Job 3:24

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.