Friends, I invite you to have a seat just for a moment, and we’ll stand and read God’s word. But before that… Some of you might remember me, probably I’m new to some of you. Richie preached here a couple of times and I was with him. He’s my mentor and I will be working with him. And for those of you who don’t know me, my name is Gibson. I am from India, and I’m married. I have a beautiful wife of seven years. We’ve been married for seven years, and we have a seven-month baby, Eden. And in less than two months, well, actually, about two months, me, my wife, and our daughter will be moving back to India to minister in a local church, and we’ll be going with MTW, and Richie will be my team leader. And so please be in prayers whenever you remember, and I want to thank Pastor John for inviting me to preach and also the session.

The passage that I have today is Job chapter 3, and before we read, let me give you a fun fact about the book of Job. not about the Book of Job, but it involves the Book of Job. I don’t know how many of you know the Puritan preacher Joseph Cattle. Now, that name might not be familiar to you, but John Owen is a much familiar name, and John Owen Butler is probably named after him. And John Owen was actually, he took over as the pastor after Joseph Cattle died. And his Joseph Cattle church merged with John Owen’s church, and John Owen took over as the pastor. But Joseph Cattle, he loved to preach.

And he preached through the book of Job. You know how long it took for him to preach through the book of Job? Not 24 weeks, not 24 months. He preached through the book of Job for 24 years. Imagine that. And he preached about 424 sermons of this 42 chapter book. So about 10 sermons per chapter. Now, I am no Joseph Cattle, and as I say that, some of you might have a sigh of relief. Okay, we’re not gonna hear 10 sermons from this chapter. But we’re gonna hear what God has in store for us.

And Job chapter three in specific, it’s one of the darkest places in the entire Bible. There are only few other chapters, few other books, few other places that come parallel to this. One, One chapter, one passage in particular that’s close to Job chapter 3 is Psalm 88. And if you know anything about Psalm 88, it is called as the darkest psalm in the whole book. Why? Because there is not a single verse in the whole psalm where the author or the psalmist, you know, he says anything that is hopeful. But that psalm, it begins with the words, Oh God, Lord of my salvation. So it is a prayer. But what we are about to read is much more darker than that.

Because Job chapter three, as Job says these words, it is not addressed to God, but it is God’s word. And so if you will rise, let us read together, uh, Job chapter three. And before that, let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word, your Word that is perfect, your Word that changes us and challenges us. We pray that as we now read your Word and come before you to listen to what you have in store for us, we pray that your Holy Spirit will be upon us. Open the scriptures to us and give us eyes to see Jesus. And it’s in his name we pray. Amen.

So please turn with me in your Bibles to Job chapter three as I begin reading from verse one. After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said, let that day perish on which I was born, and the night that said a man is conceived.

Let that day be darkness. May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. Let gloom and deep darkness claim it. Let clouds dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it. That night, let thick darkness seize it. Let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. Behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful cry enter it. Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Let the stars of its dawn be dark.

Let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning, because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes. Why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me? or why the breasts that I should nurse. For then I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept. Then I would have been at rest with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. Oh, why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?

There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together, they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master. Why is light given to him who is in misery and life to the bitter and soul who long for death, but it comes not and dig for it more than for hidden treasures who rejoice exceedingly and are glad when they find the grave. Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

For my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, but trouble comes. My friends, as dark as this chapter is, this is the very word of God. Thanks be to God. Please be seated.

This past June was five months since I lost my mother-in-law to COVID. And when we got that news, I still remember every bit of detail about that day. I was in the bedroom. I was able to see the hall, you know, the main hall and my father-in-law got the news and he broke the news to my wife and she did not receive it well. It was a dark day.

And over these past five years, several times my wife has told me, I wish that day never existed. I wish that I could forget the things that happened that day. And for some of us here, that could be echoing with you. You might have a day in your mind where you wish that it did not happen, or you wish that you could forget. Job here is in that exact same position. He wishes for that day to not exist.

But if you look closely, it’s not the day when he heard the news about the loss of his children, or of his servants, or of his wealth. That is not the day that Job is trying to get rid of. What Job wants to erase is the day of his birth. Why is that? Because if you think about it, if you just remove the day in which you received the bad news or in which the trouble came, the day on which the trouble came, there’s going to be another day. Trouble still comes. But Job here wishes to erase the day of his birth because he probably thinks, if I was never born, if that day didn’t exist, I would have never been born.

And if that didn’t happen, then probably I wouldn’t be facing the trouble that I’m facing right now. That’s what Job is trying to see here. And what we observe mainly in this passage is that as Job speaks these words, not one of them is directed towards God.

