Everybody Hurts

Job 3:1-4

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job said:

“Let the day perish in which I was born,
and the night that said,
‘A man-child is conceived.’

Let that day be darkness!
May God above not seek it,
or light shine on it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes everything is wrong
Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone (Hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go (Hold on)
If you think you've had too much
Of this life, well hang on

Everybody hurts
Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts
Don't throw your hand, oh no

Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone
No, no, no, you are not alone

Everybody Hurts, written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe; recorded by REM from "Automatic for the People"

Stephen Mitchell's translation of "The Book of Job" (Harper Perennial, 1987, page 13) translates "Let the day perish in which I was born" to "God damn the day in which I was born." Now, this is not the interjection you hear screamed during a football game when the quarterback throws an interception. Mitchell's use of this phrase is as subject and verb. It's more like this, "God condemn to hell the day in which I was born." This is stiff stuff.

There have been many songs written about suicide. By my interpretation, and your mileage may vary, Supertramp's "Good Bye Stranger" carries the theme. As does "the Freshman" by The Verve Pipe. This song does too.

There is a woeful overwhelmingly helpless and hopeless feeling that can overwhelm and overwhelm is the perfect word. Distress is another very good one. The thought that "everybody hurts" is of little help to someone who is overwhelmed by the stresses of life.

Don't misunderstand this, stress is needed. Without some stress, we don't get out of bed in the morning. But when the amount of stress crashes over you like a wave, a tsunami, that's distress. This is tragic.

Job was ruined. He had lost his livestock, his crop, his slaves, his family and finally his health. He has torn his clothes, covered himself in ashes, and scraped his sores with broken pieces of pottery. His wife had enough. "Curse God and die" she cries.

But Job doesn't curse God. He curses the day he was born. He asks God to condemn the day he was born wanting it sent to hell. He wants God to forget everything about his life. He scorns his own life, but he does not scorn God.

Let's face this fact while we're here, his friends weren't much help either.

It takes Elihu, a young man, not one of Job's confidants, to reveal to everyone assembled that the Lord is sovereign and our pain in the hands of the Lord has a redemptive quality. Job is redeemed and ultimately restored.

The day is long and sometimes everything is wrong. Joy seems to be a dream that belongs to everyone else. But when we have control over nothing, God still has control. Comfort and redemption are found in Christ our Lord, what is completely out of control God can still use for good. Where our optimism ends, hope begins. Believe it or not.