(8) Oh, that what I’ve requested would come
Job 6:8-12 (CEB)
and God grant my hope;
(9) that God be willing to crush me,
release his hand and cut me off.
(10) I’d still take comfort,
relieved even though in persistent pain;
for I’ve not denied the words of the holy one.
(11) What is my strength, that I should hope;
my end, that my life should drag on?
(12) Is my strength that of rocks,
my flesh bronze?
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Time for another End Times post.
Today I have another topic inspired by the Book of Job. And it’s a difficult topic, for some. Some people may not like to even think about this topic, because it feels wrong or makes them uncomfortable. Others, myself included, are intimately familiar with this difficult topic, and have felt the same as Job at times or even said what he said.
And the topic is: Total despair. Wanting to die. Wanting to just disappear, fade away, lie down and die. Not being grateful for life; only wishing for it to end because it’s so painful. Some have reached this depth of despair before, and they know what it feels like. Others haven’t, and I would call them fortunate (although I don’t know what their life is like).
Well, for those of us who have hit this low point before, in the Book of Job we see we’re not alone. Other people, even Righteous people like Job, have also despaired to the point of wishing for death. Job even curses the day he was born—he’s not grateful for his life. Anyone who’s felt the same will understand.
The first time I read these lines in the Book of Job, I was surprised to find this in the Bible. “Oh, here’s another person who wanted to die. I didn’t know there was someone like this in the Bible. I didn’t know there was anything about depression in the Bible.” That was the reaction I had on my first read-through, because I didn’t know the Bible.
Since then I’ve learned the Bible not only speaks about depression, but many other difficult topics too. Because the Bible is a book about life, and the human condition. It’s a book about the things we all go through, and have been going through as a species since the fall. But it’s also a book about God—our ultimate protector, ally, and guide—and our special relationship with Him. And that’s what sets the Bible apart when it comes to the subject of suffering—we have the ultimate comforter and supporter by our side as we go through the worst life has to offer. God is always with us.
Even during the worst of the End Times, God will be with us then too. And it’s during the worst of the End times that many of us will wish for death, like Job. As I work through these topics on Job, keep the End Times in mind. Job is a book on suffering in general, and the ultimate suffering is headed our way very soon. It’s a good idea to read Job now, before the worst of The Great Suffering hits us.
But back to today’s topic. Let’s see Job at his worst, and what he says then.
Just Let Me Die Already ….
Job wishes for death many times in the Book of Job. He curses the day he was born, wishing he had never been born at all. He prays to God for death, he wishes he could disappear from the earth, from the land of the living.
The first of Job’s laments is in Job 3. Let’s read:
(1) Afterward, Job spoke up and cursed the day he was born.
Job 3:1-4, 10 (CEB)
(2) Job said:
(3) Perish the day I was born,
the night someone said,
“A boy has been conceived.”
(4) That day—let it be darkness;
may God above ignore it,
and light not shine on it.
[… Verses 5-9: More cursing that day …]
(10) because it didn’t close the doors of my mother’s womb,
didn’t hide trouble from my eyes.
We must be grateful for our lives. Every day we have (good or bad) is a blessing from God, because each one comes from Him. But let’s be honest. When we’re at rock bottom, going through the worst of our suffering, we aren’t grateful or happy to be alive, same as Job isn’t. Sometimes we also wish we had never been born, like Job. I know I’ve felt this way before—how about you?
It’s natural and understandable that we feel this way when our suffering is at its worst. We may know in the back of our mind that we must be grateful to God for our life. But we lose that perspective when we’re stuck in despair—because honestly, who’s grateful for suffering? Who enjoys it? The painful suffering of life takes up all our attention and thinking power because it hurts so much. This is how we lose our perspective of gratitude to God for our lives and whatever blessings we have.