He is not praying this as a prayer to God, but he’s just venting his trouble. But friends, we know one person, as we read in Matthew. who, when the day of trouble came, he did not just went, but he took it to his father in heaven. And he prayed, Father, if it is your will, please remove this cup from me. But he still submitted to his father’s will. He drank the bitter cup. He drank the curse of God, the curse that Job wished on his day of birth.

And because of this, our worst day, your worst day, is not the verdict. And friends, what I would like for you to take away from this passage is this. Because Christ Jesus became a curse for us, we must carry our darkest days to God and not away from Him. I will repeat that. Because Christ Jesus became a curse for us, we must carry our darkest days to God and not away from Him. explain that using this passage, and I have broken it down into three headings.

The first is the day he wants dark. And I’m saying this as if Job is saying this, the day he wants dark. And this is from verses one to 10. Secondly, we will look at the delivery he wants denied. And this is from verses 11 to 19. And finally, the days he wants done, which is verses 20 to 26. So that’ll be my three points, three outline. The day he wants dark, the delivery he wants denied, and the days he wants done. The first point that we note in this passage is if you read the very first verse, it begins with these words, after this. Now, we should ask the question, after what?

And if you read the end of chapter two, it says in verse 13, well, actually in verses 11, we read that his friends, his three of his friends have come now to grieve with him and they’ve been there for seven days and seven nights. And that’s what we read in verse 13 of chapter two. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven night and no one spoke a word to him for they saw that his suffering was great. And so, yes, it is possible that after this could mean just the seven days that they waited. But I think it goes a little further than that. Because if you read verse 12, listen to what it says.

And when they saw him, this is the friends seeing Job from a distance, they did not recognize him. And so, From the time that trouble set in on Job, and till now, a great number of time, days, maybe weeks, maybe even months have passed, because he’s at a point where he could not be recognized from afar.

He’s probably lost his weight. He has become thin. He has shaved his head. We read in chapter one. And probably he has sores on his skin. So he was beyond recognition. He was unable to be recognized. And so a long time has elapsed from the day he lost his family, his children, his servants, till now.

And I think that’s what here it means after this. Now why do I say, why do I emphasize that? Because if you read chapter one and chapter two, Job says some of the most profound things a man of faith could say. Because in chapter one, verses 20 to 22, we read this.

Job says, then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Wow, that’s a statement of faith. In chapter 2 verse 10, we read this. Job’s wife is telling Job, you should curse God and die. And listen to what he says in verses 10. But he said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women who would speak. Shall we receive good from God and shall we not receive evil? In all this Job did not sin with his lips. So two times in chapter 1 and chapter 2 we read that Job has told these statements of faith.

And now time has passed. The reality has sunk in. As days and weeks have passed by, he realizes that he cannot get his children back. He cannot get his wealth or his servants back. And now he realizes that. And he speaks some pretty dark words. And we might question and ask, should Job have spoken these words at all? Well, not entirely. But notice two things with me.

One, in chapter 1 we read that this was Satan’s plan. Satan was all along trying to get Job to do what? To curse God. But in the end, all that Satan got was Job cursing the day, not God. That’s a loss for him. But also on the other hand, we should notice that Job is neither addressing the words that he speaks to God. He’s just venting. Now let’s look at the chapter itself, the passage itself from verses 3 to 10.

And first he curses the day. He says, let the day perish on which I was born and the night that said a man is conceived. He wants that day to be removed from the calendar. He wants that day to not exist. And in verses 4 and 5, he’s becoming more specific. He tells what exactly should be removed. And he says, let the day be darkness.

May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it. He wants light to be removed from the day. In Genesis chapter 1 verse 3 we read, if you remember, God says, this is the first thing that God says, let there be light and there was light and God saw and said it was good. Job wants the exact opposite of that.

He doesn’t want light in his day. He says, let there be darkness. Let no light shine upon it. And I think why he says that is because if there is no light, you see when the sun rises, it’s a beginning of a new day. And he doesn’t want the light to shine. He wants it to be darkness because when that happens, the day never comes. At least that’s what he thinks.

And he says, let gloom and deep darkness claim it. In verse five, he wants to make sure that there is absolutely no light. And he says, let clouds dwell upon it. You know, clouds, one of the things that clouds do is they block light from shining through. And he says, let clouds dwell upon it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it.

But notice the specific thing he says in verse four. He says, may God above not seek it. He doesn’t want God’s face to shine on that day. He doesn’t want God to look or to show his face. on this day. And when God shows his face, it’s an imagery of God’s divine favor and blessing. You know, we remember the ironic blessing in Numbers chapter six, where it says, the Lord bless you and keep you. And what’s the next thing? The Lord make his face shine upon you. Now that’s divine blessing. Job wants none of that. He wants God to turn his face away.

