Sermons
In The Pit Of Despair
Series: Endurance In Days Of Extremity - The Journey And Journal Of JobIN THE PIT OF DESPAIR
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / February 05, 2017
Open Your Bibles to Job chapter three.
If you have not been reading ahead, I want to forewarn you that this is a difficult chapter.
Although is it the confession of a deeply-wounded sheep, it is not a Psalm 23 kind of chapter.
It’s not a chapter that we typically commit to memory. In fact, in many ways we’d like to block it out of our memory.
It is not even a chapter that offers us singular verses to memorize to help us with our troubles.
As Chuck Swindoll states (Job: A Man Of Heroic Endurance, p.58) - -
It’s one of those chapters in (Job’s) life that make you shake your head, sigh, and turn quickly to the next scene.
He adds, If Job’s story were a movie, you’d probably fast-forward; you wouldn’t want your children to watch.
“It’s not only unedited, it is raw and borderline heretical!”
It’s hard to imagine that the Job we met in chapters 1-2 is the Job we now encounter in chapter 3.
The Job of chapter one boldly declares (1:21) - -
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The Job of chapter two (2:9-10) rebukes his wife who tells him to “curse God and die” by heroically asking - -
Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
Chapter three pulls back a veil of secrecy and allows us to hear the mournful wail of a miserable man.
Hebrew poetry is sometimes hard to read. Stephen Flask observed recently in one of our midweek Bible studies
that it is often difficult for the western mind to fully grasp the ancient eastern text of the Bible.
Such a challenge is further magnified when the ancient eastern text is written in poetry.
To re-set the stage let’s recollect the conclusion of chapter two (note 2:13).
These words are spoken regarding Job and his “friends”.
Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights
with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.
Let me read some select verses from Job 3 from Today’s English Version (a paraphrase).
Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.
O God, put a curse on the day I was born; put a curse on the night when I was conceived!
Turn that day into darkness, God. Never again remember that day; never again let light shine on it.
Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness; cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.
Blot that night out of the year, and never let it be counted again; make it a barren, joyless night…
Curse that night for letting me be born, for exposing me to trouble and grief.
I wish I had died in my mother’s womb or died the moment I was born.
Why did my mother hold me on her knees? Why did she feed me at her breast?
If I had died then, I would be at rest now…Why let men go on living in misery? Why give light to men in grief?
They wait for death, but it never comes; they prefer a grave to any treasure.
They are not happy till they are dead and buried; God keeps their future hidden and hems them in on every side.
Instead of eating, I mourn, and I can never stop groaning. Everything I fear and dread comes true.
I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never cease.
In chapter three Job is in the pit of despair.
How does one explain this radical change in Job?
Perhaps it is best to reconsider what Job has recently experienced up to this point.
Job has reached the end of his rope. How much time has elapsed we cannot say with certainty.
Has all of this unfolded in a few days? Several weeks? Many months?
Job is now trying to cope - - not just with the emotional trauma of his severe loses:
his wealth has gone up in smoke and his seven sons and three daughters have been killed.
His body is inflicted with sores from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot.
What Job is now confronted with is not just emotional heartbreak and dire physical pain.
Now he is is faced with the greatest struggle man will ever taste - - He feels as if he has lost touch with His God.
He is feeling abandoned by God and with that comes a deep disappointment with God (spiritual agony).
“Where is His God?” - - If Job is able to think straight, this must be the question that dogs his heart, mind and soul.
Where is the God that used to walk with him in the cool of the evening?
Where is the God that used to talk to him and rejoice with him in the sweet things of life?
Where is the God that offered him continual assurance - - I will never leave you or forsake you?
Job knows nothing of the WHY (why has this happened), he only knows the WHAT (what has happened).
Whereas you and I (the readers of the text) are made aware of the background to this conflict, Job knows
nothing of what is happening behind the scenes. Job is not privy to the insight we derive from chp1-2.
As we come to chapter three, all Job knows is everything all around him has collapsed and that he’s not to blame.
What makes life so very VAIN (empty) is that His Almighty God appears to be silent.
