Dread Befalls Me – Job 2:11-3:26

Ellen Degeneres makes her producer, Andy, go through a haunted house every year, usually accompanied by a Hollywood star, and oh, does he dread it. You can see a sampling of his experiences here. Of course its funny to see someone else get scared. But there was nothing funny about what Job dreaded.

Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it. That night—let thick darkness seize it! Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; let it not come into the number of the months. Behold, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry enter it. Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of its dawn be dark; let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning, because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes.

“Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? For then I would have lain down and been quiet; I would have slept; then I would have been at rest, with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master.

“Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”   (Job 2:11–13; 3:1-26, ESV)

Job’s friends want to meet with him together, so they make an appointment with each other to come to show him sympathy and comfort him.  What a seemingly beautiful motivation and show of true friendship.

Their own suffering for him seems confirmed by their weeping at the sight of him, tearing their own robes and putting dust on their heads.  To sit in silence for seven days was a show of true compassion.  This is without doubt the best comforting they did the whole time they were with him.  It is often our best way of comforting.  We can weep and we can be present and without saying a word we can bring comfort.

But then Job speaks. In this beginning of the cursing of the day of his birth, Job uses an interplay between the terms day and night and darkness and light, to speak of why this day should be cursed.  It should be cursed because it did not keep him from being born into all the trouble he has and is now experiencing.

Some painful comments include:

• “May God above not seek it” – God normally seeks the days, ordering them and investing them with honor as part of his plan for the world.  But this one should be overlooked by him.
• “Let it not rejoice among the days of the year” – Each day has its reasons for rejoicing, and  a birth would normally be such a reason, but Job’s birth should be  a reason for mourning in light of what has happened.
• “Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan” – Those hired to incant curses should have had permission to curse his birth day.  It has become a curse to him, a rousing of the dreaded sea monster who brings destruction.

Job’s suffering is great for him to have such a desire for never being born.  He does not mention the desire to kill himself.  He knows, it may be supposed, that this option is not his to take, but he wishes that he had never lived to see such pain. Job’s desire to have died after childbirth is a desire for rest.  He does not have rest or quiet in his mind.  For him, death is the great equalizer in that all, whether great or small, are afforded relief from their sufferings, something he desperately desires.

Job struggles with two questions here:

 

• Why does one who so desires death have to continue to have the light of life?  Job’s soul is in bitterness and would be glad for the grave.  It seems a miserable joke to be in such pain and not be able to give up one’s life.

• Why must one suffer living when all one has is God being against him, hedging him in with pain?  Job’s way is hidden, that is, he cannot figure out why this suffering is happening to him and God is not providing any answers.  Anyone who has thought about what happens in life has feared coming to the point Job has reached, the point of being in complete misery and not being able to escape it.

 

Discussion Questions for Small Groups

1. When have you been in the most pain and how did you react to it?
2. If you found any comfort in your pain, what was it?
3. Why do we want to fill our time with words when comforting someone in pain ?
4. Is Job denying God or his faith in God by wishing he had never been born?
5. What do you find most difficult about being with someone who is hurting at an extreme level?
6. What do you think God wants you to learn from Job’s experience?