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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Kerry Duke: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
In the Book of Job chapter one Job lost everything that he had, but he still blessed God. In chapter two now he has a terrible disease on top of everything else that this man suffered. At first, he maintains his composure. Well, his three friends come to comfort him and to mourn with him. They sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights and none spoke a word to him, the Bible says, because they saw that his grief was very great.
But when we come to chapter three of the Book of Job, we find that the pain is getting to him. His torment is beginning to unnerve him, and Job begins to speak. And when he does, he pours out his [00:01:00] grief and his fear and his anger especially. You know, when we're under a lot of pressure, what is on the inside will come out, and sometimes that surprises and even shocks the people that are around us. But when we are under a great deal of pain and pressure, that's what happens. We might say that when we're under a great deal of stress in life, what is inside of us comes out—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
So let's read what was on the mind of this great man when he was under severe stress in Job chapter three. I'm going to read this whole chapter with us. Job chapter three, beginning in verse one. “After this job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job spoke and said, “May the day perish on which I was born and the night in which it was said a male child is conceived. May that day be darkness. May God above not see it, nor the light shine upon it. May darkness and the shadow of death claim it. May a cloud settle [00:02:00] on it. May the blackness of the day terrify it. As for that night, may darkness seize it. May it not rejoice among the days of the year. May it not come into the number of the months. Oh, may that night be barren. May no joyful shout come into it. May those curse it who curse the day. Those who are ready to arouse leviathan, may the stars of its morning be dark. May it look for light, but have none and not see the dawning of the day because it did not shut up the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes. Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast that I should nurse? For now, I would have laid still and been quiet. I would have been asleep then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who built ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden like a [00:03:00] stillborn child, like infants who never saw light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners rest together. They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master. Why is a light given to him who is in misery? And life to the bitter of soul who long for death, but it does not come, and search for it more than hidden treasures, who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? For my sign comes before I eat and my groanings pour out like water. For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, for trouble comes’”
In verse one, the Bible says that job opened his mouth and cursed his day. The New King James says he cursed the day of his [00:04:00] birth in italics. And that is the idea. Why did I ever live to see this day? Job says I wish I had never been born. That's what he means in verse three when he says may the day perish on which I was born, and the night in which it was said, a male child is conceived.
And by the way, just as a side observation here, this is one of many passages in the Bible that show that life begins at conception. Notice verse three: a male child conceived. There wasn't a conception of something that developed into a human being. This was a human being from the point of conception.
Another clear verse is Luke one, verse 36. That's where the Bible says that Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, had conceived a son in her old age, and because of all this pain and grief, Job asked the question that we are looking at and that is [00:05:00] why. Why is all this happening? Look at verse 11 again.
Why didn't I die at birth? Why didn't I perish when I came from the womb? Why did the knees receive me? Why the breast that I should nurse? In verse 16, he says why couldn't I have been like a stillborn child and like infants, little babies, who never saw the light? Job is saying I would have been better off if I had died in my mother's womb because at least there I would've been at rest. That's where everybody wants to go.
That's what he says in verse 18. There the prisoners rest together, the small and the great are there. In verse 19 and then in verse 20 we see that word “Why” again And this, by the way, in verse 20 and 21, is a question that people still ask to this very day.
why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter of soul, who long for death, but it does not come? Why does God allow us to live? We have a lot of questions for God. [00:06:00] Why did You make us, Lord? Why did You create this world? Why do we have so much evil and suffering in this life?
And sometimes, ironically, we ask God, “Lord, why don't You let me live longer?” Then there are other times where we say, “Lord, why don't You let me die?” That's what's taking place here in Job chapter three. He's talking about people who are in such pain that they, as he says in verse 21, look forward death. They want to die.
And you might say that that's a natural human response, a natural human feeling in some ways. But you know, we have to read this in light of the whole Bible, don't we? We can't just read the Book of Job and say that it's better for anybody to die than to live in misery, because that depends on whether a person is saved or lost, and that is what the New Testament teaches us.
We have to be ready spiritually to die. But Job is not talking about that. He's not going into that. He's simply talking about the fact that he is in great pain and misery, [00:07:00] and he wants relief. He wants a release from all this suffering. But you'll notice in this book that there is one thing that he did not do and he did not mention. Even though he wished that he had died at birth and even though he talks about longing for death, at the same time, he did not talk about taking his own life, and he certainly didn't do that.
