share in the same existence as nobility. But then he digressed to again decry his birth asking, "why was I not hidden like a miscarried child?" And then he returned to the benefits of death where the wicked make no trouble, the weary find rest, and there is no oppression.

In Job's last round of ranting in this chapter he questioned why one whose existence is bitter and who wishes for death if refused the joy they could find in death? "Why," he asked, "is life given to a man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?" (3:23) Satan had told God that He had Job hedged in, protecting him from harm. Here Job considered himself to be hedged in by God, but sees it as a restriction from enjoying life because of his suffering.

Job stated in verse 25 that "the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has happened to me." Though we cannot be certain of Job's meaning here, a couple of leading options would be:
  • In his prosperity he had a concern that adversity might overtake him and he would no longer enjoy the comforts he once had.
  • Or, he might have been saying that once adversity struck the first time he feared it would lead to further adversity, which had occurred to the point of losing his health besides losing all he had.
This is one of the downsides of prosperity. There is no guarantee it will last and continually offer security. But then, security looks different to the one who trusts in what he has than it does to the one whose trust is in God. Security based on sufficiency of possessions is based on never having to do without. But, of course, this is a false sense of security since there is no guarantee against loss of possessions, and possessions will not protect one from loss of health or of life. The one who trusts in prosperity is truly insecure and vulnerable. He has good reason to be afraid.

On the other hand, the one whose trust is in God has a very different perspective on security. While such a one looks to God to provide what is needed and to keep them from loss of health and life, their security is in God keeping them, period, and not in what He can keep them from. For He does not promise to keep us from the losses of this life. For the one whose trust is in God, He alone is sufficient. For if He allows the ultimate loss to come, the loss of life, He has for them an eternal life that is far richer than anything this life offers. The one whose trust is in the provisions of this life has no other life to anticipate beyone this life. Death, for them, is more suffering.

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