Podcast 17, Stories of the Bible, “The Book of Job, Ch 3”

Podcast 17, Stories of the Bible, “The Book of Job, Ch 3”

Job has lost his fortune which was vast. He has lost his children which were many. Now he has lost his health. He has boils all over his body. He sits in ashes and scrapes his skin with a potsherd, a broken piece of pottery. We can fully understand the lamentations of Chapter Three. He curses the day he was born.

Job 3:1-10

1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.

2 And Job spake, and said,

3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.

4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.

7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.

8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.

9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:

10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.

That is a clear vision of despair. Though Job has become the symbol of despair, he is not fiction or a mere parable. We must accept the idea that Job was a historical figure. In Ezekiel we learn that Job is compared to Noah and Daniel for his righteousness.

Ezekiel 12:12-14

12 The word of the Lord came again to me, saying,

13 Son of man, when the land sinneth against me by trespassing grievously, then will I stretch out mine hand upon it, and will break the staff of the bread thereof, and will send famine upon it, and will cut off man and beast from it:

14 Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.

3 RON

James also mentions Job.

James 5:11 

“Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”

The story becomes very real, knowing that Job was human like the rest of us. He asked the Lord Why died I not from the womb?

Job 3;11-12

11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?

12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?

Job is not the only one who has asked that profound question. And yet he received no answer. Today, the entire world, who is familiar with his story, knows the answer. He lived to be an example to all of us. It is sort of like saying, “If Job can endure his suffering, which is much greater than my own, I can endure mine. He somehow makes is possible.

Job did not suffer without complaining. Notice his comparisons.

            Job 3:13-19

13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for themselves;

15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:

16 Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.

17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.