Job 3:11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly? 12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master. 20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul; 21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
It is sad when a person does not know why they are alive. It is sad when a person has no purpose in life. We know that for Job, this attitude he had was a temporary slump. He would soon be brought out of this place by God. His three friends had no capacity to help him. They had developed their own theology and it was faulty. Eliphaz would enter into the picture later and he would have some right things to say. Ultimately God would speak to Job and help him to see the foolishness of his current attitude. We can see from this book, that it is difficult to live the Christian life all alone. It is not impossible, but it is difficult. In the time in which we are living, we could well face times of isolation if the Lord tarries and our government continues down its current path. Prison and solitary confinement could well be part of some of our lives. We also know they restrict the use of God’s Word in such situations. We need the encouragement of other saints. That is why it is so important to be a part of a true local church. It is not enough to be part of a social club that might use a verse here or there. You need to be part of a true church if you are saved. If you are not saved, you need to be attending a true church where you can learn the truth. My wife and I recently attended a funeral where the preacher quoted some perverted Bible verses, but he never once gave a reference for those verses. Unless a person was quite familiar with the Bible, they would not know where to go and look up those verses to see what the context of them was. This preacher used maybe five or six perverted verses, and he told the congregation that anyone who had not read their Bible that day would be good because he was going to use enough Bible so that they would not need to read any more for that day. That man was a deceiver. Five or six verses without any references is not enough spiritual food for a day. Even if they would be from the Word of God, a person needs to read more than just a few verses in a day. The Psalmist declared:
Psalm 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Job knew the true God. He walked in the fear of the LORD, yet he lacked that strength to guide him through this difficult time in his life. We can see that we need more than Job had at that time in order to remain faithful to the Lord. The good news is that God did not abandon Job. Job felt that he was abandoned by all, but God would show him this was not the case. In verse 11 Job continued his complaint about his life. He wondered why he was ever born. He thought he would have been better off dying before he was ever born. There are thousands of babies that are murdered in the womb of their mother every year. Those children never get the chance to take even one breath. They never get to have the opportunity to be born again and to enjoy God’s blessings as a saved person. Job truly was not thinking clearly as he was complaining here. In verse 12 he wished his mother would not have allowed him to be born. He wished she would never have fed him. In verse 13 Job assumed that he would have been so much better off if he had never lived. How quickly he forgot about all the blessings he had been given by the LORD. How quickly he forgot of all the blessings he had been privileged to pass on to others. Job assumed that the grave was a good place to be. He assumed he could be joined with high ranking officials in the grave. He believed that the wicked cannot trouble anyone in the grave. He also believed that the weary are at rest in the grave. That is true if the weary are saved. If they are not saved, they are not resting in the grave. Verses 18-19 continue this short-sighted view of things. In verse 20 Job continued to bemoan the fact that he was still alive. He had lost sight of God’s purpose for him. There are people who wish they could die. In Canada, our government is trying to encourage people to seek medical assistance in dying. They do not want to call it “assisted suicide” so they call it MAID: “medical assistance in dying.” Sounds so much nicer, doesn’t it? The devil is so good at making evil look good. The government wants to kill off tax-paying citizens. They want illegal immigrants to come in. They want people here who do not pay taxes but rather draw from the public purse to live here illegally. Of course our government does not call them illegal. They call the irregular migrants. Using deception does not change the facts. In verse 22 Job spoke of those who finally get to die. He assumed they were happy to finally be able to die and be buried. He does not speak of the tragic death of the ungodly. His own sons and daughters were not looking to die. If they were unsaved, they certainly were not rejoicing in the grave. The grave is not a good thing for the wicked. Job was being quite selfish in his thinking here. The good news is that God would not leave him in this place of despair. God would show him the foolishness of his thinking. Job would accept God’s correction and he would be blessed in doing so. We can read and study the book of Job and we can see that life is always worth living, if we live in the fear of God. If we choose our own path, life is not satisfying. We can learn from the book of Job that suffering can be very intense, but it is only for a short time. We need to keep this in mind. We see here how important it is to not just have head knowledge of God, but to have that intimate walk with God. Pastor Bartel
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