Job 3:20 - Meaning and Application

Job sees that it does no good to wish he had never been born, or that he had died at birth. So now he turns to another complaint, that his life has been allowed to go on instead of being cut short. When people are bent on arguing, they never seem to run out of words, and a sinful heart keeps feeding its own bitterness. He had cursed the day of his birth, and now he longs for the day of his death. This kind of strife and impatience begins like a burst of water breaking loose.

He thinks it is hard, in general, that miserable lives should be prolonged. Why is light given to those whose soul is bitter? Bitterness of soul, because of deep inward trouble, makes life itself painful. Job asks, why does he give light? He means God, though he does not name him. The devil had said, "He will curse thee to thy face," but Job is still speaking only in a hidden way against God’s providence, as if it were unfair and unkind to keep life going when its comforts are gone.

Life is called light because it is pleasant and useful for moving about and working. It is like candlelight, which gets shorter the longer it burns, and comes closer to the end. This light is said to be given to us, because if it were not renewed each day by God’s gift, it would be gone. But Job sees this as a gift people would be better off without when all it does is show them their misery.

He is speaking of people who long for death after they have outlived their comfort and usefulness, and are weighed down by age, sickness, poverty, or shame, yet death does not come. At the same time, death comes to many who fear it and want to keep it far away. The length and ending of life must be ordered by God, not by us. It is not fitting that we should be asked how long we want to live or when we want to die, because our times are in better hands than our own.

He also speaks of those who dig for death as if it were hidden treasure, meaning they would pay anything to be released from this world. This also shows that people at that time were not thinking of making themselves their own executioners, because if they were, those who longed for death would not need to search for it so hard. Some even welcome death and are glad when they can find the grave and begin to enter it. If the troubles of this life can make death itself desirable, against nature, then surely the hopes of a better life, where death is only our passage, should make death far less feared. It may be sinful to long for death, but it is not sinful to long for heaven.

Job also thinks he has been treated unfairly in his own case, because he cannot get relief from his pain by dying, since he cannot get relief in any other way. To grow impatient with life because of trouble is not only against nature, but also unthankful to the giver of life. It shows a sinful giving in to our own feelings, and a sinful forgetfulness of the life to come. We should make it our main and steady care to be ready for the next world, and then leave it to God to decide the time and way of our leaving this one, saying, "Lord, when and how you please." And we should say it with such calmness that, if God asked us to choose, we would still leave the choice to him. Grace teaches us, in the middle of life’s greatest comforts, to be willing to die, and in the middle of its greatest troubles, to be willing to live. Job tries to excuse his strong wish to die by pointing to how little comfort he has in life.

In his present suffering, trouble is felt all the time and seems likely to stay that way. He thinks he has enough reason to be tired of living, because he has no comfort in life. His sighing comes before he eats. The sorrows of life come before the supports of life, and even take away his hunger for necessary food. His grief returns as regularly as his meals, and suffering is his daily bread. His pain is so severe that he does not merely sigh, he roars, and his groans pour out like a steady flow of water. Our Lord Jesus was familiar with sorrow, and we should expect the same in this world.

He also sees no hope of things getting better. His way is hidden, and God has hedged him in. He cannot see any path of escape, and he does not know what to do next. His road is blocked with thorns, so he cannot find his way. See Job 23:8; Lamentations 3:7.

Even in his earlier, prosperous days, trouble was always in his thoughts, so he was never truly at ease. He knew enough about the emptiness of the world, and about the troubles that belong to human life, that he was not then living without care or concern. What makes his grief worse now is that he does not know of any serious carelessness or worldly ease in his better days that would have deserved such severe punishment from God.

He had not been careless or forgetful about his duties, but kept a proper fear of trouble so that he stayed watchful. He worried for his children while they were feasting, afraid they might offend God (Job 1:5). He was also careful for his servants, so that they would not offend their neighbors. He took all the care he could over his health, and handled himself and his affairs with every reasonable caution. Yet none of it spared him.

He had also not been careless in his heart, nor had he given himself over to ease and comfort. He did not trust in his wealth, or flatter himself that his joy would last forever. Trouble still came, to teach him again how empty the world is, though he had not forgotten that truth even when he was living at ease. In this way, his path was hidden, because he could not tell why God was contending with him.

Still, this thought should rather soften his grief than make it worse. Nothing makes trouble easier to bear more than a clear conscience, knowing that we did our duty in days of prosperity. And when trouble is expected ahead of time, it is lighter when it arrives. The less it surprises us, the less it frightens us.