Job 3:21
Who long for death that does not come,
Who seek it more than buried treasure,
I went from two in one day, to not another one in over a month. Weird how life works sometimes. One of my big thought uses these days is how much effort to put into seeking what type of income. I used to have a job, but that also meant I had a boss. I have someone acting as if they were my king, er boss, now, but since I am not looking for a boss, he may have to rule elsewhere.
This verse in Job is rather negative. It speaks of people so hating life that they seek death as if it were treasure they could find by digging. This image of treasure hunters dropped my thoughts to thieves and those too lazy to work. Indiana Jones was basically stealing old treasure. Not necessarily for himself, but his efforts were not being put into producing something new and valuable.
The first decision in reviewing this verse was to use either “wait” or “long” for death. Wait was too passive for the concept of digging for buried treasure, so long it was. For me the concept of long is to overwhelmingly desire to the point of emotional toil.
The second issue was to use a phrase modifying death as “not coming” or that the “waiting is in vain”, i.e. of no use. Since I picked longing over waiting, the general tie of “waiting in vain” is not really maintained. But a longing that is in vain is still germane to the discussion. In deciding on the use of the phrase modifying death, I likened it to the image of death as a being sent to come and take your soul away. Many references to this death figure are seen in literature and many people associate it with fear and fear of dying. The people in this verse are in such bad shape they can do nothing to hasten death and are eagerly awaiting the “Angel” of death to come save them from their misery. Hence, I like the use of death that does not come.
The third issue was picking amongst dig or search. In sequence, I had already chosen to use buried to describe the treasure, so dig seemed superfluous. So my first thought was to use search and move on. But I did not, obviously. In keeping with idea of longing, but not being able to hasten death, I wanted to maintain the lack of actual action. Search is action. Seek carries a similar meaning, but can be more cerebral and indicate using your mind. I chose this as a better word for the situation.
Finally, sorta, was the “buried” or “hidden treasure” or “gold” or plain “treasure”. The “gold” was coupled with “rather dig” and while coming from my favorite source, it closes off the possibility that the treasure could be anything and then the desire is not in place of searching for gold, but higher in intensity than the desire to search for gold or treasure or anything. The image of death is of a grave, and the use of buried in a grave as treasure gave a better feel than as hidden somewhere not associated with death. Basically, if they could dig their own grave and lie down in it they would, but they are not able to and so sit and wallow in their pity wanting to die.
I recently longed for some enjoyable music that I would like to listen to that was Godly, yet not the typical pieces you hear in a church service. I realized I would have to take action to find such music and picked Vivaldi’s Four Seasons to listen to. I prefer Handel’s Water Music, but I was on a plane and do not have it on my phone.
God did not make us to long for death. He made us to long for joy through relating to Him based on the righteousness of our savior Jesus Christ. Joy does not come by sitting and wishing it. It takes action, even if it is only mental. Job wanted joy, but was too focused on his need to be right and not his need to be humble before God. Our circumstances are not always great, sometimes death is coming for us, but whether we seek joy in relating to God here or realize joy in waking up in heaven, our longing is to be for God.