You know, in 1582, if you go and scroll back to the calendar, if you have a phone, if you go to 1582 in the month of October, there are 11 to 12 days that are missing. It goes October 4, 1582, and it goes October 15, 1582. You know, those days in the middle are missing, and that’s because the calendar was changed from Julian calendar to Gregorian calendar. Now, Job wants that.

He wants, just like those 11 days were removed, he wants his day to be removed. Because maybe, if that happened, he would not have been born. That’s what he thinks and that’s what he says. He doesn’t want just darkness to dwell on the day. He wants the day to be removed. And that’s what he says in verse six, let it not rejoice among the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months. And look at verse seven. He says, behold, let that night be barren. Let no joyful cry enter it.

You know, probably his parents. Every parent is happy when they make a baby and he wants nothing to do with it. His parents were probably overjoyed when they heard the news that they were pregnant with a boy. Probably didn’t know that it was a boy back then. But they were happy. Job doesn’t want to take part in that happiness. He says, let no joyful cry enter it.

And in verse eight, he says, let those curse it, who curse the day, who are ready to rouse up Leviathan. Now Leviathan is a symbol for chaos and destruction, and he calls upon chaos and destruction on this day. Verse 8, the ending, it says, let it hope for light, but have none, nor see the eyelids of the morning. If you worked double shifts at night, or morning and night, you won’t be able to open your eyes.

And that’s what here it says. He wants that. He wants the eyelids to be shut. He doesn’t want them to see the light. And after saying all this, Job gives the reason for why he is saying that. And we read that in verse 10. It opens with the word because. Now he is giving the reason.

It says, because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hide trouble from my eyes. He says, it was that day when my mom, my mother gave birth to me. And since then, all I have known is only trouble. Now, Job knows that practically it is not possible to erase the day.

It’s not practically possible for him to not exist because, lo and behold, he does exist. And he says, fine, okay, let that day be. And now he goes to the possible next best thing and he questions why he did not die at birth. And, okay, maybe it is necessary for that day to exist, but, and it is necessary for me to be born, but why did I not die immediately after that? And that would have spared the trouble that I’m facing right now, right?

And that’s what we see in the next section, which is the delivery he wants denied, verses 11 to 19. And in this section, Job asks two sets of why questions. One, in verses 11 and 12, he tells the first why. In verse 16, he says the second why. And between that, he gives portraits of Sheol. From verses 13 to 15, that’s the first picture. And verses 17 to 19, it’s the next picture. And verses 11 and 12 gives Job’s progression in thought of why he did not die early. And it says in verse 11, why did I not die at birth, come out from the womb and expire? Why did the knees receive me or why the breasts that I should nurse? It would have made things easier for Job if he was born and died immediately after that.

And he might have heard several news of his friends or people who are nearby about people losing their children at birth. And he wants that. He wants that to be true of him. He asked, why did the niece receive me? Or why the breast that nursed me? I have a seven-month-old and she always feeds on milk and that’s necessary, that’s needed for them to grow and grow healthy, get strong and he wants that to not have happened. He did not want the mother’s milk and he was wishing for death. when he was a child.

And he says, if he did not die back then, if he had actually died back then, look what comfort he has. In verse 13, it says, for then I would have lain down and been quiet. I would have slept, then I would have been at rest. He said, if I had died back then, now I would be at rest. And look at the people that he’s comparing to who would join him, who would accompany him.

It says in verse 15, with kings and counselors of the earth, who built ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver. You know, kings, the three categories of people that we read here, kings, counselors, and princes, they portray, or they tell us about power and authority that people have. These are the most powerful people, or at least back then, you can, that can be equaled to current day presidents, or CEOs, or people like that. But back in the day, kings were considered the greatest of men. And it says, those people there are at ease.

Now I would have been buried with them. And it says who, in verse 14, it says, with kings and counselors of the earth who rebuilt ruins for themselves. I think what Job is trying to say here is that you think of kings, they conquer land, they build palaces, they build kingdoms, for what? At time, when time comes, it’s all going to go waste. It’s going to be raided and lay ruined. But at least they have rest. And it says in verse 15, princes who had gold, who fill their houses with silver, gold and silver, the people collect, they cannot take that to the grave, but at least they can go rest. Why did that not happen to me? And in verse 16 it says, or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child as infants who never see the light?

Stillborn is probably one of the most hurting things for any mother to face. You know, having to carry the baby for nine months only for it to lose just before the birth. And here, Job says, yes, that is painful. Well, at least not for me. At least I would have been at rest. It might have been trouble for my parents or for my mother, but I would not have to live this miserable life. That’s what Job wants.

