Job 3:1-26
3:1-10 Job sunk into a deep depression and disregard for his life. His pain and sadness were so strong that he regretted living. Many people around the world experience the depth of such emotion. So many of us can relate to Job but all of us can benefit from him. Job entered such a bleak place not because of what he lost but because of what he gave away: trust and hope in the Lord.
Job did not blame God. Job did not curse God. But Job lost his trust that all things work for the good of those who love the Lord, Romans 28:8. Job submitted to hopelessness. When we submit to hopelessness, we neglect opportunities God has placed us in to learn. To grow. To serve. Job did not realize it it but he was a living testimony of God's goodness. Job's life was a direct challenge to Satan.
Job's life have purpose, meaning. Job's family was safe, in heaven with God. Job's riches and land all still belonged to him but was temporarily withheld by the Lord's command. Our life is filled with opportunity. A child of God can confidently know that any place they are in is one they have been positioned in by God. God's grace and righteous strategy has organized your life.
Periodically in life we find ourselves in positions we would (much) rather not be in. Yet a simple but honest conversation with God will reveal the reason for the period of tribulation. We must never allow temporary seasons to destroy our eternal perspective and relationship with God.
3:6-10 Fatigued by grief, Job had the unhealthy, illogical thought that he could fight darkness with darkness. Instead of the light that was his life, his birth, he wished for night. God never trained us to think that way. When hopelessness grabs at us, we must resist it. He must insist that our God shines brighter than its void. We must believe that hope is worth its effort.
3:11-13 Job wondered: why am I ever here? His despair made him feel as though he would have preferred a perpetual slumber. But God did not breathe His own breath into our lungs so that we could be irrelevant. God placed His light within us so that we would be a lamp, a sun bursting through the darkness of the world, Matthew 5:14-16.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp-stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
Job would have healed himself by interpreting his painful position as an opportunity to shine his God-given light. God built us to shatter darkness, so why would we be consumed by it?
Job asked why he did not die at birth. The answer for him and you is that he/you lived because God has a purpose and a plan for each individual, Jeremiah 29:11.
3:14-19 Job contemplated that death would have been more preferable. God calls us to awake, arise, to be strong, to be brave because we were built to live, to speak, to create, to influence, to impact. Job is among many honorable men and women inside and outside of scripture whose strife resulted in miracle, beauty and revealed purpose.
3:20-26 Essentially, Job wanted to know why God gave life to the people who do not necessarily understand it as a gift. Job no longer wanted his life. He did not value it. God gave him life because despair was not the end or the purpose of his journey.
Whenever someone does not value their life, they have lost sight of God's promises. It is a tragic way to live. God values each life any life that strives in accordance with His will, will see purpose revealed. The book of Job is an arduous, emotional, long journey of scripture. It shares characteristics with the arduous, emotional, long journey that can be life... but does not have to be.
Believe that God has purpose. Trust in His ability to bring it about. Hope in the goodness of His plans.