It happens to the best of us! I’m not saying it’s right to curse the day we were born, because it isn’t since God expects us to be Grateful. But I am saying it’s understandable when we do it at times like this. Job couldn’t help himself, and neither can we. God understands; we have Grace for this kind of thing, as long as we don’t cross the line too far. Because no matter how bad Job’s pain got, he never cursed God.
As the story continues, Job takes things a step further. He goes beyond wishing he had never been born, and escalates to asking God for the release of death. Let’s read Job 6.
(8) Oh, that what I’ve requested would come
Job 6:8-12 (CEB)
and God grant my hope;
(9) that God be willing to crush me,
release his hand and cut me off.
(10) I’d still take comfort,
relieved even though in persistent pain;
for I’ve not denied the words of the holy one.
(11) What is my strength, that I should hope;
my end, that my life should drag on?
(12) Is my strength that of rocks,
my flesh bronze?
In verses 8 and 9, Job reveals he has requested God to simply kill him. To “cut him off” and let him go. For God to end Job, and take him out of this painful world forever. I have prayed for the same thing before; perhaps some of you have too.
And why? Why pray for something like that? Because it would be a final relief from the pain of life, as Job says in verse 10. An instant end to all suffering. What’s not to like? When we’re deep in the depths of our worst suffering, the idea of oblivion is tempting, appealing, and even gives us hope.
Because we don’t see an end to our suffering, while we’re still in it. We get to a point where we can’t take it anymore. Like Job says in verse 12, “is my strength that of rocks?” In other words, am I meant to endure this kind of pain forever? Like Job, I’ve also gotten to the point where all I can say is: “I can’t take anymore. I can’t go on, I can’t do this anymore.”
Praying to God for death is taking things to another level. Using holy prayer to make this request for death is an escalation—it’s more serious. God is always listening, so we should be careful about praying such prayers because He could take us seriously at any time. And despite how we’re feeling when we’re at rock bottom, in the long-run of how our lives go, we don’t want God to take us seriously on these prayers.
We shouldn’t take the risk of praying for death like this. God could actually end our lives if He chose, and that would be a tragedy, because we know that our suffering doesn’t last. No matter what it seems like during the worst of it, our rock bottom is temporary. No season of suffering lasts forever. When our season of suffering ends, we’ll have joy and be grateful for life once more. Then we won’t want our lives to end … and so we shouldn’t pray for death ever, not even when we’re at rock bottom. God could end us once things get good again, for all we know.
Moving on, we get to the last of Job’s laments that I’ll cover today. In Chapter 10, he asks God once more why he was even allowed to survive birth.
(18) Why did you let me emerge from the womb?
Job 10:18-19 (CEB)
I wish I had died without any eye seeing me.
(19) Then I would be just as if I hadn’t existed,
taken from the belly to the grave.
He once again wishes he was never born. If he had never been born, he would have never had to go through his horrible torment. we all feel like this sometimes—why am I even alive? Is it only to experience this pain and suffering? If this torture is what life is about, then I wish I had never been born into this horrible life.
It reminds me of Ecclesiastes. There are a few times when Solomon speaks of how fortunate stillborn babies are, as they never have to experience the pain of life. The dead are fortunate too, but no one is more fortunate than one who was never born. I wholeheartedly agree, and find that logic indisputable.
(2) So I declare that the dead, who have already died, are more fortunate than the living, who are still alive. (3) But happier than both are those who have never existed, who haven’t witnessed the terrible things that happen under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 4:2-3 (CEB)
It’s true that people who were never born are fortunate, in a way. They never have to go through the pain of life. The physical, mental, emotional, and Spiritual suffering we endure as part of the human condition. But people who were never born also don’t get the chance to experience the joys life has to offer. They miss out on what good this world has to offer. And most of all, they miss the chance to walk the Spiritual journey of following Jesus and growing closer to Him. And that’s a huge loss.
