Job 3-5 Silence is Broken
Job’s friends have been sitting with him for a full week, with no one uttering a word. Finally, the silence is broken by Job himself; cursing the day he was born.
Job is in extreme agony. He is not cursing God for his predicament. Instead, he laments ever being born in the first place. I can understand his point and pain.
From this point on in Job, we have rambling rebukes and replies. I do not want to simply cut and paste into the story. What I feel I should do is to translate those discourses into language we might here today. This means there will be few direct quotes, but I will do my best to maintain the ‘flavor’ of what is said.
Let’s rejoin Job as his heart cries out against his suffering. Holy Spirit, I have no idea where You will be taking us today, but I will follow wherever You lead.
♥ ♦ ♥
It has been a full week since Job’s friends joined him. They watch silently as he uses pottery shards to scrape his skin raw and open the sores. They cringe each time new blood or puss seeps from his sores. The only movements they have made in this time are to eat or eliminate. Their only offering to him is their presence. And none dare to speak a word to him; good or bad. Silence reigns supreme.
The ashes are running low in the area where Job is sitting. He has been using them for more than a month; applying them to his weeping sores. As he scoops up another handful after opening again the sores on the bottom of his left foot, he can take it no longer. He lets out a mournful wail that startles everyone else, including his wife who is working nearby.
His friends look at one another, wondering what to do, when Job breaks the verbal silence that has settled over the group like a heavy woolen blanket.
“I wish I had never been born!” he laments.
No one knows how to answer this statement. Thoughts begin to form in the minds of his friends, but they wait silently. Giving Job room to express his pain. It is only right that he speak first.
Tears gather in Job’s eyes. “WHY couldn’t I have died in my mother’s womb? There was such joy on the day of my birth; when they announced to my father that he had a son. If I could go back and undo that moment I would, without hesitation. I would hide that day in the blackest night. Wrap it up and strangle it so it never would have happened.”
Job’s hands come together and mime crushing something between them. The force of his despair making the muscles of his arms tremble and his fingers turn white as he strives to force from existence the very air that lies between his hands.
“I wish that the entire day, and every observance of it since that day be stricken from the minds of everyone on earth. That that day would be so shrouded in darkness and clouds that no one would call it special. That all the earth would fear even remembering it.”
Job throws his hands up in despair before bringing them to his face to cover it. With bitter tears he continues.
“Why did I have to be born instead of dying at my birth? Why did anyone have to love me and nourish me? If I had died at birth, I would have known nothing but peace. I could have been at rest with all those who have passed on before me. No worries of making a money. No cares of walking the right path. No fear of reprisal or failure. Nothing but peace.”
Job drops his hands into his lap. Tears flow freely down his face.
“Why do I have to be alive now? To feel the sun on my face each morning as I wake from stolen moments of sleep, still in agony. Why doesn’t God just let me die? I would rejoice if He would simply let me slip from this earth instead of keeping me here to endure this agony. If He would only tell me what it is that He wants from me, I could find some comfort. As it is, I have no rest. I have no direction. I have no joy. Only trouble. And the very thing I have feared now weighs upon my weary body. I fear that my God has abandoned me.”
Job falls silent. His chin heavy upon his chest and his hands limp in his lap. His tears continue to fall softly onto his hands and seep into the dirt beside them.
Eliphaz looks at those around him. Their faces are turned towards the ground as well. He feels compelled to say something to Job. To offer comfort, encouragement, and maybe a bit of correction.
“Job, if I speak will you listen? Will you be patient enough to hear me out?”
Job lifts his head enough to see his friend’s face, but not enough to look him in the eye. Eliphaz takes this as encouragement to speak.
“Job, your life has been filled with purpose. You have taught many. You have encouraged those who were hurting. You have strengthened those who were failing. Yet, when it is you who need encouragement and strengthening, you rail against it. You have become impatient and are dismayed at the length of your suffering.”
Eliphaz shifts his position until he is on his knees, as though pleading with Job.
“Your fear God and the integrity of your walk in His ways has always been your hope.”
Eliphaz closes his eyes for a moment before continuing. He knows that, what he is about to say will sting.
“Think about this though. Has there ever been a time when the innocent perished, or the righteous been cut off? Does not the one who engages in sin reap sorrows? By the very breath of God they perish and are consumed by His anger.”
Eliphaz can see the wheels in Job’s mind turning. Job is considering his words, but before Job can respond, Eliphaz continues.
“Something came to my mind like a spirit in a dream. When this thought took hold of me, the hairs on my head stood straight up. The voice in my spirit said; ‘Can a mortal man every be truly right before God? Can he stand pure before his Maker?’ Even angels have fallen before him, how much more so man, in this body made of dust. He is buffeted and tempted every day. They live and die without anyone even taking notice, and they die without true wisdom.”
Eliphaz sits back from his pleading position into one of near accusation. He spreads his arms wide as he calls to Job’s wisdom and pride.
“Look around you. Who will you turn to for answers? Who is holy enough to give you counsel?”
Eliphaz looks Job straight in the eyes.
“Annoyance kills a fool as surely as jealousy does to the simple. Even his children suffer because of his foolishness and others eat the works of his hand. They take everything he has, even that which is hidden. Trouble doesn’t come up from the dust of the ground but from a man’s heart. He is born into trouble.”
Eliphaz shakes his head and sits back.
“As for me, I would seek God for answers. For who but Him knows the unsearchable and marvelous things? Who but Him gives rain in its season and harvest in its? He lifts up and comforts those who are humble, while frustrating the crafty and wise who think to gain much by their own hands. The crafty and wise wind up in traps of their own making and are brought to a quick end. But He saves the needy from the hand of the mighty and the poor have hope.”
Eliphaz holds his hands out to Job.
“Blessed is the one who God disciplines. Don’t despise his correction. He wounds, but He binds up afterwards and the new is better than the last. He will deliver those He disciplines from famine and war; those who heed His hand. When He restores you, you will know peace. You will laugh at famine and the beasts of the earth. You will live to a ripe old age and your descendants will be like the grains of grass.”
Eliphaz puts his hand over his heart.
“We have seen this and we know it is true. Hear what I have said now, for your own good.”
(to be continued)
I don’t know what I would say if my friend said this to me. I would start with, “YES. I have seen those who appear to live righteous lives, cut off. If not, then this world would be filled with those who never died because they were following God. I have seen the innocent children broken, battered, and destroyed. NOT for what they did, but because of this world we live in.”
I pray that I have paraphrased the words well and have not changed the meaning of what Job’s friend is trying to tell him, or what Job is railing against. I trust that the Spirit guided me in this task.
Father God, hold my heart as I walk through Job’s pain with him and listen to his friends. They are trying their best to support him. But they blame him instead. Oh how I remember that ‘game’. “If only your faith was stronger, you would…” And the ones that my own mind supplies; “You must have done something to deserve…”
Help me hold firm to Your love. To allow YOU to be God and not me. To recognize that, bad things happen to good people too. Help me recognize the difference between a lesson I need to learn and a fact of this fallen world.
I still don’t know why You allowed Satan a free hand in Job’s life. Maybe I will when I see you face to face.
