Job’s Lament
3 Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed [a]the day of his birth. 2 And Job [b]said,
3 “Let the day perish on which I was to be born,
And the night which said, ‘A [c]boy is conceived.’
4 “May that day be darkness;
Let not God above care for it,
Nor light shine on it.
5 “Let darkness and black gloom claim it;
Let a cloud settle on it;
Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 “As for that night, let darkness seize it;
Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
Let it not come into the number of the months.
7 “Behold, let that night be barren;
Let no joyful shout enter it.
8 “Let those curse it who curse the day,
Who are [d]prepared to rouse Leviathan.
9 “Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;
Let it wait for light but have none,
And let it not see the [e]breaking dawn;
10 Because it did not shut the opening of my mother’s womb,
Or hide trouble from my eyes.11 “Why did I not die [f]at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire?
12 “Why did the knees receive me,
And why the breasts, that I should suck?
13 “For now I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept then, I would have been at rest,
14 With kings and with counselors of the earth,
Who rebuilt ruins for themselves;
15 Or with princes who had gold,
Who were filling their houses with silver.
16 “Or like a miscarriage which is [g]discarded, I would not be,
As infants that never saw light.
17 “There the wicked cease from raging,
And there the [h]weary are at rest.
18 “The prisoners are at ease together;
They do not hear the voice of the taskmaster.
19 “The small and the great are there,
And the slave is free from his master.20 “Why is light given to him who suffers,
And life to the bitter of soul,
21 Who [i]long for death, but there is none,
And dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
22 Who rejoice greatly,
And exult when they find the grave?
23 “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
And whom God has hedged in?
24 “For my groaning comes at the sight of my food,
And my cries pour out like water.
25 “For [j]what I fear comes upon me,
And what I dread befalls me.
26 “I am not at ease, nor am I quiet,
And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”
While Job refused to curse God, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses for Job. He wasn’t sitting around with a silly smile on his face, in defiance of all his misery. No, he was weeping and lamenting. Certainly, he knew God was in charge, but that didn’t make the turmoil easy to bear, and so Job lets loose with this lament.
And you know what? God can handle it, and we can always take our trouble to Him. We can unleash our confusion and distress on God, and He won’t strike us dead. Sometimes we think we have to be all prim and proper with God, but He wants us to be real in our relationship, and sometimes that means just letting out our raw emotions. While friends and family may not understand, God know exactly what we are going through.
We may not be able to see two steps ahead, like Job who said, “Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden…?” But the light is still there, because God is still present in the middle of our disasters. So when our way is hidden, when we can’t see the end result, and we’re drowning in despair, take it to the only One who can handle it all. Take it all to Him, not just the nice things, but even the bad and ugly things of which we can’t make sense. God cares what we are going through, and only He can give us the strength and peace to make it through to the other side.