Well, now we’ve seen three chapters of Job where he said some painful and depressing things. He wished he was never born, he cursed the day he was born, and he prayed to God for death. Again, many of us have been to this level of despair before. I know I have. Wanting to die might not make any sense to people who have never felt this low before.
God does expect us to be Grateful to Him for all He gives us—which includes every day of our lives, good and bad. But in all honesty, no matter what it says in the Bible, who is really grateful for pain and suffering? This attitude of Job’s may not be correct or Pious, it may not be a “good” attitude to have. But it is understandable and natural.
And that’s what I really wanted to get across today. If you feel this way now, or have ever felt this way, the Bible shows we’re not alone. It’s part of the human condition, and countless people have been there before us (and survived). Sometimes we feel like Job, and feel like we can’t take it anymore. Like we have no more reason to keep going, and we just want to die. To disappear, and let all our problems be over. Sometimes we pray to God and ask Him for the ultimate, permanent relief: Death.
It’s a sad part of life here on this fallen world, separated from God. Everyone can get to feeling this low sometimes. Until we reunite with God in Heaven, sometimes our life will be almost unbearable like this. But the Book of Job shows us—if we didn’t already know—that no matter what life looks like, we always have a reason to keep going. It gets better.
It Gets Better
It gets better. It’s a bit cliche, but it’s true. Our seasons of suffering never last forever. Job’s didn’t, and ours doesn’t either. Life is ups and downs, happiness and grief. But no season lasts forever, be it good times or bad. Let’s look at the end of Job’s story again, and see how it ended.
Job did indeed have a very good reason to hang in there, to keep on going. We see Job’s reward in the epilogue to the story, in the final verses of Job 42. The LORD changed Job’s fortunes—He restored everything the devil took from poor Job. God blessed the later years of Job’s life even more than the early years. Everything turned around. And if we hang in there like Job did, trusting in God the whole way, everything can and will turn completely around for us too.
(10) Then the Lord changed Job’s fortune when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord doubled all Job’s earlier possessions. (11) All his brothers, sisters, and acquaintances came to him and ate food with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him concerning all the disaster the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a qesitah and a gold ring. (12) Then the Lord blessed Job’s latter days more than his former ones. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. (13) He also had seven sons and three daughters. (14) He named one Jemimah, a second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. (15) No women in all the land were as beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave an inheritance to them along with their brothers. (16) After this, Job lived 140 years and saw four generations of his children. (17) Then Job died, old and satisfied.
Job 42:10-17 (CEB)
Everything turned around for Job, after his life had seemed so hopeless and horrible!! Look—No suffering lasts forever!! God will turn things around for us too! But we need to trust Him, turn to Him for comfort, and wait for Him. He’s in control, and He has good plans for our lives. He’s not out to destroy us, and He will not let our suffering last forever, despite how things seem. We always have a reason to keep going, even when it seems like there’s no point, the same as Job felt in Job 6:8-12. Things get better, and God is always with us. That’s the reason. That’s why we keep on going, even if we can’t see how things could ever improve. When God brings us out of the fire and into our blessing, then we’ll see how He was with us the whole time.
EVEN THE END TIMES WILL GET BETTER! NEVER FORGET THAT THE HORRIBLE SUFFERING OF THE END TIMES ENDS WITH THE CREATION OF GOD’S NEW, PERFECT WORLD!! The ultimate example of “it gets better.” No suffering lasts forever … not even The Great Suffering.
So when we feel like Job, the best we can do is put our Hope in God and continue to endure, knowing that one day, things will be better. So on that note, I will end today with Psalms 42:5. Hope in God!! One day things will be better, and we will again give Him thanks. Until then, trust in God, pray all the time, lean on each other when needed and stay strong.
(5) Why, I ask myself, are you so depressed?
Psalms 42:5 (CEB)
Why are you so upset inside?
Hope in God!
Because I will again give him thanks,
my saving presence and my God.
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Until next time, be strong and do good!
Your new best friend in Christ,
99:9
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