Job 3:24–26

His anguish comes before his hunger. He could say with the psalmist, "My tears have been my food." Perhaps that same psalm explains something of Job's misery: "while they say to me all the day long, 'Where is your God?'" (Ps. 42:3). Job had lost the sense of God's favour. His sighs gush out like a torrent because he fears God has forsaken him.

Two things may have upset Job's mind. One is the sympathy of his friends, for we can bear alone, in God's presence, what we cannot bear when we have the chance to make our complaint in front of people. The other is the pride that lies quiet while we are alone but is wounded when others see our misery. Perhaps the two worked together. And he curses the day of his birth. The depths of his heart are displayed. It was this that he needed.

Notice this: Job gives way to his feelings in this passionate outburst, yet he did not renounce God. There is not a word of rebellion against Him. All through his answer to his friends' arguments he does not lose sight of God. Again and again he expresses confidence in the unseen One, as in that matchless saying: "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him" (13:15).

The great point is his mourning over this terrible lot of his. Why was he ever allowed to come into the world to bear such awful suffering? Where do you find that in Christ? "I was sent for this very purpose." The Lord accepts it; He felt it, deeply felt it; He was troubled in spirit. He felt it, but He also accepted it. This was why He had come. But not so Job.

It is good that he does not even consider suicide, as many would today who are in such a condition. God had told Satan to spare Job's life, while letting him make Job suffer so terribly. God knew Job's sufferings were needed to bring about great blessing. So Job's wish for death was not according to the will of God. Job would not die until God ordained it.

The first thought, and the most bitter one, after waking up to a full sense of your own misery, is to curse your day. It is a terrible impression, and the one that leads to suicide when God is not known. But when God is known, as with Job, it is the beginning of healthy action. The good is not in the discontent and wretchedness it reveals. It is that the sense of death — of being completely cut off from everything — is known and felt.

The full answer could only come in a dead and risen Christ: if it were not so, the most miserable of all men would be the Christian. But now He is risen, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. The one who now walks by faith has lost the fear of evil forever. To faith, evil is already put away before God. Nothing but good remains and triumphs in Him whom we know on the throne of God, now appearing in His presence for us. So the Christian can glory in tribulations, and die daily.

Among people almost everywhere, a birthday is an occasion for remembering and rejoicing. To poor Job it seemed a moment to be lamented and cursed. In his days of prosperity he had feared that some kind of adversity might come. Now it had come upon him with unequalled force.

Clearly, in the days of his prosperity he feared that just such disasters might overtake him. He knew testing times would come, and he had no quietness. But now that they have come, and the three evils he expected have overwhelmed him, he would be glad to find the grave.

The floods of sorrow that broke in on Job were proofs of God's love to him, and of the jealousy of that love too. For Job had enjoyed the gifts more than the Giver. While he was enjoying them, he said that calamity would surely come. I think it was a bad state that made the gifts loved more than the Giver. Job did look up, but his own mind was at work within. Instead of waiting for God to come in and explain everything, Job showed himself and prolonged the furnace and the trial. But God did come in, and Job learned.

At the beginning, Job held all his blessings with reserve and suspicion. He was not in safety, nor at rest, nor in quiet; yet trouble came... It had to be so. Turning away from God has made every possession and every gain here unstable, and that is what makes it necessary. But at the end there are no "fears within." There are no Chaldeans, and no "fightings without." No shadow crosses the settled sunshine that rests on everything around him. No shadow crosses the calm light that fills everything within.

Sometimes people are terrified they might catch a certain disease. Then that disease overtakes them. Why? Is it not because God is showing them that His grace is enough for them even in the most dreaded circumstances? So Job was not at ease, not quiet; he had no rest, yet trouble came. He needed to learn the heart of God as he did not know it.

Job had lost the sense of God's favour; his sighs pour out like a torrent because he fears God has forsaken him. He had no conscious sense of being God's son. That was normal in that earlier age, though he was truly born of God. So he could not withstand the tormenting doubt that God had given him over to hopeless misery. This fear had apparently been lurking in his heart — possibly even in his bright days — and now it has come upon him!

If He invites us to cast all our cares on Him, because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7), why then can't we turn our fears over to Him? Is it because we are afraid He will let us down? Is it because we are not willing to submit our wills to Him?

In verse 26 he speaks of a fresh avalanche of trouble before real relief from the former anguish had been given. Our version seems to refer this to Job's condition of former prosperity: that he was not living in worldly ease, but walking in the fear of God, when trouble came. This does fit Job's state of soul as it comes out later. Even so, it seems a little too early to find him defending himself here. It seems more likely to be his grief at the repeated attacks of misery he is now suffering.

In verse 25 Job records that the thing he feared so much had come upon him. Such a thing often happens. He had not been feeling secure and confident of continuing in constant prosperity... Sometimes people are terrified that they might catch a certain disease, and that disease overtakes them. Why? Is it not because God is showing them that His grace is enough for them even in the most dreaded circumstances? So Job was not at ease, not quiet; he had no rest, yet trouble came. He needed to learn the heart of God as he did not know it.

The inbreaks of Job's sorrows on him were proofs of God's love to him, and of the jealousy of that love too; for Job had enjoyed the gifts more than the Giver... Job did look up. But his own mind was at work within. Instead of waiting for God to come in and explain everything, Job showed what Job was, and so prolonged the furnace and the trial. But God did come in, and Job learned... I judge that the great thing is to acknowledge God, and be still: "I am mute... for it is you who have done it," said David... There is rest in this — giving to God His own place.

But the depths of Job's heart were not yet reached, and to do this was the purpose of God, whatever Satan's thoughts may have been. Job did not know himself, and up to this time, with all his piety, he had never been in the presence of God. How often it is the case that even throughout a long life of piety the conscience has never been really set before God! So peace, such peace as cannot be shaken, and real liberty, are not known as yet.

Discipline may have the effect of making us feel that death is preferable to life, but it is working out God's purpose.

Job could not put a finger on a spot that was not a running sore. And the believer, sooner or later, must find that there is not a spot in his old self in which he can rest. It is one thing to talk about it. It is another thing to find that all I am of the first Adam is withered and dead before God. When this is learned, it is a great blessing to learn also the bright resurrection side of sorrowing Job.