A congregational study of the Book of Job. By Pastor Jose Luis
Session Six. Read Job chapter 3.
Finally, after the great silence, Job breaks it and expresses his anger and frustration in these terms:
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said:
3 “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ 4 Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. 11 “Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire?
Job begins with the most radical declaration of his misery: he curses the day of his birth; he declares that life is only misery and that he would have preferred to die at birth than come to the world to suffer.
It is interesting that he cursed the day of his birth, but he did not curse God for giving him life. The curse is directed against the misery of life, against the suffering that he is experiencing, the curse is not against the creator of life. He did not blame God for his suffering, but he expresses his anger and frustration for his condition with one word: Why?
In his statement Job declares that nonexistence for him would be better than his present anguish and pain. Again, the Why appears: Why do we live if we have to suffer?
The question to God and his friends is clear: If life is full of misery and suffering, why was humanity created? Why was Job created?
Verse 20 says:
Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul.
When you experience suffering, how do you direct your lament to God? Do you express your anger and manifest to God your need to know “Why”?
Tell me your impressions. pastor@lcostampa.org