Job 3:20-22

20 Wherefore is light ['owr] given [nathan] to him that is in misery [`amel], and life [chay] unto the bitter [mar] in soul [nephesh];

21 Which long [chakah] for death [maveth], but it cometh not; and dig [chaphar] for it more than for hid treasures [matmown];

22 Which rejoice [sameach] exceedingly [giyl], and are glad [suws], when they can find [matsa'] the grave [qeber]? KJV-Interlinear

20 'Why is light given to him who suffers, And life to the bitter of soul; 21 Who long for death, but there is none, And dig for it more than for hidden treasures; 22 Who rejoice greatly, They exult when they find the grave? NASB

If the miseries of this life can make death itself desirable, then shouldn't the hopes and prospects of a better life, even a more phenomenal life, even a life that will exceed every dream or imagination possible, be just that much more desirable? More desirable even to the point of losing our fears over misery and even death itself?

Job has been deathly ill for quite some time now. And, more than just deathly ill, his illness has made him unbelievably miserable day and night, and even hideous to the point that the sight of him makes others nauseous.

Job has wished for his birthday to never have happened. He has already wished that he had never come into existence. Having been discarded as a miscarriage, into the garbage dump of worthless things.

And now he again reaches into the bias of his misery, to wonder, just why God would bring into life, a person who is destined to misery.

Job makes a giant leap in assuming that there are, or will be, folks who have been, or will be, born into his world for the sole purpose of being miserable. And, as though there are no other factors involved in their life.

And so, with his friends sitting, still silent, he proposes a rhetorical question. Actually, he offers several questions.

Job totally forgets for the moment, that he has enjoyed a better life. He may very well be a hundred years old by this time. His misery and loss have been only recent, and certainly his trouble has been great, but they do not or should not discount into meaninglessness, all of his life prior to this trouble.

Likewise, Job has a life still ahead of him. He sees only his misery for the moment, and nothing else, except for his desire to die.

His presumption? That light, or life comes to certain people. People who are going to suffer. Why?

God gives life. Life is a gift. But if that gift is to end up in misery, then is it a gift, or a curse?

Life in this world reaches out to these select few, and brings them pain and suffering, and therefore bitterness. Therefore, they begin to court death. Why is their life prolonged? Why were they even born?

Their miserable life sinks lower and lower into the gloom of despair. Their despair turns to intense self-pity, or even hate. They wish, and even pray for death to bring an end to their misery. And when death finally comes, they celebrate in their last and dying breaths.

Such is the magnitude of Job's misery. He has wished for his beginnings to have turned out very differently. His birth to have never happened. His birth to have ended in a very short life, such that as an infant, he would never have been aware of suffering.

But such wishes never come true. No one can turn the clock backwards and undo ones entire life, even to the undoing of the actions or others.

Job sees only his pain. Job closes his eyes to the rest of his earlier life, even to the possibilities of his future.

Most people who are miserable, see only their misery. In fact, most misery begins to become exaggerated far beyond the reality of its character. People begin to become used to their misery. Their complaining becoming a part of their ego and the status quo of their character.

When something becomes a habit in ones life, then letting go, even looking to options of escape become closed doors. It is easier to keep the habit, than to make a change.

Such is the vanity of life, that it sometimes becomes an exasperation of ones strength of mind, and thus the prospects of death, or even the continuation of ones miserable status quo, though dreadful they may be, may become desirable within ones own mind.

In pain, man becomes wiser than his Maker. In refusing to see anything, man is content to see all he wants to see. And based on that narrow view of life, all of life is defined.

The potential abundance of the good in life, becomes dismissed, and the bad or death, becomes embraced, although it leads not to relief, but to failure and loss.

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