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“If Only I Were Dead!” • 1.24.21 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- As we return to the book of Job, we recognize that we are walking into a land of trauma. The amount of loss that Job has sustained is astounding.
- He has lost the sum total of his business revenue, overseen the loss of life suffered by many of his employees and their families. His own family has also been decimated, as Job lost 10 children.
- All of this took place on a single day, the day corresponding to his oldest son's "day," which most commentators agree that we would call his birthday.
- A very short time later, Job was hit personally by a sudden case of boils, which covered his body from head to toe. Whatever Job is left with, only serves to remind him of what he has lost.
- His own personal home hasn't been touched, but it brings no joy to him. His wife remains alive, but her grief has led her to a severe crisis of faith, temporarily crippling the bond that they had.
- What is most galling at this point is that none of this could be explained! If Job had done something wrong, he could accept this. But all of this took place because of Satan's challenge to God!
- "Job only worships you because you have blessed him with wealth. Take it away and he'll curse you to your face." Job didn't, but Satan didn't budge.
- "Job only worships you because you have blessed him with health! Take it away he'll curse you to your face!" Once again, Job did not, in the words of God, "sin with his lips." (Job 2:10)
- This battle has moved from heaven to Earth. Job has absorbed all that he is going to financially and physically. The battle will resume in it's third theater: Job's mind!
- Chapter 3 will allow us into the world of Job's mentality. After seven days of silence, we get to listen in on what Job has concluded. He will begin by wishing that he had never existed! Verse 1.
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• Job 3:1-10 : "After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job spoke, and said: 'May the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.' May that day be darkness; May God above not seek it, nor the light shine upon it. May darkness and the shadow of death claim it; May a cloud settle on it; May the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, may darkness seize it; May it not rejoice among the days of the year, may it not come into the number of the months. Oh, may that night be barren! May no joyful shout come into it! May those curse it who curse the day, those who are ready to arouse Leviathan. May the stars of its morning be dark; May it look for light, but have none, and not see the dawning of the day; Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes." : Seven days have passed in silence, but Job's emotions have been growing to a fever pitch! His meditation has only given fuel to his aggravation. On the eigth day, Job vented it all!
- "Opened," as best as I can tell, speaks of releasing or loosing something. Job removed the restraint that held his tongue and let his mouth run loose!
- He is not concerned with filtering his comments or speaking with accuracy. This is pure emotional distress. Did he use the opportunity to curse God or Satan? No. He cursed his birth.
- You listened to his cry as we read these verses. He calls for his birthday to be erased, to become dark, to be covered with a cloud. He goes so far as to bemoan the night of his conception!
- Keep in mind that several commentators believe that his children all died on their oldest brother's birthday. Job's own birthday introduced the possibility of all of this present pain.
- At least one historian notes that this "mourning of a birth" was once customary among the ancient nations of the near east.
- Herodutus speaks of mourning the birth of a person because of all the pain that their lives would absorb! That's cheery! After seven days, Job is inclined to believe them.
- He doesn't want that day remembered or rejoiced over! He doesn't want to hear a "happy birthday" or to receive best wishes. What an insult against the backdrop of his experience!
- To strengthen his campaign, he'd love to enlist the men that claimed to be able to withhold Leviathan with a sorcerer's curse. Job doesn't believe in sorcery. Leviathan is an interesting study.
- The word simply means "twisted serpent." Some believe that this was a mythical creature of the sea, while others believe it to be yet another reference to Satan.
- For now, let's understand the metaphor: These men claimed to have the power to control what was ostensibly uncontrollable!
- He wishes they had the real power to effect their "magic" against the day of his birth!
- Had he never been born, he would never have had to face the sorrow that he was facing now. Job doesn't wish he could start over. He wishes he had never been!
- If he was give the chance to start all over, what would happen? In this world, if he avoided this circumstance, another equally painful would have manifested itself.
- All of our "what if" scenarios either end or at the very least, include some form of pain. The only scenario in Job's mind that relieves him of the possibility of pain is to have never existed.
- If you have ever wished that you were never born, it's not a new phenomena. It's right here in the oldest book of the Bible!
- God will later affirm Job as one of his three most godly people on Earth. (Ezekiel 14:14,20)
- This godly man is so vexed by his circumstance and emotional distress, that he would overturn God's decision for him to exist at all! But, if that didn't work, Job has an alternate solution.
- If he had to exist, the next best thing would have been for him to die at birth. Verse 11.
• Job 3:11-19 : "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse? For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver; Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master." : Job might be expressing his thoughts in the form of questions, but he is not looking for answers.
- He's thinking out loud, bewildered and in shock! Imagine him as you would any person who is repeating the same thoughts, looking for mental resolve, but not finding any.
- Job's questions, in another context, would have been good to ask. You and I SHOULD ask why it is that we have been given life! Why did we have a family and a Mother present to care for us!
- But Job is not asking that in the context of purpose. Job believes that he has seen the end, and figures that each of these blessings were actually all curses!
