Introduction:

According to the World Health Organization major depression carries the heaviest burden of disability among mental and behavioral disorders. In 2015, an estimated 10.3 million adults aged 18 or older in the United States had at least one major depressive episode in the past year with severe impairment. This number represented 4.3% of all U.S. citizens. Folks, that is down form the 2012 figure of 16 million adults. (WHO) states that 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. It is a leading cause of disability. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health highlights the problem among young adults. From 2008 to 2010, more than 8 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 22 reported a major depressive episode in the previous year.

There is no single cause of depression. Brain chemistry, hormones, and genetics may all play a role. However, it is medically confirmed that chronic diseases like diabetes, multiple sclerosis, or cancer can cause people to enter a very depressed state. This is where Job is as we come to chapter three and he mediates upon three depressing questions related to his suffering.

Many scholars have consider the book of Job to be the oldest biblical book therefore it is fitting that the oldest biblical book would deal with the most universal experiences of our human reality, the presence of suffering and depression in the world.

I. Job asks; Why was I born? (3:1-10)

1. After seven days, the silence was over. Job starts to speak and we sense the depth of his grief and despair as chapter three opens. Three questions are upon his mind. Why was I even born (1-10). Why did I survive? (11-19) and last, Why am I alive? (20-26). Six times he asks “why”? This is not uncommon for us either. Christians get depress too and ask why. There is nothing wrong in asking this question to God. – Psalms 34:17-19

2. Job cursed the day he was born. He did not curse God, but rather the day of his own birth. He wondered, “Why was I born in the first place?” Never did Job speak of committing suicide, but his suffering was so intense that he wished he had never been born. Job’s disposition changed dramatically. Maybe you have had this experience; God does know your heart.

Note in verse three the night in which or rather “the night which said.” The words in italics are not in the Hebrew. Night is personified and poetically made to speak. The book of Job is not only the oldest book of the Bible but it is among the poetic books. You notice the repetition of darkness, blackness, darkness. This is Hebrew poetry. Therefore the language can be somewhat ambiguous. We must understate the literature of the Bible as well as it content.

3. The man of patience and faith fell into despondency and depression. This often adds to the agony of a person facing major adversity. No-where in the book of Job does Job come closer to cursing God to His face than here in chapter 3. We see in this chapter that even a person of great faith can become despondent and depressed over the problems of life. We see that a person as great as Job could have a struggle of faith should be an encouragement to all who are in similar situations. Never demonized someone for having a spirit of depression, it is a very real thing. Christian folks have the Holy Spirit the unsaved do not.

4. This chapter too is God’s inspired Word it reveals that God wants us to speak to Him honestly, even in our moments of greatest gloom and doubt. When we are hurting, we often say things we later regret and don’t really mean. Job’s suffering was so agonizing that he forgot the blessings of family and fortune he had enjoyed for many years. Present pain has the tendency to cancel the memories of past joys and Job seems to want his birthday to have been completely cancelled. He moves away from this unrealistic question to another.

II. Job asks; Why didn’t I die at birth? (3:11-19)

1. The chapter progresses as Job wishes he had died in child birth. That is what we read in next verses 11-19. He laments why did I not die at birth rather than have this trouble? It would have been better for me he thinks to have perished as soon as he was born. He continues in
Verse 12, why was I given to my mother knees? The word “prevent” is the Hebrew word
(kä•dam’ mean to come forth) and she nursed me?

2. In verse 13 he said, “If I just had died at birth, I would be at peace. I would be asleep and at rest. 14. I would be at rest with the world’s kings and prime ministers, whose great building are empty and gone.
In verse 15 he says, “I would rest with princes, rich in gold, whose palaces were filled with silver. 16 Why wasn’t I buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who never lives to see the light? 17 For in death the wicked cause no trouble, and the weary are at rest. 18 Even captives are at ease in death, with no guards to curse them. 19- Rich and poor are both there, and the slave is free from his master.

3. Here we notice Jobs lack of knowledge concerning the afterlife. We must remember that the book of Job is not only the oldest book of the Bible and little is yet known about life after death. However, he will soon learn through this experience the truth of heaven and hell. These are not God’s inspired truths that he is crying. These statements are Job seeking relief in death from a very limit understanding of the matter. Job is actually challenging God. “Why did God ever allow me to live? Why wasn’t I born dead?”

4. We cannot take these statements of Job and develop a doctrine about death where there is no trouble, where everybody is at rest and peace. We know that to be true only for the saved of God. We must not take these for biblical doctrine and this is substantiated in the thirty-eighth chapter of the book of Job. God finally came on the scene in the thirty-eighth chapter. God began to speak to Job and question him. He said, “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” Job had very limited understanding about his life or death -vv 17.
5. If you really want to know what happens beyond the grave, you need to go to the words of our Savior in the New Testament. Who knows better than He does? –Revelation 14: 13.

God rebukes Job because he’s talking about something that he knows nothing about. Talking about death and what he imagines it would be if he were dead. But God says, “You’re wrong.”
— gospel
III. Job asks, Why don’t I just die? (3:20-26)

1. Last Job asks why don’t I just die and this misery end. The language in steeped in the agony of despair. To Job’s way of thinking, why keep on living when my quality of life is void? These are legitimate questions. He has lost his appetite, his joy. He is filled with pain and dread as we read the last verses of chapter three.

20. Oh, why should those in misery see the light of day and life to those who suffer?
21 I long for death, and it does not come and search for death like hidden treasure.
22 When death comes they are filled with joy and rejoice when they find the grave.
23 Why is life given when there is no future, when God allows such difficulties?
24 I cannot eat for my sighing and my groans are water running without end.
25 What I always feared has happened and I dreaded what has come true.
26 I have no peace, no quietness, no rest; only troubles have overwhelm me.”

2. Job in all of this never considers or tries to kill him-self. He questions God about why his life should continue but be clear he never contemplated suicide. Over 90 percent of people who die by suicide have a mental illness at the time of their death. And the most common mental illness is depression. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the US. and on average, there are 117 suicides per day. Untreated depression is the number one cause for suicide.

We have learned all people experience this and that in time and with treated it will past. Suicide is never the answer but with the way our culture has completely destroyed the sanctity of life, many believe as Job did at first death is the solution…but it is not. There is a God one must answer to as Job discovers in chapter 38.

3. Now there are those blessed, misguided saints who are just as ignorant as Job about life and death; Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. It’s easy to be critical of Job’s friends for their failure to see the big picture. But how often are we too quick with answers to questions we don’t truly understand? People do want answers. But more than that, they want to know we hear and understand. They want to know we care. – Galatians 6:1-2

Conclusion:

Before people want to hear what you say, they want to know that you care. Maybe that is why Job will endure their questions and even there accusations because they indicated they cared by staying with him seven day. We need others!