Now, he could have been like his wife in chapter two, verse nine who said curse God and die. But Job would not do that. You see, there's a difference between wanting to die and taking one's own life.
In this book of Job, you have to remember that Job is pouring out his emotions. He's pouring out his feelings. So we're really seeing what is on the inside of this man. And again, it's very easy for you and I to stand back and analyze him and sometimes criticize him. But if you'd been in the same situation that Job was, what would you have said?
And remember, in the case of Job, we're not talking about an ordinary good person here. We're talking about [00:08:00] the man of whom God said there is none like him in the earth. He was human just like you and I are.
Another great lesson in Job chapter three about the problem of evil and suffering is in verse 25. Notice what Job says. He said, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me. How many times do you worry about something that might happen? How many times are you anxious because something might turn out for the worst” Job said I greatly feared this and now it's here. I dreaded this. In other words, he thought about these things and now he's in the very situation that he was afraid of.
Now on the other hand, there are times that we are afraid something will happen and it never does happen. In the Bible, you read about David who thought that King Saul would kill him. As a matter of fact, David was so afraid that Saul would kill him, he was so sure in his mind, that he said [00:09:00] this—He said, “There is but a step between me and death” [I Samuel 20 verse three]. He said in First Samuel 27 verse one, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul.” But that didn't happen. David lived many more years after that.
When Jacob met his brother Esau in Genesis chapter 32, Jacob was scared to death. He was afraid that Esau and all his 400 men coming with him were going to attack and perhaps kill him and his family. So he prayed to God and prayed fervently. That was a long night. He had heard by messengers that Esau was coming with 400 men to meet him, and the reason that Jacob was so scared when he heard that was because he remembered what he had done to his brother 20 years before. He hadn't exactly treated him right, and now he's very afraid that his brother is going to attack him. But what happened when Esau came and met his brother? He was very friendly to him. So what he was afraid of and worried about never happened.
That's sometimes true in our lives. We might even [00:10:00] say that many times we worry about things that never do happen. But sometimes they do, and that's what Job means in Job 3:25, when he said, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me.”
Job was a conscientious man [Job chapter one, verse five]. It wouldn't be fair to say that he was a worrier, but he was human. Sometimes he thought about the future, and when he did, at times he would wonder about bad situations and he would have some fear about that. He would fear, for instance, what it would be like to lose everything, for something bad to happen to his children.
Now, that's something that every parent thinks about. We do everything that we can to prevent it, to protect them, even though we know that much of this is out of our hands. Job also, at some time, thought about health problems in the future. Now, this is very human. Doesn't this sound familiar? Isn't this what we sometimes do?
Well, what if this happens to me? What if my [00:11:00] health goes down? What if I become very ill and unable to function and enjoy life? When people are young, they don't think about that much, but as we age we fear those days—the suffering, how to pay for help, and how to pay for treatments. Who's going to be there to help? How long and how bad will it last? So let's look at ourselves and apply what we're seeing here to our lives. Do you fear what might happen? What do you fear the most? Do you fear losing what you have? Do you fear financial and perhaps severe financial troubles? You've worked hard. You don't want to lose it. You want to take care of your family. You want to leave something to your children, and that's good and that's right. You want to make sure that you have enough to live on in your old age.
Now, these are noble goals. These are good plans, but circumstances change and as the future unfolds, you can't predict it from one day to the next. And what if the worst does happen? What if there's some kind of national [00:12:00] disaster or national crisis? Suppose there's war or there's some kind of calamity that strikes your family and leaves you almost penniless. What do you do then? That is why we're studying the Book of Job. It will help us to see how this man endured and navigated through these storms of life.
And here's another passage on this very question later in the Bible. It's found in Habakkuk chapter three, verse 17 and 18. “Though the fig tree may not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.”