- If Job had died at birth, he supposes that would have been no better than any other man.
- All of these benefits, his own life, the Mother that loved and fed him, are seen as curses to him given the trouble he was headed for.
- He reasons that if he died at birth, he would have simply joined the company of people who have lived on this planet and peacefully succumbed to death, whose troubles were over.
- It's at this point that we need to stop and consider a few things because empirically, Job is actually wrong in what he asserts.
- In all my years of teaching the Bible, I have stated and believed the Bible to be infallible and I have not changed my position in the slightest! Greater study has issued in greater confidence!
- The Bible is thoroughly accurate and can be trusted by any who seek to live by it! So what does one make of a moment like this? I'd offer you three options.
- First, you may have noticed that the kind of literature that we are covering now has changed. We have moved from narrative composition to poetic composition.
- We have moved from the reporting of necessary facts to the recording of emotion.
- Poetry, as a genre, is not confined by the same perameters that a narrative piece would be!
- Poetry, giving expression and language to emotion, can often be found concerning itself with a single point of view, divorced from all other lenses of truth and filled with hyperbole.
- Here's my point: All Job sees with regard to pain can been seen in men that live. The dead APPEAR to have passed beyond any point of pain. That human eye view could be said to be "true."
- This is why he thinks if he were to die at birth that he would just sleep comfortably. From a certain standpoint, that appearance makes it "true."
- There are groups that use this emotional palette to form the doctrine of "soul sleep!" That isn't what Job is commenting upon. Death, in his current mindset, is a release from trouble.
- There is a second consideration. The Bible is infallible and has accurately recorded Job's inaccuracy, spoken from a position of pain.
- Job actually said this and the Bible accurately records it, not hiding the wart that is exposed by Job's less than fully developed thought. And that brings me to our third point.
- What we are learning was written well before many of the doctrines of the faith had been fully revealed. Job does not have the benefit of written systematic theologies.
- Job pre-dates Terah and Abraham and Moses. He does not have the benefit of a complete understanding of what happens after death.
- How could he have a fully developed view without a fully completed canon of scripture!? Feel free to take any one of these views. In any event, the result is the same: The Bible is God's truth.
- In Job's mind at this moment, he views death as the great escape. He believes that had he been still born, he would simply lay quiet and be at peace, just as all other men appear to be.
- Job imagines that he would join regal men and their counselors, who built great cities that eventually became ruins.
- He believes that he'd lie down with the rich, who possessed the finest jewels, but who were laid to rest in humble cloth, stored away in caves, silently and imperceptibly decaying for decades.
- Even a stillborn baby, in Job's mind, is better off for never having seen the light of day! What does a baby a few days old, "know" or remember that lives? How much more the ones that die?
- Here is where Job is speaking the truth: In life, there is often little intersection between certain men. Noblemen will hardly notice commoners. But that isn't the case with death.
- Death is the great equilizer! All men, regardless of their station or their position, will eventually succumb to death. That is where the equality ends!
- All men die, but not all men will rise to life! Job would have been at rest, being a righteous believer in Christ, but aside from avoiding worldly pain, the wicked would not enter into rest at all!
- We would be wise to listen to the implications of this text, especially in light of the words that we use when people around us "go the way of the earth!"
- We are selling a poor bill of goods if we assure wicked men that they will go to "a better place" or that they will "finally have peace" if they do not seek it in reconciliation to Christ in this life!
- An unbeliever will not "rest in peace," but will live in perpetual conscious torment! He will not go to a better place as when he dies, he awakens in hell, eternally separated from God!
- I'd encourage you to take the time to read Luke 16:19-31. A rich man and a poor man die on the same day and Jesus tells of what happened after that. It's very revealing!
- Job did not have the benefit of that scripture, but we do. Aside from death's equalizing power, it also neutralizes men from their intent.
- The wicked can no longer ply their trade. The weary that looks all their life for rest, finally finds it in death. The captives are at ease because they no longer hear the voice of their taskmaster.
- The insignificant person and the great person share the same space and the slave is set at liberty from his owner. To Job, death seems to be a welcome friend.
- It is true for the righteous one, but for the unbeliever, death remains an enemy and the afterlife remains a place of trouble that they will never escape!
- Jesus Christ is the only door of salvation and He promises peace to all that enter through Him! To refuse to enter is to reject the gift of peace with God!
- Job has believed that it would be better had he not existed in verses 1-10. In verses 11-19, he believes that it would be better if he had died at childbirth.
- As we come into this final section, Job wonders if it wouldn't be better if he just died now! Verse 20.
• Job 3:20-23 : "Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures; Who rejoice exceedingly, and are glad when they can find the grave? Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?" : What is the significance of "light?" What is Job referring to? Biblically, light can refer to understanding. In this case, the context might better be considered the bright dawning of day.
- Here are two souls. One who is in misery. The other is bitter of soul. The former is defined by oppressive labor. The latter, one who tastes bitterness with every action.
- Neither man wants to see the light of a new day. In fact, both men long for death. They long for an end, but with every sunrise, there is a continuation of life.
