Job 3:12

And so he asks, in the anguish of his soul, why, if this was to be his lot in life, did he not die from the womb? Why should he have been so tenderly cared for, only to meet such agony in the end? Why did he not share the quiet of the grave with the great ones of the earth? They spent their lives building monuments that decay, or cramming their houses with silver and gold they must leave behind.

In the second part of his lament (verses 10-12) Job wishes he had died at birth, or that no one had cared for him or fed him. It is sad when someone cannot look back on those early days of helplessness with tender thoughts. Loving care watched over those hours he cannot even remember. 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 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... The doors of Job's mother's womb had been opened long ago (v.10), and Job knew this could never be reversed. But his anguish moved him, not faith.

But wishing is not facing facts as they are. Faith faces facts and gives God credit for doing what He knows is best. But Job's faith had become very weak.

But notice this. Job gives way to his feelings in this passionate outburst, yet he did not renounce God, and there is not a word of rebellion against Him. All through his answers to the arguments of his friends 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).

Job had never really been brought into the presence of God... He was resting in what he was to others, and not in the favour of God Himself... So God goes on dealing with Job, until He brings him to nothing in the very thing Job was most famous for. Job, the most patient man, curses the day of his birth. Why is this? Because we must be broken down. We must be brought to a sense of what we are, as well as of what we have done. Then God can deal with us out of His own heart.

He was dependent, sorrowful, made to suffer and despised, but He never murmured and was never embittered. No despairing words fell from Him like those we may hear from a Moses or an Elijah, a Job or a Jeremiah (Num. 11:11-14; 1 Kings 19:4; Job 3:3-14; Jer. 20:14-18).