And it is not unreasonable to surmise that Job interprets God’s silence as apathy.
At this juncture in his life, with his current state of mind - - I do not believe that Job would have been up for singing.
¯ How happy is our portion here, God is love; His promises our spirits cheer, God is love;
He is our sun and shield by day, Our help our hope, our strength our stay, He will be with us all the way. ¯
At this point, Job is feeling distant from the promises of God. He must surely be feeling
that His God is no longer his sun and shield; No longer his help, his hope, his strength, his stay.
“The third chapter of Job must be one of the most depressing chapters in the Bible. While some might
be as depressed as Job was and use these verses to give vent to their feelings, few sermons are made from
this chapter, few verses are claimed as promises, and few are remembered for the warmth of their sentiment.
It is the lowest of several low points in the book.” / Robert Alden, The New American Commentary, p.71.
Job chapter three can be summarized with three simple phrases:
Job regrets his birth …… Job wishes that he’d died at birth …… Job longs to die.
Job does not curse God, but he does curse the day of his birth.
The text of chapter three is filled with “jussives” - - let and may - - wish verbs.
Vss.3-4 / Let the day perish. May that day be darkness. Let not God above care for it.
Vs.5 / Let darkness and black gloom claim it; Let a cloud settle on it; Let the blackness of the day terrify it.
Vs.6 / Let it not rejoice among the days of the year; Let it not come into the number of the months.
Vs.7 / Let that night be barren. Let no joyful shout enter it.
Vss.8-9 / Let those curse it who curse the day. Let the stars of its twilight be darkened;
Let it wait for light but have none; Neither let it see the breaking dawn.
We have no indication that Job ever contemplates suicide, but he most definitely rues the day that he was born.
Take me off the calendar and forget my birth date.
He wishes his mother would have never given birth to him and regrets that he ever suckled at his mother’s breast.
This opening lament (cry) concludes with vss.25-26 - -
For what I fear comes upon me, And what I dread befalls me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, And I am not at rest, but turmoil comes. / NASV
Every terror that haunted me has come upon me and all that I fear has come upon me.
There is no peace of mind nor quiet for me; I chafe in torment and have no rest. /NEB
Everything I fear and dread comes true. I have no peace, no rest, and my troubles never end. / TEV
Job is in THE PIT OF DESPAIR and it is deep and there appears to be no way out.
Some of you have been in a similar place. Some of you may be there even as we speak.
Have you ever felt really, really DOWN - - so down that you felt there may not be a way out?
This is where Job finds himself. It is a terribly sad situation.
Job is in the valley of the shadow of death.
For him it has become so dark that he cannot see light.
Job is on the brink of losing hope. He is struggling mightily to endure in the midst of his extremities.
For Job this valley of the shadow of death is so deep that he wonders if he will ever find relief.
What can we say? Rather than being sorrowful comforters, Job’s friends up being sorry comforters (Job 16:2).
In trying to encourage others we must choose our words carefully.
Sometimes silence is indeed golden.
Eccl.3:7 / there is a time to speak and a time to be still (silent).
Prov.10:19 / where there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
Col.4:5 / Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to respond…
Dennis Guernsey and his wife Lucy had a little baby boy.
They moved from seminary school in Dallas to Los Angeles to attend USC while working on his Ph.D. in psychology.
While Dennis was studying one day, his young (adored) son stumbled into a neighbor’s pool and drowned.
Dennis was devastated. He tells how he got in his car and drove about every freeway in L.A.,
during which time he screamed out to God expressing grief, anger, sadness and confusion.
He adds, “I said things to God in that car that I’d never said before to anybody.
I screamed it out, and it wasn’t very nice. I just vomited everything out to God.
He finally returned home, pulled in the driveway, and turned off the key, sobbing with great heaves.
“I was comforted with this thought: God can handle it! He can handle everything I said.” / Swindoll, pgs.70-71
What will God say? What will God do?
We must read and study the rest of the story to find out.
For now, it is worth noting that chapter three does not conclude with a blast from God.
There is no “shame on you, Job!”
