Greek Poets and Arab Celebrities
“Afterward Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth” Job 3:1
Cursed – The Greek poet Theognis probably summarized the essence of the Greek view of life when he said, “Best of all for mortals is never to have been born, but for those who have been born to die as soon as possible.” Why was he so pessimistic? Maybe he knew about Job. The crushing impact of the story of Job is not the fight between good and evil. It is rather the total lack of control that Man exercises over life. Without a good God above, the world is nothing more than a fickle and cruel place where anything can happen. So, Theognis rightly concludes, if life is just painful suffering waiting to ruin us, why even be born?
Job never met Theognis but it certainly looks like he agrees. In this verse, Job begins a long lament about the day he was born. He wishes it had never happened. All of the joy surrounding his conception has been turned to excruciating sorrow. All of the pleasure is not pain. He concludes that it wasn’t worth it. Death is so much better than this living hell. At least when I’m dead, says Job, I will not longer suffer.
The Hebrew word qalal can mean “to make light of, to trivialize”, but in this context it takes on a much more powerful invective. Curse the day I was born. Extinguish it! Cross it off the calendar. Job’s distress reaches up to heaven and asks for a chronological eraser. If you have suffered deeply enough, you might also find yourself crying out with Job, “Why was I even born?” Theognis has no answer at all. For him, suffering is purposeless. Death is relief. But even though Job shares the same emotional context, his cry is not Greek. Job does have a God in heaven. This makes his pain even harder to understand. For the Greeks, uncontrollable fate brought unwelcome pain. The Greek world is an irrational world. But Job believes in a God of order, a God who is completely in control. The world is not accidental, fickle and vicious. Job’s suffering is not just emotional. It is spiritual. He has confronted the very edges of the God he knows and his mind is breaking along with his body.
This is the beginning of a long slide into despair for Job. Up to this point, disaster produces heroic faith. But now the breakdown starts. For thirty-three chapters, Job falls. This is the real story of Job, the man who wanted to know why. Push aside those first few lines about calamity. Ask yourself if you are just like Job from chapter three to thirty-three. “God, I just want to know why?” Have you surveyed your life and concluded that God needs to explain a few things?
Job’s story is not a Hollywood drama. It is the traumatic struggle to really believe God when the world doesn’t make any sense. It’s not easy and it’s not easily resolved. But it’s here in the Bible for a reason. Have you taken a walk on the wild side with Job?
