Job 3: Job’s Lament

So I missed Bible study last week! We’ll look at chapter 3 and 4 this week.

Chapter 3 is crazy! Job is cursing everything he could possible think of. This chapter gets real!

Verse 1-10

So remember at the end of Chapter 2 all the friends sat together in silence? Well, Job is the first person to break the silence and he’s not happy. He begins by cursing the date of his birth. He says things like let God forget about the day, let it be erased from the calendar, let the day just vanish from existence, let people that are the best at cursing curse the day etc etc. The point is, Job wished his birthday never ever existed. Do you feel like that sometimes? But he’s just warming up lol. His lament gets deeper in the next verses.

Verse 11-19

After cursing the date of his birth, he now curses his actual birth! He says, why did I not die as my mom was giving birth? Why was she there to receive me with open arms? If she wasn’t there I’d be sleeping peacefully with the kings that came before me. Why was I not a stillborn? Etc, Etc. So now Job is like, okay so maybe we can’t erase a day from the calendar so I wish instead that I died while my mother was giving birth. Wow! Do you feel like that sometimes?

Verse 20-26

First, Job cursed the day of this birth. Second, he cursed his actual birth. Now, he’s questioning the purpose of life. Hmm, I know we’ve all questioned that before. Why do people that clearly don’t want to live anymore still wake up to a new day? Why is life given to those that will be happier in death? Why does God not allow us to see the meaning of life. What’s the point of it all? Do you have those same questions? I know some of us probably love our birthday and have never cursed it. You’ve probably even never cursed your birth. But, all of us have certainly wondered about the meaning of life. Job closes out his lament feeling like the only thing left for him is death.

I often wonder why certain chapters are in the bible. This whole chapter is a lament and could’ve easily been explained in two or three sentences. Instead it was expounded upon. I feel like God is showing us here that it is okay to be frustrated, confused, and disappointed with life. It’s okay to be overwhelmed with life so much that we start to question it’s importance. We’re human. But what I love about this lament is that through it all Job still didn’t curse God. He basically cursed everything but God!

That’s all for chapter 3. It was a short one but important nonetheless!

Challenge: Let us not curse God in our anger.