Job 3:23

Here Job comes closer to facing the facts as they really were. He was in misery and bitterness of soul. He asks why God should give life to a man in such a state, when he longs for death and it does not come. It is good, however, that he does not even consider suicide, as many would do today who are in such a condition. God had told Satan to spare Job's life, while allowing him to make Job suffer terribly. And God knew Job's sufferings were needed to bring great blessing. So Job's wish for death was not according to the will of God. Job would not die until God ordained it.

Notice, God will explain His ways with you in good time, but not today. Isn't most of your difficulty the wish to have that explanation now? Most likely. Must God explain to us the reasons for His discipline? Is that needed for us? Must we give our children the reason why we see fit to correct them?... Job went through many a long chapter of trial before God let him know the reason for his losses, bereavements and trials. But the reason came at last, and he understood it and valued it.

He longs for death (vv. 20-23)... He asks why one as wretched as he should be shut out from the rest he seeks. He adds to this the first of his charges against God, calling himself "the man whom God has hedged in." Jeremiah uses similar language in Lamentations: "he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light... he has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy" (Lam. 3:2-7) [older translations read "he has hedged me about"]. But that writer goes on: "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end... It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD" (vv. 22, 26). We fail to find anything like this in Job's words.

He had long wanted to crush Job, but he had to admit that God had "put a hedge around him... on every side." He could not get at him until God made a breach in the hedge and gave him permission to go so far. He went as far as God allowed, and brought almost unspeakable suffering on Job, but he had a limit. "And the LORD said to Satan, 'Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life'" (Job 2:6). God did not allow him to go the full length of his malice, and turned his evil into great good for Job.

As yet Job did not know the end, that the Lord is full of pity and tender mercy... The last verses (20-26) put the question, first in general terms and then about himself: why should he live, when he is so miserable? ... The full answer could only come in a dead and risen Christ. If it were not so, the Christian would be the most miserable of all men. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Fear of evil is gone for ever for the one who now walks by faith... So the Christian can rejoice in troubles and die daily. Job could only say that if he so much as imagined a fear, it overtook him at once.

Little did he realise that God would give him more than a little comfort in this present world. In the end he would go to a land of pure light and unspeakable joy. For he did not have the great revelation that believers have today. That revelation shows the matchless grace of the Lord Jesus for every present need, and the eternal glory of His presence, which every believer will enter in the future.