Job 3:1-26 – Death is not a solution to crisis, God is!

Job’s great agony was indescribable. Everything he had, suffered greatly. The devastation of his children was unbearable. His misery was compounded by the fact that he had an uncompassionate and unsympathetic wife. To add to his misery, his wealth had taken a bad beating, his livestock and property were lost to two natural calamities. As if those were not enough, his health was hit. Now he was at the worst ebb of his life. Sores and boils infested his whole body. No part was spared. He felt pain and itch at the same time and had to use a piece of broken pottery to scrape whatever part that was itching to find temporary relief for the itch. Nothing had gone well for him. The last we learned of him was that for seven days and seven nights, he kept silent, accompanied by Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, who also spoke nothing. Though it was only seven days and night, the time must have stood still for him. They must have been the longest days and nights of his life.

In this chapter, we get to feel how intolerable the suffering must have been for Job. Absolutely no one could withstand so many catastrophes. What Job went through was way beyond human endurance. It’s understandable that he would despair of life itself. So we see Job losing his composure and broke into an impassioned plea for death. His lament begins the poetry section of the book. We can see three things he wished for. In verses 1-10, he wished he had never been born. In verses 11-19, he wished he had died at birth and in verses 20-26, he wished he could die there and then. However, Job deserved to be credited. Although he desired death yet at no point did he seek to take his own life. He only wondered why he survived so long only to experience those crises. He was searching for an answer. If life had to come to this wouldn’t it better if he had not been born? Why was he given life only to experience all these insufferable pains? If life is so unpleasant why didn’t his mother just suffer a miscarriage? Why were he even born at all and had such a reception at the knees of his parents? The thoughts recorded here show us how human Job was. We must know that death is never the answer.

So, let us consider what suffering can do to a person. It’s not unusual to have a negative mindset when undergoing great suffering. Great and prolonged pain and torment will cause a person to wish he has never existed. But what can we do when we are in the midst of a tough time? Hind sight is always 20/20. Job must have gone through a thoroughly introspection of himself seeking to find where he had faltered. Precisely because he was a righteous and God-fearing man, and one who pursued God relentlessly that he couldn’t pinpoint a wrong. It must have been baffling for him. Just as it was for Job, it must also be for us when we are going through trials. All of us, God-loving people, need to know that the answer to all suffering, great or small, lie hidden in the wisdom of the wise and powerful God we worship and serve. No matter how intense a trial in life may be, He is the only one who has the answer.  

Trails can be hard to endure. So is there something that we can we do when we are not tested by a trail? We can do a periodical self-examination. This is a good and much needed exercise. It allows us to trace our steps, correct, then adjust and align our life with God’s plan and purpose. Every believer needs to make time for solitude and silence before God, to reflect and evaluate life. It’s a very humbling exercise. Don’t wait till some tragic events to come before we come seeking God for an answer. We should learn from David, who consistently and constantly sought a right relationship with God. Let his prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 be the echoes of our hearts too. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.”