It may be noteworthy to say that, after Job spoke, he not only didn’t curse God, as it was predicted he would, but neither did he curse man. Remember, bands of men were responsible for destroying both his wealth and his family. Yet, Job never even once sought God in prayer to slay or punish those men. Why? I believe he didn’t seek revenge, because he realized that God was ultimately responsible for his calamities. Whether God permitted it or was personally responsible for Job’s present condition wasn’t the issue. Job understood that God was behind it all! Moreover, it was this understanding that snatched Job out of the brightness of day, where he understood life, and thrust him into the night, where nothing seemed clear. Everything was chaotic. So, Job asks: “Why? Why has God done this?”
Job asks many questions, by the way. Does he expect God to answer? I’m not certain, but I don’t think so. Job’s questions are a lot like our own, when we are confused about life. WHY??? It’s probably the most asked question in life, certainly the easiest to express, but it is often the most difficult to find a satisfactory answer for. Yet, it doesn’t prevent us from uttering it over and over again: “Why?” Why was I born? Why am I allowed to continue to live? Isn’t God a good God, and, if so, at the very least he should take me away from all this suffering and let me die!
Why was I born? Why is anyone born? Is there a purpose? If we serve God, as best we understand, expecting him to support us in doing the very things he wants done in this world, what’s the point, if we do all the right things, but we find God isn’t pleased? What’s the point, if God expresses his displeasure by destroying the very life of the one who seeks to serve him? What purpose is there in birth, when living makes no sense? Wouldn’t it be better, if I were never born (Job 3:11)?
Okay, so I was born! At least I tried to do it all correctly. Doesn’t’ that deserve a response? Why do I continue to live? Is there a point in suffering, and, if not, why do I continue to live this catch-22 life (Job 3:20)? What does it accomplish? Even if there were a point, and I found it out, what good would that do me in my present condition? Job found himself a cast off of society. He dwelt among the city’s cast offs, the city’s garbage, the stuff that ran its course and was no longer useful. What value does a homeless person have? Does anyone seek his wisdom? What power does he have? Even if the world’s secrets were found out by him, who would listen? Is there value in suffering, in being humiliated, dwelling alongside of the city’s broken treasures, now devalued and cast away? Why do I continue to suffer day after day? What’s the point? Where’s the value in a devalued life that no one regards? What possible purpose does this life have now? Why can’t I just die? Where’s the mercy for me, that I’ve offered to others?
Questions abound, but where are the answers? Does anyone know? Why, God? Why? What purpose do you have in all this? Even if you have a purpose, what value could that be, since I am unable to uncover any rhyme or reason for what has occurred (Job 3:23)? Again, even if we suppose that God has a point, what possible good could that make, if we don’t understand his point? If we are in the dark, how are we able to serve him?
Life, for Job, seems so chaotic. Day has turned to night. He despaired of ever having pleased God, even though he sought to do so throughout his life. There is nothing else he’d rather do than serve the Lord, but it seems all his service was unacceptable. He not only found himself rejected by society, but he perceived he was also rejected by God, himself. He suffered at his hand but he didn’t know why. Why God? Why was I born, if I cannot please you? Having not pleased you, why don’t you show mercy and simply remove me from the land of the living? And, finally, even if you had a purpose in all this, what possible value does that purpose have, if I cannot understand it? Why not end the charade and let me die?
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