Is It a Happy Birthday?

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said: “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.” (Job 3:1-4 ESV). I love chapter three of the Book of Job. Here Job asks three very poignant questions. All of them deal with the meaning of life. Each one points us to the answer of whether our birthday really ought to be considered “happy.” The first one is, “Why was I ever born?” Job hopes his birthday will be forgotten. He is looking back to the day of his birth, and, although he cannot change it, he is saying, May its anniversary be ignored. Let it be a day that is darkened; let no one rejoice in it. Let it be a day of cursing instead of blessing. You can see at this point how his life has become so miserable that he longs for death. Even all that he has enjoyed in the past seems of no value in the face of this tremendous anguish that he must endure. Although Job comes very close to cursing God, he never does. He does curse the day of his birth, and he curses what God has allowed to happen. It is a typical reaction. If we could see some reason for what we have to go through, we think could endure it much more easily. His second question is, “Having been born, why didn't I die at birth?” Job views death as a time of rest, a period of solitude and quiet after the trouble of life. I think many people see death that way. At the end of the book, Job's view of death is quite different than it was at the beginning. We’ll see that more as we progress. Job's third question is, “Why can't I die now?” Job's is simply expressing a lack of understanding as to the purpose of his life. Of what use is a life that is so filled with misery that you can do nothing but suffer and feel anguish? My life produces only fear and trouble, so it would be better to end it now. Many people feel that way. I do not think Job is thinking of suicide; he is asking God to take him home. There is no purpose to life, he says, when it is not enjoyable. That is a very common argument, and one of the reasons we have been given this book is to help us understand that life can still have a great deal of meaning, even when it looks absolutely useless. I have found it very helpful, when facing difficulties in my life, to remember that God has given me my life as a gift. Further, he doesn’t give bad gifts to His children. That’s harder at some times than others, but it is true. It not only allows my understanding and faith to grow, it also gives me a clear picture of the difference between this world and the world He is preparing for me. When I see that, I can really have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!