For seven days the four friends had kept silent, weeping and mourning together. When, in a single day, four messengers brought Job the horrendous news of the loss his family and all of his worldly possessions, with the possible exception of the home in which lived, Job never uttered a complaint. Rather, he worshiped and praised God (Job 1:20-21). When the once greatest man in the East lost his health, and was humiliated by being cast out of the city and left to dwell in or near the city’s dump, and his wife out of pity over his condition advised him to curse God and die, he rebuked her, saying the Lord was perfectly in the right, as Master of the universe, to both give and take away his blessings. If we have enjoyed good things from the Lord, we need also to accept life without that good. Moreover, when his three friends saw him, not recognizing him in the beginning, but then sat with him in silence, Job also kept silent, and perhaps this was his only consolation throughout the whole ordeal, which he was forced to endure.
It was Job who broke the silence of the past seven days, and perhaps this was as it should be, because who really knows the suffering of a friend or loved one? We may suffer with them, weeping and mourning with them, but no one can really say: “I know what you are going through!” Many say they do and offer their advice, but their words often fall like dust to the ground, too often meaningless utterances, spoken out of turn about that which they have no knowledge.
So, Job “opened his mouth” (Job 3:1), and after seven full days of silence, one might expect what he would say would be quite profound, the utterance of well-considered deep thoughts. The Psalmist says: “Listen, oh my people… I will open my mouth in a parable… and tell the generations to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength and his wondrous works that he has done!” (Psalm 78:1-4). Indeed, Job’s first words in seven days were quite profound. Without question, they reflected his deep thoughts about his condition. Yet, Job didn’t curse (H1288) God, as satan predicted he would (Job 2:5). Instead, Job opened his mouth and cursed (H7043) the day he was born, using the very word that is usually used for cursing (Job 3:1-3).[1]
Job desired that the day of his birth be covered with darkness (Job 3:4), and he uses four different words to describe that darkness. Job says: let darkness (H2822) stain it, and blackness (H3650) terrify it (Job 3:5). Let darkness (H652) seize its (night) (verse-6), and let the stars of twilight be dark (H2821) over it (verse-9). Job didn’t even want God to regard the day (Job 3:4). He wanted it expunged from the calendar (Job 3:6), and joyful voices should be kept from singing in its night (verse-7). He didn’t want any light to shine in it (Job 3:4-5), and would have the sun never rise upon it (verse-9), because his mother’s womb wasn’t kept shut to save him from the sorrow he had to endure (Job 3:10). In fact, Job hoped those who love to curse would curse his day (Job 3:8) and raise up Leviathan.[2]
One needs to ask, as he reads Job’s words, is he being reasonable? I believe that we must conclude he is not. How could one delete a day from the calendar? Every year is as long as the previous one, because the orbit of the earth around the sun is always approximately the same for it to take its annual expedition. How could the Lord not regard what he, himself, had created (this is the day the Lord has made…)? We know that people in severe pain are often delirious and don’t make a lot of sense when they speak. Yet, Job doesn’t appear to be delirious. Rather, he gives himself over to being very illogical. His words are without reason, but are they nothing more than the utterances of one in severe pain?
I believe Job reflected a long time (he had seven days) upon what he should say, and, once he began speaking, he understood very well that he wasn’t making sense, but that’s his point! He mentioned Leviathan, and in doing so, he gave us the clue that shows he is perfectly cognizant of what he’s saying. Job sees himself in the midst of chaos. Nothing works as expected. He doesn’t deserve to be treated, as he has been forced to endure (cp. Job 2:3), and he knows it. So, why is God doing this? Why am I suffering? Why have I lost my family and all I own? Why was I once a great man, but now find myself humiliated and cast out of the city to dwell alone in the dust of the town’s other devalued things? Why do I find myself in this leprous-like condition? Nothing is as it should be. Job sees his life as utterly chaotic and without an explanation, and he wished he had died at birth rather than experience a chaotic life, where nothing makes sense!
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[1] See my previous study: Curse God and Die!
[2] Leviathan is a sea serpent noted in theology and mythology. It is mentioned in Psalms, Job, Isaiah and Amos. We also find it in the Book of Enoch. Leviathan is often understood as the embodiment of chaos, where there is no order, and where nothing makes sense.
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