Job 3:25-26 | KingComments | STEP | Job cannot erase the day of his birth ( ) or undo his birth ( ). Then the question remains as to what further sense his life has, now that he is in such misery. He wonders why God leaves people alive who prefer to die. This is what are about. Such a question probably didn’t occur to him when he was in prosperity. He measures the value of his life according to his circumstances, not to God’s purpose. Don’t we do this often? Job is a wretched man and counts himself among those who are “bitter of soul” ( ). He speaks in plural. It is a category of people longing for death ( ). To them death is the end of all their bodily suffering and all the bitterness of their soul. But death does not show itself. Then they will look for death, searching for it, that is to say, searching for it with the greatest possible effort, for they are eager to find it. They will search for it with even more zeal than they would search for hidden treasures. Even if they were to find so many hidden treasures, they know that the greatest treasure cannot deliver them from their suffering and bitterness. According to them, only death can do that. That’s why they “rejoice greatly and exult when they find the grave” ( ). Then they finally have peace. Job does not see how his path will have to continue ( ). Despairingly, he asks why God gives the light of life to someone who doesn’t know how to go on, what path to take. With all his struggles, there is nothing to suggest that he wants to take his life into his own hands and does want to commit suicide. That was not an option to Job. Suicide means that all hope and sight of God is lost. That is not the case with Job. On the contrary, he is engaged in a passionate conversation with God, that is to say, he expresses everything that is in his heart of incomprehension about what God has allowed to happen to him. Job even blames God for obstructing him in every way (cf. ). For Job it is as if God, Who first protected him and his possessions from all sides and thus shielded him from all evil ( ), now places him in the midst of all evil and hedged him in in such a way that he cannot escape, that God gives him no way out (cf. ). If we find ourselves in such a situation and do not see a way out, God wants to focus our gaze on the only way out that always remains: the way upward ( ). To Job, God is the causer of the evil that has afflicted him, not satan. Nowhere does Job speak of satan as the author of his disasters. He has not, like us, looked behind the scenes and does not know about the actions of satan. He doesn’t think about the possibility of that. He only thinks of God, also in his further struggle. This is a hallmark of true godliness. He knows that God has first given him food ( ). There is nothing left of that. Everything has been taken away from him. The only thing that gives him any relief is groaning. Nor does he have water. His lamentation has come instead. It also indicates that the pains go over him like a never-ending stream. In we see that Job, during all the prosperity he enjoyed, was also plagued by the fear that his prosperity would one day be taken away. He was afraid of disaster. A great number of catastrophes have come upon him in all their ferocity. In his prosperity Job already had no peace and security. And now he has none at all ( ). The silence has disappeared. Already he was not at all calm, but now the inner turmoil has come to pass to the full, and has taken on such great proportions that it has driven him to despair.

‏ Job 3:25-26

What Is the Sense of an Existence Like Mine?

Job cannot erase the day of his birth (Job 3:1-10) or undo his birth (Job 3:11-19). Then the question remains as to what further sense his life has, now that he is in such misery. He wonders why God leaves people alive who prefer to die. This is what Job 3:20-26 are about. Such a question probably didn’t occur to him when he was in prosperity. He measures the value of his life according to his circumstances, not to God’s purpose. Don’t we do this often?

Job is a wretched man and counts himself among those who are “bitter of soul” (Job 3:20). He speaks in plural. It is a category of people longing for death (Job 3:21). To them death is the end of all their bodily suffering and all the bitterness of their soul. But death does not show itself.

Then they will look for death, searching for it, that is to say, searching for it with the greatest possible effort, for they are eager to find it. They will search for it with even more zeal than they would search for hidden treasures. Even if they were to find so many hidden treasures, they know that the greatest treasure cannot deliver them from their suffering and bitterness. According to them, only death can do that. That’s why they “rejoice greatly and exult when they find the grave” (Job 3:22). Then they finally have peace.

Job does not see how his path will have to continue (Job 3:23). Despairingly, he asks why God gives the light of life to someone who doesn’t know how to go on, what path to take. With all his struggles, there is nothing to suggest that he wants to take his life into his own hands and does want to commit suicide. That was not an option to Job. Suicide means that all hope and sight of God is lost. That is not the case with Job. On the contrary, he is engaged in a passionate conversation with God, that is to say, he expresses everything that is in his heart of incomprehension about what God has allowed to happen to him.

Job even blames God for obstructing him in every way (cf. Lam 3:9). For Job it is as if God, Who first protected him and his possessions from all sides and thus shielded him from all evil (Job 1:10), now places him in the midst of all evil and hedged him in in such a way that he cannot escape, that God gives him no way out (cf. Lam 3:2-7). If we find ourselves in such a situation and do not see a way out, God wants to focus our gaze on the only way out that always remains: the way upward (2Cor 4:8b).

To Job, God is the causer of the evil that has afflicted him, not satan. Nowhere does Job speak of satan as the author of his disasters. He has not, like us, looked behind the scenes and does not know about the actions of satan. He doesn’t think about the possibility of that. He only thinks of God, also in his further struggle. This is a hallmark of true godliness.

He knows that God has first given him food (Job 3:24). There is nothing left of that. Everything has been taken away from him. The only thing that gives him any relief is groaning. Nor does he have water. His lamentation has come instead. It also indicates that the pains go over him like a never-ending stream.

In Job 3:25 we see that Job, during all the prosperity he enjoyed, was also plagued by the fear that his prosperity would one day be taken away. He was afraid of disaster. A great number of catastrophes have come upon him in all their ferocity. In his prosperity Job already had no peace and security. And now he has none at all (Job 3:26). The silence has disappeared. Already he was not at all calm, but now the inner turmoil has come to pass to the full, and has taken on such great proportions that it has driven him to despair.