And now in verses 17, 18, and 19, he says, there the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together. They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. You know, in the first section we read of kings, counselors, and princes, they can be thought of as the people who oppress the weary people. And here, I think Job is trying to identify himself with the latter group, the prisoners and the weary. He imagines himself to be, or he puts himself to be in the position of being an oppressed person.

And look at verse 19, it says, the small and great, the kings and the wicked, the prince and the weary, they all lay there. And the slave is free from his master. The slave is free from his master. You know, a slave who has toiled all his life listening to what the master wants, and finally he gets the rest that he has always wanted.

But look at what cost that comes. He’s unable to enjoy it. It’s after his death. But Job says, that’s better. That’s much better for me if that would have happened to me. But as Job is saying all of these, the one thing we should remember is that Job is not trying to seek death, but also he’s not praying again any of these to God. He does not take his feelings to God. Now again, Job knows none of these would happen.

He was a child, but now he’s a man. He’s not an infant anymore. And as such, he has gone through the miseries of life thus far. And so finally, he comes down to this. The day that he once cursed did not happen. He wanted to die at birth, well that did not happen. And finally he comes and says, I wish I died right now. After facing all these things, I wish I did not exist or I died right now.

And that’s what we read in the last section, the day he wants done, verses 20 to 26. And in verse 20, it says, why is light given to him who is in misery? That’s in a singular tense. And life to the bitter in soul, which is plural. So Job is no longer talking about just himself, but he’s talking about all the people who are in a similar position.

He talks about people, those people who long for death, but it comes not. And they seek death not because they want to, because of their troubles. They have gone through so much in their lives, so much that they wish that they are not alive to go through what they’re going through. In verses 21 and 22, we read these people who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for hidden treasures.

Miners go into the deepest parts of the earth, and Lord willing, we’ll read Job 28 next time, but it talks about miners who go and search for gold and silver. They dig down into the earth and extract these precious metals and silver. And when they get that, they’re happy. When they find treasures, it makes them glad because they can sell it or that makes them wealthy. And it says, he compares himself to those people, not searching for gold or silver that makes people happy, but for the one who’s suffering, death is the treasure that they seek after, which they think brings them happiness.

And at verse 23 it says, why is light given to a man whose way is hidden? You see the paradox in that? Because when light shines on something, it usually gives the people ability to see more clearly. But it says, why is light given to a man whose way is hidden?

Now anyone who has driven in a fog or when it rains heavily, you know that when you turn on the lights of your car, it doesn’t help. The light reflects back and it makes things worse. And Job is using that. Job is saying that’s exactly what I’m trying to say here. God has not taken his life. But he has no idea where he is going and the light that is given to him, it’s not helping him.

And verse 23, it says, whom God, the ending of verse 23, it says, whom God has hedged in. If you turn to chapter one, Job uses the exact same words, or we find the exact same words, but this time spoken by Satan himself. It says, chapter one, verse 10, have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side Satan is saying, God you have protected Job in such a way that he is not facing any trouble. That he is praising you because you have protected him. Now two chapters later, Job is using the exact same words.

He says that God has hedged him in. but not in a positive way. He says God has made him to be a prisoner. He is unable to escape this. And finally, in the last three verses, Job’s saying, I long for this. I want death. I want to be in a place where I cannot think of suffering anymore. And verse 24 it says, for my sighing comes instead of my bread, and my groanings are poured out like water. Now he’s unable to eat. Instead, he’s only able to think of the trouble. He’s unable to drink water.

And that could be true of us, or maybe it was. Or maybe you could be here and saying, well, I’m not in that place. Praise God if you’re not in that place. But there are people who have been here before, just like Job was, unable to sleep, unable to wake up in the morning, unable to eat, unable to drink. Unable to do anything in this life because the suffering that you are going through or the one that you went through is much greater.

It’s weighing you down just like it’s weighing Job down in this passage. And in verse 25, it says, for the thing that I fear comes upon me and what I dread befalls me. If you read chapter one, Job does some things as a precautionary or he was just using his wisdom and did some things. You know, if you remember, his children would have a party and after that, Job would go and as a priest, he would give sacrifices to God and says, maybe my children have sinned. And so let me make this right. Job was very careful. He was a wise man. But he did that out of fear, and what he feared finally came to pass. And he says that, for the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. And finally, look at verse 26. It has four things.

I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, I have no rest. Three negatives and one positive, but trouble comes. Well, that positive is not a positive either. It’s also a negative. But he puts it in a negative sense. He says, I’m not at ease, nor am I quiet. I have no rest, but trouble comes.

