Job3

                          Job's Soliloquy (3)

OBJECTIVES IN STUDYING THIS SECTION

1) To consider Job's soliloquy, which starts the "great controversy"
   between Job and his friends

2) To appreciate the depth of Job's complaint, why he wished that he
   had never been born

3) To note the questions he raised as he sought to understand the
   problem of suffering

SUMMARY

Having sat in silence for seven days in the presence of his friends who
had come to comfort him, Job finally speaks.  In the form of a 
soliloquy, he begins by cursing the day of his birth and the night of
his conception for failing to prevent his sorrow (3:1-10).  He then
bemoans why he did not die at birth or even be stillborn, for then at
least he would be at rest, just like those who were great in their
lifetime, or like those who had been oppressed (3:11-19).  Job also
wonders why the suffering who long for death are allowed to linger.  He
concludes by stating that what he most greatly feared has now come upon
him:  trouble, from which there seems to be no rest (3:20-26).

OUTLINE

I. JOB'S CURSE (3:1-10)

   A. HE CURSES THE DAY OF HIS BIRTH...
      1. Not just the day of his birth, but also the night of his 
         conception
      2. Because of the sorrow that has come his way
      -- I.e., he wished he had never been born

   B. IN THIS HE RESEMBLES JEREMIAH...
      1. Who had an unpopular ministry  - Jer 20:14-18
      2. Who experienced much suffering like Job

   C. AN IMPORTANT POINT TO REMEMBER...
      1. Both expressed a desire never to have been born
      2. Yet neither Job or Jeremiah for a moment considered the 
         possibility of suicide
      3. They might have questioned the Lord's wisdom, but they did not
         dare take the precious gift of life with which He endowed them