Do we remember in First Timothy six, seven and eight, that the Bible says “We brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out, and having food and clothing let us be [00:13:00] therewith content?” Jesus talked about this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:25 through 34. That is the section where Jesus talks about worry, and He talked about two things in particular: what you eat and the clothes that you wear. And Jesus’ bottom line to that worry is this. Matthew six, verse 33: “But you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
Here's another common worry today. Do you fear losing your health? Our health is a big part of our life. There's no doubt about that. If you're healthy, you can do more and you can enjoy life more. We see so much sickness around us and we sometimes think, “Well, what if that happened to me?” And we even fear something like that happening to us. That could be a heart attack. It could be a stroke, it could be blindness, it could be cancer. It could be becoming paralyzed. It could be Alzheimer's. It could be anything. One [00:14:00] point that we will discuss more and more as time goes on in this series is that there are many problems in life, including health problems, that can actually turn out for the good.
You think about Job and his story. This has done good for millions of people for thousands of years, and it continues to encourage us to this very day. Sometimes there are reasons that you just don't see for suffering and you certainly don't like them. In Second Corinthians chapter 12 verses seven through 10, a passage that we will discuss later, there you find the story of Paul's thorn in the flesh. Now this was so uncomfortable and perhaps painful that Paul prayed to God three times to take it away, but God didn't because God said I have a purpose for that. We'll talk about that, as I said, later, but I'm simply making the point here that many times we are so focused on the pain as human beings that we forget God's perspective of that because God sees the outcome not just in our lives but in the people [00:15:00] that that suffering might affect and in ways that people just don't even think about.
We need to remember too that this is a natural part of the world that we live in. This is life in Ecclesiastes 12 verses one through seven. The Bible shows that the body that we live in will return to the dust, and that sometimes can be a slow and painful process. Sometimes we're afraid of that and understandably so.
But when we look at the Bible, the Scriptures remind us time and again that this life is very short. It's like a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away [James four verse 14]. That means we have to keep our focus on the world to come. As Christians, we have to keep our mind set on that resurrection body that will be incorruptible, that will never get sick, that will never age, that will never die.
That's where we need to have our heart set. And here's another way that we can really relate to Job. Now, remember that Job said the thing that he greatly feared had come upon him, and that is [00:16:00] something bad happening to your children. And Job sometimes had that fear. We know that again because in Job chapter three, verse 25, he said for the thing I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me.
So Job feared this and it did happen. They died and Job lived through it. He kept his faith. Losing a loved one is one of our greatest fears in life. We dread this. Many people have experienced this and gone on and so can we. When we hear of parents losing a child, when we see young people taking chances today, when we think about mean people and dangerous highways, it does scare us.
But Job's example shows that no matter how great the fear and no matter how tragic the loss, we can get through it, we can move on. And I've wondered many times about Job and how he did it. I'm not just talking about Job making it through this tragedy initially. I'm not just talking about him surviving it while he was going [00:17:00] through all this pain and all this misery, and even the first few weeks or months after that.
I'm going to the very end of this book for this question now. But do you remember how long Job lived after all this trouble was over? He lived 140 years, and those were not bad days. Those were not evil years. The Bible says that Job died old and full of days. That's the very last statement in this book. Now full of days means that he had good days, that he had a peaceful life.
How could he have done that with all that loss? Because you know that he remembered all the things that happened to him, especially losing his 10 children. How did he live with that memory? Well, he was able to move on. He was able to heal, and he did that by his faith in God.
So even if the worst thing does happen and we end up saying, “I was afraid something like this would happen,” we know from the Book of Job and from the promises of God everywhere in the Bible that if we [00:18:00] put our faith in God and we put our hand in His and allow Him to lead us through, we can do it. We can make it through, we can endure even though the pain is so bad we tell ourselves “I can't do this. I can't take this.” Sometimes when we hear about something really tragic that has happened to someone else, we make the remark, “I don't think that I could live with that. I don't think that I could stand that.” But life teaches us and the Bible reminds us: Yes, you can.
Here's another important lesson that you've probably already been thinking about, and that is the fear of a tragedy can be worse and it can be harder on us than the tragedy itself. The worry and the stress that we build up on our mind oftentimes is worse than the problem itself when it does happen.
