Have You Considered Job?

At last Job spoke, and he cursed the day of his birth. [Job 3.1]

I wanted to cut and paste Job's entire speech here, but it is long and I trust anyone with interest will read it for themselves (Job 3).

The first thought that came to my mind when reading Job's speech was that this guy is bitter!  

All of the third chapter of Job is called his first speech, but actually it is his second response to the turn of events described in his story.  Here is what Job is on record of having said when he experienced the first wave of misfortune and lost his children and everything he owned:

He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave.  The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away.  Praise the name of the Lord!” [Job 1.21]

I am humbled and challenged every time I read this response.  What resolve!  What confidence in God!  What a spiritually mature man!

Following his second wave of misfortune (physical affliction) however, Job's lengthy discourse in chapter three doesn't follow such a spiritually mature theme as his first response.  In fact, the content of the third chapter of Job sounds like it came from a completely different man with no devotion to God at all!  So blatant was Job's spewing of regret and remorse for his very birth that he handily succeeded in securing stern rebukes from his friends and, ultimately then, from God Himself.

Now the irony of Job's second response is that before this time, twice already God had challenged Satan with Job's integrity.  Was there something God didn't know about Job?  OR!  Was there something Satan didn't know about Job?  Just as God questioned Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, I believe it is quite possible that God's repeated question to Satan ("Have you considered my servant Job?") was entirely rhetorical!  If God is indeed Who He says He is, then Job wasn't fooling Him - but Satan apparently was totally duped by Job's facade!

I've probably got this all wrong, but it is an interesting thread of thought to follow.  Like everyone else who has ever read Job, I too would like to understand what this story is all about.  But at the end of the day, we all must remember this analogy: God is the potter.  It is His spinning wheel and clay.  And what He chooses to form as the potter, on His wheel, with His clay, is entirely up to Him.

Father, I genuinely want to understand more about Job.  Please give me that understanding as I realize it will only come from You!