Page 18 - The Poetic Books - Student Text

As a pastor I have visited with many people who have suffered horribly. One couple from Liberia lost
their respective spouses. Before that they had to flee for a time from their homes due to civil war. As a
teenager, the wife had lived in the forest with her family for five years, losing her father to the hostilities.
The rebels thought he would have some money since he was a pastor. When they discovered his poverty,
they stomped him to death. The husband fled to a neighboring
town and pastored a church in a refugee camp. After a time, the
local people demanded they leave and burned the church
building. The issue confronts us often.

We know little of Job’s mind and emotions at this point. That is
about to change. Three friends appear. We do not know much
about them. When they hear of Job’s difficulties, they gather and
travel to his town to comfort him. They are remarkable friends,
weeping, tearing their robes, and sitting with dust on their heads.
They sit with him for seven days and seven nights in sympathy
with him for his suffering. They do not dismiss Job with a friendly,
“I will pray for you.” They do not let their compassion end with a
cup of soup and a trite, “I hope you get better soon.” Seven days
is a long time to commiserate. With their words of comfort and
Job’s responses, we are about to get a thorough education in Figure 8: Job and friends, Gustov Doré 1866
God’s purposes in suffering.

In response to the seven days of commiseration by his friends, Job begins the conversation by cursing
the day of his birth. Using a variety of metaphors, he wishes he had never been born. Darkness should
overtake it. If that were the case, he would be at rest. He asks the basic question of suffering, “Why is
light given to those in misery and life to the bitter soul (3:20)?” If God has a hand in birth and if he knows
at least something of the future, why would he allow someone to be born to a life of suffering? It does
not make sense.

Job is contemplating the exact opposite of Satan’s accusation at the beginning. “Have you not put a
hedge around him (1:10)?” asks Satan of God. Life is too good for him. It does not make sense to point
Job out as an example of a good man faithfully following God. He is well paid. Why would he choose
anything else? Job uses the same imagery in reverse. “Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden,
whom God has hedged in (3:23)?” The hedge is not for protection from suffering but to give suffering.
He cannot escape.

As a man of keen spiritual sensibilities, Job had anticipated this very possibility. “What I feared has come
upon me (3:25).” While he was offering all those sacrifices year after year for the potential sins of his
children, he wondered if the world might be such that worship of the one true God would not pay off.
The NIV ends the chapter with: “I have no peace, no quietness; I have no rest, but only turmoil (3:26).”
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The King James Version might have better grasped the worry of Job. “I was not in safety, neither had I
rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.” As far as Job knew, he was doing everything right. Then

22 At several crucial points the King James Version seems to have the best translation to follow the
argument. We will note these as we progress.
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