The story of David in Second Samuel Chapter 12 is a good example. You'll remember that God struck the child that David and Bathsheba had. The child became very sick. David did not know if that child would live or die, and he went through so much stress that he wouldn't [00:19:00] eat anything. He wouldn't have anything to do with anybody. He was totally consumed with the thought that his child might die. And the child did die. And when that happened, David was able to pull himself together to the surprise of his servants. So the thought of his child dying was worse in his case than the actual death of that child.
And that's what sometimes happens to us. We sometimes give ourselves more trouble by worrying about a thing than the problem itself gives us when it does happen. That may not be the case in every situation. Sometimes the reality is worse than just thinking about it or fearing it, but at least sometimes that's the case. But at any rate, in Job chapter three, we find all these feelings and all these thoughts going through Job's mind, and they come out in his words.
You see, Job is not just thinking about these things in chapter three. These are not just thoughts in his head. Job says these things and who hears them? His friends. Remember they've been quiet up to this time for [00:20:00] seven days. They haven't said anything to him. Job chapter two, verse 13 ends by saying, “So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his grief was very great.”
But when Job says all this in chapter three, when he cursed his day, when he says I wish that I died at birth, I wish that I'd never lived to see this day, why is all this happening to me. and he longed for death, that's when they became angry at him and they began to condemn him. They began to criticize him.
So we've entered into the argument stage of this story. And you can outline this book in three simple words that all begin with the same letter—A. First of all, in chapters one and two of the Book of Job, you have the “afflictions” of Job. In chapters three through 37, you have the “argument” between Job and his three friends. Later you will hear from a fourth one, and that man's name is Elihu. And then number three [00:21:00] in this book you have the “answer” from God in chapters 38 through 42.
So now in Job chapter four, the three friends begin to speak. And so this begins a cycle. His friends will say something to him and then Job responds. And the way that it runs is like this. Eliphaz will say something to Job, and Job responds. And then Bildad responds to Job, and Job responds to him. And then Zophar responds to Job and Job answers him back. Then it starts all over again. Eliphaz accuses Job. Job responds. Bildad accuses Job. Job responds. Zophar accuses Job, and Job responds.
Then it happens a third time in the same order. Eliphaz accuses Job. Job responds to him. Bildad has just a few words to say to Job, and Job responds to him. And Zophar doesn't say anything else. And then this younger man Elihu begins to speak. Now that's an outline of the argument that you're going to see.
Now you're going to read many things [00:22:00] in the Book of Job in this argument that will give you trouble understanding. Some of it is hard for any of us to understand, but if you understand and you remember the basic point that these three were making about Job, then you've got a handle on what this controversy is all about.
So what did they say about Job? Well, let's look in Job chapter four, and what we find is that in Job chapters four and five, Eliphaz is the first speaker and he starts out trying to be tactful. The Bible says in Job chapter four, verse one, “Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said, ‘If one attempts a word with you, will you become weary? But who can withhold himself from speaking?” He's saying we're trying to be careful here not to hurt your feelings Job unnecessarily, but this needs to be said. We can't help but say this. We know that you don't want to hear this, but you need to listen to us. You've helped other people that were in trouble, and now look at you.
And then Eliphaz begins to accuse job. Look at chapter four, verse seven [00:23:00] and eight. “Remember now, whoever perished being innocent or where were the upright cut off? Even as I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.” That sounds almost exactly like Galatians six, verse seven. Whatever a man sows that shall he also reap.
Now, that is what Eliphaz is saying about job. He's saying Job, God is punishing you for your sins. You are getting what you deserve. These things don't happen to good people. That's what he says in verse seven. He said when did you ever see somebody that was righteous going through what you're going through? These things don't happen to good people. Now, he doesn't say that directly here in Job chapter four. In other words, he doesn't use the word “you”—you have been plowing iniquity and you are reaping what you have sown, but that's the idea. Now he will get more personal, he and the other two will be more direct, as this argument progresses. And as it gets hotter and hotter, you'll find them being more [00:24:00] personal in their attack against job, and they will use the word “you.” But right now at this point he's speaking in general terms, but even at that, even though he's speaking indirectly, even though he's saying this by implication about Job, his charge is still that Job is a sinful man.
