Job 3 Commentary

Job 3 Commentary

What’s the point of life? That’s the title of this chapter in the Message Bible. It’s an interesting title! But Job’s statement is also a complaint framed within a series of questions.

Yes, the question does come, and Job answers it superbly. By paying very little attention to the loss of material possessions and by scorning the threat to his life posed by a serious, incurable disease, Job, in essence, admits that there is something more important than the life we know.

Instead of cursing God, as suggested by Job’s wife, Job curses the day he was born. He should not exist at all. Then this problem doesn’t exist. He addresses himself to the Creator God. This should be very interesting!

He hasn’t complained about the loss of possessions or his health, but instead turns to his God for explanations. The saint can take important lessons from Job’s reaction.

Job wishes something failed during his formation. He laments the fact that none of the things that could fail failed. Consequently, and sadly, Job lives only to have this kind of trouble. It is an indirect admission that the LORD makes decisions at every stage of the saint’s life.

Job’s view of life is quite advanced. He sees himself as existing even before his physical form manifested.

Importantly, Job knows he is not his own man. God gives life. God takes life. The formula for giving life or taking it isn’t exactly square. Only God knows.

There can be godliness in the saint’s lamentations. The saint can lament in complete obedience.

The statement that “What I greatly feared has come upon me” isn’t a reference to a life lived in obedience because of fear. Job’s obedience exists with or without the fears. His faith in God in the face of extreme trouble and “zero” benefits proves this point.

Regardless, (and who could blame him), Job asks, “What is the point of life?” The first two chapters answer this question, but Job isn’t aware. God is the point of life! Whatever happens here serves the purposes of God. Of course, Job won’t know it fully until the LORD responds, but that’s for the closing chapters of the book.

For now, Job must struggle with his own thoughts and the reaction of his own world.

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