This program of daily devotions is designed to take you through the Bible in three years. It is our desire to help you gain a better general understanding of God's Word.
Please understand that in a study this brief, we will be concerned with only the major emphases and context of the Scriptures.
Each day a devotion for one or two chapters is posted, beginning with chapter one of Genesis and going through chapter twenty-two of Revelation. You are free to print each page as it appears. If you miss a day, you may contact us and request that devotion. Please send your request, along with $.50 (p&handling) for each page to:
Bruce McGee,Pastor
205 Adams
Columbia, LA 71418
HERE
Bro. Bruce's commentaries for the books of
Genesis through 2Kings are
now available in hard copy for $7.50. Just
mail your request for COMMENTARY ON (BOOK NAME) to the address above.
Job
CHAPTER 3
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.
Job is distraught; his soul is in deep anquish. Is there such a thing as torment which causes the mind to go astray? Sometimes pain and suffering will do awful things to a person's mind.
It is the duty of believers to determine spirit-power over mind-power. When our minds wander from our focus on God, we must allow our spirits to be subject to God and force refocusing.
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?
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 counsellers 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.
20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Which long for death, but it cometh not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
Now Job says it would have been better if he died at birth. This, at least, is a more noble thought.
Indeed, WHY?
I could choose from many, many examples here. But one is very fresh in my mind. There is a young boy in our church who was born out of wedlock to a cocaine addict. He is called a "crack-head" baby.
Yes, death IS a release from suffering; but we should not seek it prematurely. We should determine to serve our Creator THROUGH all of our suffering in order that we may give Christ to someone else.
Notice that Job says that thing which he "greatly feared" has happened to him (verse 25). Often our greatest fear becomes our testing from Satan! Please continue in Bible Study with us.
They have been sitting there now for 7 days and nights. Job has been thinking. His mind must have wandered from his focus upon God. For now he speaks not as a wise man, but as a man who is overwraught with suffering.
The Bible says Job "cursed his day." In other words, he despised having been born. It is one thing to despise the circumstances in which we live, but quite another to question the integrity of God in having given us birth. Job is saying that it would have been better to have not been born at all than to have this awful suffering.
But, how shall we come to know God, and find forgiveness from our sin without first being born?
Partially here, Job typifies Christ because of the deepness of his suffering. He has truthfully tried to live for God and has done no wrong that he hasn't confessed and received forgiveness.
Yet, he yields to the temptation to question God and Christ did NOT! For as Christ was in great anguish of soul in the garden of Gethsemane, He prayed,
"Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke 22:42)
In my years of ministry, I have seen many Christians stray from a determination to honor God in ALL things because of the deepness of anquish and suffering. OH! HOW WE NEED OUR LOVING GOD TO COMFORT US IN THE ANGUISH OF LIFE!
Death IS release from the sufferings of this life (verses 17-19). And why should a person be born to suffering?
Physically, he suffers every day of his life from physical pain and torment. His jaws will not close for chewing; he has a feeding tube, surgically implanted in his stomach; his legs do not work, and he is confined to a wheel chair.
But he does not question God's integrity for letting him LIVE! Indeed, he PRAISES God for giving him life! He loves to sing of Jesus!
Without having been born, he would not have known the love of his adoptive parents. Without having been born alive, he would not have come to know Christ as the DELIVERER from sorrow and suffering. Without having been born, he would not KNOW that there is eternal life through Christ with NO SUFFERING and NO TEARS.
As God's chosen, elect and precious people, we must live without fear by living IN the love of Christ.
"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began," (2Timothy 1:7-9)
Now Job's outright testimony of his wayward thoughts brings rise to his friends thinking he is sinful. In their eyes, salvation is wrought by faith-works. You will note throughout their statements to Job, that they contend if a man believes and does right, he will not suffer.
And friends, that is perhaps the greatest achievement of this book! For this book PROVES that a man is subject to God and God's desire for him. All the good works in the world will not keep a man from suffering. We are sinners all, and we suffer as a direct result of our sins, and as an indirect result of the sins of others.
Job is never commended for questioning the integrity of God allowing his birth. For he was wrong to do so.
But these men will most severely be reproved for their promotion of a "faith-works" salvation.