Now we know that Eliphaz was wrong. We know that because we can read Job chapter one verse eight and Job chapter two, verse three, where God said that Job was a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God and shunned evil. God himself said that two times. So really what happens here in this book is that in this argument, Eliphaz is the one who makes the initial charge against Job: Job, you're reaping what you have sown. And then what you find in the case of his two friends, Bildad and Zophar, is that they simply echo what Eliphaz said. And remember, these men are not strangers. They are not his enemies, they are his friends. And we would say some friends, [00:25:00] huh? And Job is going to have some choice words to say to them about this.
They have come to comfort him. They have come to support and encourage him, and they end up turning against him. So in the seven days and the seven nights that they sat down on the ground and didn't say anything, they were evidently thinking something. And the thing that they were thinking about evidently during that time or close to the time that they begin to speak, is that Job must have brought all this on himself. He must have caused this. For something like this to happen that is of such magnitude that we see, Job had to do something that was very sinful. And that was their idea. Now think about what Job has been through. Think about what he has lost. He has lost his health. He has lost his children. He has lost his possessions.
This was the worst thing that they could possibly say to him. You know, there are some people that just have almost a knack for saying the worst thing at the worst possible time. They just stick their foot in their mouth and [00:26:00] they give no support and no comfort to people who are going through a bad, bad situation.
That is sad, but that is true. And it's no wonder that in Job chapter 16 verse two, Job finally got so aggravated with these three men that he says you are miserable comforters. You've come here to supposedly comfort me and you're making me even worse. And the sadder part is that they got even harsher with Job because Job wouldn't agree with them.
So really these three men are taking the side of the devil: Job is a bad man. Job is a hypocrite. He's not a righteous man. Remember, that's what Satan said to God. The devil told the Lord that Job was not a good man. And God said yes he is. That's what this whole test is about. He.
You also see again that these three friends of Job did fine when they didn't say anything for seven days and seven nights. But the minute that they opened their mouths, that's when they made their mistake. And God tells them that in the closing chapter of this book. So in Job chapter four, verses seven and eight, they state a [00:27:00] principle that we've already looked at and that the Bible upholds in other verses, and that is that a man reaps what he sows.
That is generally speaking true, but that does not apply to Job. That's what they missed. They misapplied that general principle of the Scriptures. What they said was generally speaking true, but it didn't have anything to do with Job. Sometimes people today do the same thing. They see a man who's going through a really hard time and they automatically assume that he did something to bring all that on himself. They see a woman who's going through a tragedy in life and they conclude that she must have done something to bring that on herself. Sometimes that's true, and sometimes that's not true, but let's be honest, let's be fair with people. Let's treat other people as we would want them to treat us.
So the Bible shows that sometimes good things happen to bad people, and sometimes bad things happen to good people. This is what we saw in John chapter nine. This is what we learned in Luke chapter 13. You can't automatically assume something. Now [00:28:00] there are some times where you know that a person has brought hard times on himself. But there are other times where you don't know that, and that's where we need to be careful.
But Eliphaz was not. As a matter of fact, he began to make all kinds of accusations and even to say some strange things. In Job chapter four, beginning in verse 12, he claims that he saw a spirit. He claims that he had a vision and this spirit spoke to him. And then he tried to apply what that spirit supposedly said to him to Job himself.
Even though he does not specifically use the word “you,” he is pointing all this at Job. And he says some things that we would say are pretty cruel. He says in chapter five, verse three, “I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling place. His sons are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate and there is no deliverer.”
What a cold thing to say to a man who has just lost his seven sons! So Eliphaz says Job, here's what my advice is. You need to repent. Beginning in verse eight: “But as for me, [00:29:00] I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.” Now what he's saying there is you need to turn your life around. You need to admit that you're wrong. You need to confess your sins, and then God will forgive you and he will restore you. Eliphaz goes on to point out that God is punishing him. In chapter five, verse 17, he says, “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore, do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.”
Now, that is a scriptural principle. That is true in a general sense, but that has nothing to do with Job. So for the second time in this chapter Eliphaz states something that is true and is backed up by the rest of the Bible. He says that a man reaps what he sows. That's what he says in chapter four. That is backed up in Galatians six, seven, and eight.
Here he says that God chastens a man. That is taught in Hebrews 12, verses five through 11. But he misapplied it, and that's what we have to be careful for as we study and as we think about the problem of evil in life. [00:30:00]
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website, and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.