Job 3:20 - Life and Misery: Is There An Answer? UPDATED

Job 3:20: Life and Misery: Is There An Answer? UPDATED

Job 3:20 (CEV) Why does God let me live when life is miserable
and so bitter?

The stanza is the picture of a man earnestly longing for death,
but doomed to live on and on. The experience has its modern
counterpart in the cancer sufferer who wastes away during long, agonizing,
futile months before death ultimately provides release. Now, as then,
the question is often asked, "Why?" [SDA Commentary]

Into the experience of all there come times of keen
disappointment and utter discouragement--days when sorrow is the portion, and
it is hard to believe that God is still the kind benefactor of His
earthborn children; days when troubles harass the soul, till death seems
preferable to life. It is then that many lose their hold on God and are
brought into the slavery of doubt, the bondage of unbelief. Could we at
such times discern with spiritual insight the meaning of God's
providences we should see angels seeking to save us from ourselves, striving
to plant our feet upon a foundation more firm than the everlasting
hills, and new faith, new life, would spring into being.  {PK 162.1}

Grace teaches us in the midst of life's greatest comforts, to be
willing to die, and in the midst of its greatest crosses, to be willing
to live. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Trials and grief, whether temporary or enduring, do not destroy
the real purpose of life. Life is not given merely for happiness and
personal fulfillment, but for us to serve and honor God. The worth and
meaning of life is not based on what we feel, but on the one reality no
one can take away--God's love for us. [Life Application SB]

The Cross