- They hope that their sleep will be eternal! This is their comfort. This is the end of their search!
- They are like men who investigate the presence of hidden treasure, but their search is fruitless! The dawn reminds them that their "treasure" eludes them.
- If you were to tell this person that they were going to die, they would celebrate! They would rejoice with greater joy than could be imagined by some mystical resolve to their fortunes!
- Before we move on, understand that in this life, even the most godly of men, will wish that they were dead. For those of you who have studied with us to this point, you'll at least remember two.
- When Moses was beginning to realize the burden of leadership over a very stubborn people, he told the Lord that if He was going to allow his employment to be this way, he'd rather die!
• Numbers 11:15 : "If You treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and do not let me see my wretchedness!'" : Moses the symbol of the law, came to a point of wanting to die. Elijah, symbol of the prophets did the same!
- After a significant victory over Baal and the false prophets of Israel, when there was no repentance from the throne, Elijah said this:
• I Kings 19:4 : "But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, 'It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!'" - Jonah would rather have died than to preach to the hated Ninevites and when they repented, he asked for God to kill him! (Jonah 4:3)
- In all of this, understand that none of these men sought to take their own life. Suicide is not on the table as an option for the believer.
- What Job and each of these godly men are saying is that they would not mind experiencing death. None of them are looking for ways to expedite it themselves! Listen carefully here.
- This is not to say that a believer could not commit suicide or that if a believer did, that they would not go to heaven, but, I am also not saying the opposite!
- The men that did commit suicide in scripture are certainly not men that I would want to tie my theology to. One could argue that King Saul committed suicide. The only other is Judas.
- It may be said that even in his attempt, King Saul failed as he had in life, so that leaves us with Judas, the one that Jesus calls a "son of perdition!" (John 17:12)
- Job is not looking to kill himself, but he also questions the point of living any longer!
- He views himself in this moment as a man whose way is concealed from his eyes. The NLT says it this way: "Why is life given to those with no future?"
- Remember that Job has not read the end of his own story. He equates his present circumstance as the only evidence to what MUST lie ahead!
- He doesn't remember any of the blessing of the past. All he believes that he sees is the trouble of the present and assumes that this will be the way that it is from this point forward!
- Many of us can relate! We can't see our way out of this! It's been this way so long that our faith can't even find a point of focus that doesn't involve pain!
- He sees himself without a future and without a hope because God has "covered" him. This is fascinating. Remember that Satan had acknolwedged that the Lord had "hedged him in." (Job 1:10)
- That "hedge" was a protection from the enemy's advances. Now, as Job speaks in his pain, that very same hedge appears to be a trap!
- God is keeping him alive against his will! He wants to die, but God won't let it happen!
- Job supposes himself to be a perpetual prisoner of pain. He describes that experience in verse 24.
• Job 3:24-26 : "For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water. For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes.'" : At the breakfast or dinner table, men like Job would have been accustomed to festivity and warmth.
- There is a comfort in one's family and the blessing of a job well done, a day well lived. For a man like Job who is experiencing profound grief, these meals are simply fresh reminders of his loss.
- "I used to sit here with my son." "This was their favorite meal." Instead of laughter, Job let out a continual chorus of growns. His groans became wails that spewed out of him. Why?
- Because the thing that he greatly feared had come upon him! In the original language, the same word is repeated. It seems that one could choose either "dread" or "terror."
- When they are put together, it's an enhanced form. It is the deepest dread or the most horrifying terror. He was facing his number one terror scenario. What is he referring to?
- Job 1:5 speaks of Job preempively sacrificing to God just in case his children sinned and cursed God in their hearts. His priestly efforts to protect himself and his family had failed!
- Job seems to assume that God is not appeased, the He is not pleased with them!
- Job is living his worst nightmare and it was endless! Instead of the ease, quiet and rest that had been constant companions, all he has to look forward to is trouble!
- All he has is agitation and aggravation. It comes in waves and hits him with new fervor leaving him without relief and he has no reason to believe that it will ever end!
Conclusion
- We've reached the end of our time and have been left with questions
swirling from a world of pain. "Why do I exist?" "Why didn't I
die at birth?" "Why do I still live without hope?"
- Job won't receive any of these answers and frankly, neither will we apart from our faith. I'd like to offer six reasons that Pastor David Guzik spelled out for his congregation.
• "God allowed Job to continue on in life to teach a lesson to angelic beings. . . to teach him special reliance upon God. . .to teach him to not regard the wisdom of man so much. . . to vindicate him before other men. . . to make him a lesson and an example for all ages. . . to give him more than he ever had before."[i] : Ultimately, you and I can resolve our hearts to this truth: Whatever we are going through right now, no matter the difficulty, cannot be compared with what lies ahead!
- Nothing that we are facing now will be faced without His guiding and comforting Holy Spirit and nothing that we face will overshadow the truth of our future!
- It doesn't mean that we won't ask the questions or be momentarily confused, but in Jesus we have a sure foundation of truth that can never be moved!
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