Job 3:1 Commentary and Bible Study

After seven days Job ‘opened his mouth’ to speak as he had not spoken until now. So far he has shown remarkable constancy, and has mortified all complaints that may have risen up within him from the flesh. He has remembered to continue to give thanks for God and to trust in his goodness, so that he held himself and faced one evil after another in submission to God. But now he can no longer restrain himself. He still does not completely lose control, and there is still a struggle going on inside him, but he is angry with God. Calvin says ‘Here is a combat in which we see that, on one side, man’s infirmity shows itself, and on the other side he still has some strength to resist his temptations … Whereas before there was nothing but constancy and sternness in him, now there is a mixture, so that the frailty of his flesh makes him overreact so much that he murmurs against God. His intention is not to fall out with God, but nevertheless, words escape from him which are evil and proceed from a faulty mind and cannot be justified’ (Calvin – English updated). Maybe the presence of these three comforters made things worse for him: the pressure of having three self-righteous people with him being just too much for him. Even so, he does not renounce his faith. He complains strongly – and he is complaining to God – but he certainly does not do what his wife suggested and curse God and die. He is not going to take his own life, but he longs for death to bring an end to his suffering. Why was he ever born? Throughout the chapter he will pursue that same subject, and apart from anything else we see that he is a man with a very fertile mind who possesses great skill with words, as he develops this idea.In all this, God was at work refining Job. It was necessary because of Job’s weaknesses. We have to be careful, but they are pointed out to us at the end of the book for our learning. Why should we study them? Is it to have the weaknesses of an old saint exposed? No. We do not want to run him down – he was a true believer, and believed in grace. He lived before written revelation, or by revelation that we do not know about, and some that even came to him during the course of this book. He is certainly at fault in what he says, but his trial is enormous and we must remember the blessings he had fallen from. He went from such heights to such depths. He was inflicted with running ulcers, loathsome to him and to others. His pain was more than we will probably ever face, but he did doubt the providence of God and the wisdom of God. We don’t know what would become of us in similar circumstances. We know what we would like to do, but we are not sure if we would hold up, so let us not be smug. Rather we say, if such a man as Job could stumble and fall, how much more we who are such little people!