Throughout this chapter, Job mentions God exactly twice. First time in verse four, and the second in verse 23, but neither of them, when he uses, when he says God, he doesn’t direct that to God. And time and time again, throughout this whole chapter, we see it very clearly that Job does not pray to God.

And that happens. That happens to any of us. We fail to go to God when we should be. When trouble comes, when we are going through the most darkest times, suffering, and especially a particular day that Job was talking about here, we don’t take that to God who hears us. And see, that’s how this chapter ends.

No resolution, no answer, not even a prayer. For 26 verses, Job has spoken and he has mentioned God exactly twice. Once, for God to look away, and second, to accuse him of fencing him, kind of like prisoning him. But he never speaks to God. And as I said, that’s where most of us, many of us live. We don’t curse God, but we don’t go towards him either. When the trouble comes, we don’t pray, we don’t go to church. We are tempted to not read our Bibles, not pray.

So this chapter leaves us with one question. Why would you take a day like that to God? And the point is exactly that. We should be praying instead of saying these things, venting in the sky, take these prayers to God. But why can’t we do that? Is it safe to bring these things to God when you’re in trouble? The answer is yes. And that is a yes because of Jesus.

You see, Job asked for four things in this chapter, and God has refused every single one of them. But all of this, all the wishes that Job wanted happened at one place in Golgotha, when Christ died on the cross. In verse 4a, we read Job saying, let that day be darkness. Job’s day was not darkness.

Light shone upon it. You know why? Because when Jesus hung on the cross, it was dark. God made darkness on Jesus. And in verse 4b, it says, may God above not seek it. That didn’t happen to Job. God was gracious to him. He was born, he lived, and finally he was even restored much more than he was before. But you know where God did not seek, God did not show his face? It was on the cross. When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That’s exactly the place that God turn his face away so that he does not have to turn his face away from you and me or from Job.

And says in verse 25, for the thing that I fear comes upon me. Job thinks the fear that he feared comes upon him, not so much as it came for Jesus. As we read in our New Testament reading in Matthew 26, he prayed to God. He feared of that day. He says, God, let this cup be removed from me. But even then, he submits to God’s will. He carries that cross and he dies. Christ dreaded that day. And the cup did not pass. He drank it.

But the comparison between Job and Christ is this. Job did not say any of these things to God. But when we read Matthew 26, we see that every time he prays, he prays to his father. It says, my father, it’s a prayer. If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. And he says that three times. He prays that prayer three times.

And that’s the confidence we have because God the Father turned his face away from his son Jesus. We can be confident that he will never turn his face away from you and me when we are going through the most darkest times. And we take him, we take our prayers, we take our suffering, we take the things that we want to say and turn it as a prayer to God. I want to end with a story, a famous, probably a familiar story.

Horatio Spafford, he was a Chicago lawyer. and he lost his son. And sometime later he asked for his four daughters and his wife to go across to travel to Europe in ship. And what happened was as they were traveling on the ship, there was a big storm and that ship sank. Only the wife survived. All the other four children, they died. Very similar to Joe. And after she reached Europe, she sent a telegram of two words, saved alone.

Those were the words that were communicated to him. And so he got on the ship to visit her. And on the way, as he was going the ship, the captain of the ship that he was going in told him that this, when they came upon the place, they said, this was the exact location that four of your children died.

And when he heard that, he went into a room and he penned one of the most famous hymns that we have and we sing, which is, It is well with my soul. And look at the words that he uses as he prays this. It is a prayer. He says, when peace like a river attended my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, listen to this, thou has taught me to say, it is well with my soul.

Verse three, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross. I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. He praises God. And in the last verse, we read, and Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It says, and Lord, haste the day. Once again, it is a prayer. And friends, that’s what we are called to do. when we face trouble, not to vent at an empty sky, but we know a God who has shown favor to us through Christ, his son. And because of that, we can go to him.

And maybe you’re in this place who don’t know this Jesus. Maybe you are as Job venting to the sky. And I want you to call to turn to Jesus who has carried the cross, who lived the darkest day ever. And because of that, you don’t have to go through this alone.

And that’s the confidence we have. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we once again come before you to give you thanks for your word We pray that when we go through troubles, when we go through the times that are trying, help us to turn to you. And we thank you for your son, Jesus. who died on the cross, who carried our sins, and because of a union with him, you show favor to us. You invite us to pour out our suffering, our sorrow to you. We thank you for that. Help us to be witnesses to other people who are going through suffering. Help us to point them to Jesus. the great king who will one day again come for us. And it’s in his name we pray. Amen.