“After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day,” Job 3:1.
It is important for us to note that the grace with which Job has ever been linked was a grace that he showed a conspicuous lack of on the occasion before us.
This not the only time that find men failing in the very grace for which they were distinguished. David the follower of the Shepherd went astray when tempted (2 Sam 11). Abraham, the man of faith lied about his wife because of unbelief (Gen 12:11-13).
Such instances serve to underline that their graces were just that. They were not natural dispositions or character traits. There is no good thing in us but that which is implanted by divine grace when we were regenerated and made to grow as we walk in obedience and submission to God.
I. JOB’S IMPATIENCE
After a period of what we may call stunned silence Job gives vent to his feelings. He curses the day of his birth. The word curse does not carry the modern meaning. The Hebrew means to ‘hold in contempt’.
1. Such impatience makes us forgetful of former mercies. He had referred to these mercies when first he came under the trial, 1:21, 2:10. After the time of silent brooding he has gone back on that praise and this outburst shows that. Brooding upon life’s difficulties and trials will make any one of us forget God’s mercy to us. It happened to Jeremiah, 20:14.
2. Such impatience quarrels with God’s providence. “That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Gen 18:25. Rom 8:28, Eph 1:11, II Tim 1:9. Many others have made this mistake. And Jacob their father said unto them, “Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me,” Genesis 42:36.
3. Such impatience is blind to God’s mercy. No matter what life should hold for us, should it be ten thousand times worse than the sufferings of Job, God’s heaven shall more than adequately compensate us for it all. Look at the cross in times of affliction Study what your Saviour bore for you and your troubles will immediately become less in its light. It will disappear altogether when we think of what those great sufferings must have purchased for us. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be,” 1 John 3:2.
II THE CHIEF INSTRUMENT OF JOB’S IMPATIENCE
“He opened his mouth.” That mouth that had spoken such gracious words earlier, 1:22, 2:10.
1. The most holy lips are capable of sinful words. Peter, Matt 16:16, 26:70, 72, 74.
2. We must therefore guard our lips. This cannot be done in our own strength or wisdom, Psalm 141:3. The word ‘opened’ means to loose as in loosing a prisoner, Psalm 102:20. The first occurrence of the word — Gen 7:11, see Deut 15:8. Job lifts the restraint that he had been exercising. David shows us what Job should have done, Psalm 39:9. The mouth needs ‘a bridle’.
3. We can never be holy until we do bridle the tongue. Psalm 34:13, James 1:26, 3:6; I Peter 3:10-11.
III.THE FAILURE OF SATAN
Satan boasted that he could make Job curse God but Job did not curse God. He did not curse his religion. He was weary of life but not of God. He still continued to trust God, 13:15. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” If Job had lifted restraint from his lips, God had not lifted the restraint of divine grace from Job.
IV. WHAT CAUSE SOME MEN WILL HAVE ONE DAY TO CURSE THE DAY THEY WERE BORN.
There are some for whom it would have better that they were never born. Jesus said so. “The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born,” Mark 14:21.
This is a crime that many more than Judas are guilty. The chief priests, Mark 15:10, Pilate, 15, the crowd, Acts 3:13.
It is a crime for which some here stand guilty. Repent of your Christ rejection lest you eternally curse the day you were born.