Job 3:10

For the day did not seal the womb’s doors on me,

Nor curtain wretchedness from my eyes.

 

Verse 10 wraps up the first section of poetry while at the same time introducing the next round of lamenting. From a timing perspective I have just finished transitioning from chapter 8 to chapter 9; from Bildad’s web to Job’s plea for a court date. I also transitioned from one age to another, we just transitioned to Spring and wrapped up Easter. I want to transition to being a better person, but will have to settle for a better me. (Little joke there.)

The use of womb was selected over the “belly” and prevented me from thinking about it from a child’s perspective. Did not notice the potential tie-in to the belly of the whale with Jonah, but I am learning every day.

“Seal the doors” won out over “shut up the doors”, “close the doors”, “block”, and “lock the gates”. I probably should have dropped doors, but I got the impression there was a Hebrew word in there with that meaning. Maybe it was a phrase that carried a different meaning than the individual words.

The transition includes from the other of the “Day of his birth” to the individual person in “me” or “my” for Job. Interestingly, not every translation carried the me in the first “stitch”. I might just want to drop “doors on me” all together.

I did much prefer the use of curtain over “ hide” in the other seven translations. It plays together with doors and gates. I guess if I delete doors, I need to go back to hide as well.

Wretchedness is such a powerful word; I could not pick another. Options included “sorrow”, “trouble”, “suffering” and “misery”. The world is a wretched place, but its way better than hell, and the only way to get to heaven.

I assume the wretchedness Job refers to was his own and the losses inflicted upon him by the treachery of Satan. But it works for everyone.

I looked over my previous posts on poetry. I wanted to reread them, but I faltered. Many, many people in our country now are bemoaning the state of things. Liberals are bemoaning the damage done by Trump. Conservatives are bemoaning the disaster of Biden. Some cannot tell the difference between liberals and conservative or Trump and Biden. In truth, our world is full of sin and the decay of our country was always inevitable as the mythic Christian roots of our government were trying to be fair and avoid the inevitable decay of governments based on religion.

We rewatched the last episode of the Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I still laughed at the interplay of the Falcon who has “black” skin and the kid who called him the “Black” Falcon. Racism is like Highway Six; no matter how much people do not get it, it runs both ways. God did not make us all to look the same way, and He did not give us a government system that will work without Him physically leading it. And even then, some Biblical scholars expect the reign of Christ on earth to only last a thousand years, and sin to upset that apple cart, too.

Job laments that he was born, and yes, he lost a lot and was suffering terribly, but being born into the wretchedness around us is the only path to heaven. We have to live to die, and we have to die to ourselves to gain the eternity of heaven. As job continues his lament in the coming verses, the truth is we have to suffer to learn what a great and precious gift that Christ has provided for us. On this Easter Sunday, I thank God for the gift of His Son, but I also thank Him that I got to live so that I may yet live.