For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.
Job breaks a long silence by cursing the day of his birth. Then he admits what he never said while he was rich: the disaster that struck him was the one he had always dreaded.
Fear that ran ahead of the trouble
The verse looks backward. Long before the raiders came and the house fell on his children, Job had been living with a dread of exactly this.
F. B. HoleAmong 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.
That dread cost him his peace while everything was still intact.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinClearly, 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.
What the fear exposed
Fear of losing a gift shows how tightly we hold it. One writer reads Job's words as proof of where his heart had settled. He reads the disaster itself as an act of love, not abandonment.
G. V. WigramThe 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.
Blessings held with suspicion
One writer sets the two ends of Job's story side by side. At the start Job owned everything and held it in fear. At the close nothing shadows him: no enemy outside, no fear inside.
J. G. BellettAt 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.
Why God let the fear come true
This did not happen to Job alone. One writer asks why God lets the feared thing arrive.
Leslie M. GrantSometimes 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.
The deeper loss underneath
What hurt Job most was not the loss of property or the pain in his body. He feared God had abandoned him.
Samuel RidoutJob 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!
What to do with our own fears
God invites us to hand our fears to Him. One writer asks why we hold on to them.
Happy LifeIf 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?
Summary
- Fear came first. Job dreaded disaster while he was still rich; the anxiety stole his rest years before the raiders did.
- Fear revealed the grip. Holding blessings with suspicion showed the gifts had come to mean more than the Giver.
- Fear met love. The blow was not God turning away but a jealous love reaching for what Job had not yet learned of God's heart.
- Fear prolonged the fire. Job argued instead of waiting for God to explain, and that stretched out the furnace. Yet God did come in, and Job learned.
- Fear ended. At the close there are no fears inside and no enemies outside. Settled sunshine rests on everything Job has, and calm light fills everything he is.