Job

Job 3: Job pours out his grief

Begin in prayer

Before we listen to Job’s anguished words, let us ask the Lord to make us patient and attentive. Ask Him to meet our family in sorrow and lead us to Jesus for mercy.

She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to Yahweh, weeping bitterly.

1 Samuel 1:10

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Help us understand Job’s grief and trust You in dark days. Let us see the mercy of Jesus in our grief. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

After seven days of silence, Job curses the day of his birth. He wishes darkness could swallow that day and asks why he did not die at birth. The grave seems restful to him because rulers, prisoners and servants alike escape their earthly burdens there. He wonders why life continues for people who long for death and cannot see a way forward. Job describes God as hedging him in while sighs and groans fill his life. His lament ends with trouble and no rest.

As you read Job 3, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God lets us hear His suffering servant’s restless grief and longing for relief.

From here the book is poetry, as Job and his friends speak in turn. God gives us Job’s lament after seven silent days, bringing his already visible grief into words. He curses his birthday rather than renouncing God, but his wishes still show a troubled and limited understanding. Darkness now seems preferable to the light that brought him into suffering. The grave appears restful because earthly tyrants, masters and unequal ranks cannot continue their ordinary claims there. These comparisons describe Job’s longing for relief, not a complete account of life after death. He pictures God’s hedge as confinement, although Satan earlier described it as protection. The same suffering can leave a faithful person unable to see what God is doing. Please hear his anguish with compassion while refusing to treat the wish never to have lived as wise counsel.

How does Job 3 show us that God lets us hear His suffering servant’s restless grief and longing for relief?

God reveals the grief of His suffering servant.

Job wishes the day and night of his birth could disappear. His words show how far grief has reached into his thoughts. His suffering needs patient care, rather than a demand to sound cheerful.

Job’s longing for rest reaches the grave.

Kings, prisoners and servants all appear together in Job’s picture of the grave. He is searching for relief from earthly toil and oppression. Job longs for the grave because he wants rest from his pain.

God’s servant speaks without finding rest.

Job says God has hedged him in, and he cannot see a way forward. His final words describe trouble without ease or rest. His inability to understand does not remove God from His place as Lord.

Memorise

I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble comes.

Job 3:26

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what grief can I bring honestly to Jesus for mercy?

Job says, “I am not at ease, neither am I quiet”. His anguish is spoken aloud and preserved in Scripture. Please do not ask a hurting child to pretend that everything feels well.

Jesus knows sorrow from within human life. He is the sinless Priest who can help the weak, as Hebrews 4 verses 15 and 16 teach. His suffering went further than sympathy. On the cross He accepted His people’s punishment and bore their sins in their place. The sacrifice was completed and fully sufficient for their acceptance before God. He rose from the dead, so grief and death cannot overthrow His saving work.

Come with your need to Jesus. Turn from sin and believe in Him. Whoever seeks refuge in the crucified and risen Savior is forgiven. He remains a merciful Savior when His people cannot yet see how their grief will end.

Parent's note

Tell your children that Job’s wish never to have lived expresses anguish, and a child feeling this way should tell you. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that He remains Lord amid anguish, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Romans 8:26-27

Lord God, thank You that the grief of Your servants is heard in Your Word. Help each of us turn from sin and believe in Jesus. Please give us words to bring our sorrow to You and kindness toward those who cannot yet find rest. Amen.