August Reading from The Message
What’s the worst you have ever felt? Did it feel like you were cursed and everything was going against you? Going through darkness is part of being human. It is natural to feel trapped by our circumstances. The book of Job is incredibly honest as is expresses the despair of a man who has seemingly lost everything. But darkness is never the end of the story with God.
What’s the Point of Life?
1-2 Then Job broke the silence. He spoke up and cursed his fate:
3-10 “Obliterate the day I was born. Blank out the night I was conceived! Let it be a black hole in space. May God above forget it ever happened. Erase it from the books!
May the day of my birth be buried in deep darkness, shrouded by the fog, swallowed by the night.
And the night of my conception—the devil take it! Rip the date off the calendar, delete it from the almanac.
Oh, turn that night into pure nothingness— no sounds of pleasure from that night, ever! May those who are good at cursing curse that day.
Unleash the sea beast, Leviathan, on it. May its morning stars turn to black cinders, waiting for a daylight that never comes, never once seeing the first light of dawn.
And why? Because it released me from my mother’s womb into a life with so much trouble.
11-19 “Why didn’t I die at birth, my first breath out of the womb my last?
Why were there arms to rock me, and breasts for me to drink from?
I could be resting in peace right now, asleep forever, feeling no pain, in the company of kings and statesmen in their royal ruins, or with princes resplendent in their gold and silver tombs.
Why wasn’t I stillborn and buried with all the babies who never saw light, where the wicked no longer trouble anyone and bone-weary people get a long-deserved rest?
Prisoners sleep undisturbed, never again to wake up to the bark of the guards.
The small and the great are equals in that place, and slaves are free from their masters.
20-23 “Why does God bother giving light to the miserable, why bother keeping bitter people alive, those who want in the worst way to die, and can’t, who can’t imagine anything better than death, who count the day of their death and burial the happiest day of their life?
What’s the point of life when it doesn’t make sense, when God blocks all the roads to meaning?
24-26 “Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish.
The worst of my fears has come true, what I’ve dreaded most has happened. My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed.
No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life.”
Scripture Insight
Feeling Our Way through the Darkness
Job broke his silence with a curse. The very fact that this chapter is in the Bible is a testament to honesty in faith. The honesty expressed by Job in dealing with the absolute worst that a person can experience gives us permission to cry out just as honestly.
What is the worst you’ve ever felt? During that time, did you feel that life was a curse and that it would have been better if you had never been born? When we go through a valley of dark circumstances, it’s only natural to feel hemmed in by the shadows that surround us. We feel our way through the darkness as best we can. And we stumble along the way, both in our words and in our actions. Job did. And we will too. But the curses aren’t the end of our dialogue with God. They’re only the beginning.
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