Job 3:11

Job remained as exemplary in his adversity as he had been in his prosperity. The root of sin was not yet reached. He then became more remarkable for his patience than even for his goodness. Scripture bears this testimony to it: "You have heard of the steadfastness of Job." God at last permits his friends to come and offer him comfort. How many hardships we can endure alone; but as soon as our friends see them, our pride stirs. The compassion of man often provokes our impatience; and Job, so distinguished for patience, at last curses the day of his birth!

He was in the depth of his trial, and the silence of his friends made it worse. Soon they would make it worse still, attacking him with suspicion they voiced more and more openly. And so he asks, in the anguish of his soul, why, if this was to be his lot in life, he did not die at birth. Why should he have been so tenderly cared for, only to meet such agony in the end?

Job did not even now charge God foolishly, but he did curse the day of his birth. This was not directly blaming God, but however little he realised it, he was indirectly blaming God, for it was God who gave him life... Later Job would thank God he had been born, and that thankfulness will last for eternity. But when trouble comes like the trouble Job had to bear, we do not tend to think soberly and calmly. Yet wishful thinking never achieves anything. The doors of his mother's womb had been opened long ago, and Job knew this could never be reversed. But he was moved by his anguish, not by faith.

It is sad indeed when someone cannot look back on those early days of helplessness with tender thoughts. Loving care watched over him while he lay there unaware. Of all creatures, man is the most helpless and dependent in infancy. It is to hide pride from him, and to call out love on his behalf. To curse his infancy in this way was to trample on what is best in our fallen humanity. It shows a soul far from communion with God.

Job puts everyone into an unconscious sleep, "as infants who never see the light." Is there no distinction between the condition of the wicked and of the righteous after death?... The constant contrast between the righteous and the wicked, and their moral unlikeness, points quite clearly to very different futures. Scripture says: "The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing, but the righteous finds refuge in his death." By blurring the future in this way, Job shows how far his soul had drifted from the truth of God.

Every question can be asked in two ways. One person asks in humility, with a sincere desire to learn. Another asks in presumptuous rebellion against the answer, whatever it may be. In the first case the questioner honestly takes the place of a learner, which is the right thing for him to do. In the second case he assumes there is no satisfactory answer, or that the answer is withheld.

Job must know himself, in a way he never could have imagined otherwise. To know yourself is a very different thing from being converted to God, and it is necessary if we are to be fully blessed... A man might be pious and yet never have really stood in God's presence for himself. I mean a thorough judgment of self, measured by God Himself.