1. Job Cursed the Day of His Birth (verses 1-10).
2. Job Questioned His Birth (verses 11-19).
3. Job Longs for Death (verses 20-26).

I want to begin this morning by going deep. I want to ask you about your greatest fear. I want to ask you about the thing in your life that you would most dread happening to you.

Perhaps the first thing that you think about is dying. Perhaps your greatest fear is dying. Particularly, perhaps your greatest fear is the manner in which you will die. Perhaps you fear a car crash, where you will die without any warning. Perhaps you fear drowning, where you will die gasping for air. Perhaps you fear dying of cancer, a slow and painful and unpleasant death.

Perhaps your greatest fear is a loved one dying, like your spouse, in which case you will be left alone for years. Perhaps your greatest fear is of your children dying. I remember my father telling me of how when we were young and out late, and the phone would ring, he would naturally think that it was bad news about one of his children.

Perhaps your greatest fear is a debilitating injury or illness, say a stroke or a head injury, that lands you in a wheelchair, when suddenly you can’t do the things you used to do. Perhaps your greatest fear is growing old and losing your mind, as you slowly lose all of your abilities to understand the world around you, and you forget names and places, and even who you are.

Perhaps your greatest fear is financial: perhaps losing your job, or losing your home to a fire, or losing your retirement accounts to a stock crash or a Bernie Madoff Ponzi scam, which means that there would be no retirement in your future. Perhaps your greatest fear is that your children will rebel, they will walk away from God, and become addicted to alcohol or drugs, or commit some crime that lands them in prison. Perhaps your greatest fear in life is that your spouse will leave you and divorce you and leave you alone. Perhaps your greatest fear in life is dying alone in some nursing home, with nurses who are trying their best but are busy and don’t really care.

I don’t know what your greatest fear is. I’m not even sure that each one of you has had the time to really establish in your thoughts what your biggest fear is. But imagine with me for a moment that the thing you fear most actually happens. Assuming it’s not your death, it happens. The phone rings, and you are told of the death of a loved one, or of a bad diagnosis, or of a financial crisis, or a child who will never come home. Imagine with me that the thing you prayed would never happen has happened. And now you have to figure out how to live with what you were most afraid of.

My hope and prayer for you all is that you never have to face such a situation. I know that it would be difficult, but if you are trusting in Christ today, he will be with you tomorrow to carry you through your trial. When the apostle Paul had a terrible and difficult thing in his life that he simply identified for us as “a thorn in the flesh,” he prayed and prayed and prayed that it would go away. But the Lord refused to take it away. Instead, the Lord promised to walk with him through the trial, saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). And I trust that the same would take place in your life.

Well, this morning, we find Job in this place. We find Job experiencing his greatest fear. We find Job experiencing the thing that he dreaded would befall him.

The title of my message this morning is “The Thing I Fear Has Come Upon Me.” This is what Job says about his experience in chapter 3. Look at chapter 3 and verse 25.

Job 3:25
For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.

So, what came upon Job? It has been a few weeks since we have been in the book of Job, so let’s review.

We are introduced to Job in the very first verse of the book: “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). He was a godly man. In verse 2, we see that he was a family man, having seven sons and three daughters. In verse 3, we see that he was a wealthy man, possessing 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. God said of him that he was the greatest man, saying, “There is none like him on the earth” (Job 1:8). But then, in one day, he lost all of his wealth and all of his children.

He didn’t get a phone call. He received a series of messengers, one after another, who told him of how he lost his wealth and how his children died. Much of his livestock was taken away by marauding bands. His sheep were burned up by a fire that fell from heaven. And all ten of his children were killed when a great wind came and leveled the house in which they all were together. And when all of this happened, Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:20-21). What a response! Disaster upon disaster came upon Job. And his immediate response was amazing. He didn’t blame God or turn away from the LORD. Job worshiped him!

Later, he lost his health. He was struck with a painful disease, loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head (Job 2:7). He was in pain and agony all the day. When his wife saw his pitiable state, she said, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die” (Job 2:9). Yet Job still held fast his integrity. He didn’t curse God. Instead, he rebuked his wife: “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10).

Now, we know that there is more to the story than that, as we have the privilege of hearing about the heavenly conversation that took place between the LORD and Satan. We know that Satan thought that Job walked with integrity and worshiped the LORD only because of the blessings that God gave to him. The LORD said, “No, let me prove it to you.” And the LORD gave Satan permission to inflict all of these terrible things upon Job. But Job didn’t know that. Yet, he responded well to the thing he feared that fell upon him, and I have commended his response to you all: “The LORD gives, the LORD takes away, blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). We gladly receive good from God. Let us resolve to receive the evil that also comes from his hands (Job 2:10).

But this was only his initial response. We see his response after some time has passed come in chapter 3. Initially he responded well. But as things progressed, we see a different picture as he starts dealing with all the ramifications of everything that has happened.

Chapter 3 takes place anywhere from a week or two to a month or two after the events of chapters 1 and 2. Do you remember how Job’s friends heard of the evil that had come upon Job (Job 2:11) and how they made an appointment with each other to come and show him sympathy and comfort him? Their names are Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. In ancient days, without text messaging, it would have taken some time for them to hear of the bad news and to coordinate their coming together to make their visit.

And we read about this visit in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13.

Job 2:12-13
And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Seven days and seven nights with nothing spoken between them. The time of silence was an expression of the greatness of the suffering. If we sat for a minute in silence right now, it would feel like an eternity.

The silence and the pain shows that it was indeed “the thing” that Job most feared. Losing his children. Losing his wealth. Losing his health. Picture yourself experiencing “the thing” that you most fear.

Then, after seven days, Job breaks the silence and speaks. He speaks the words of Job, chapter 3. His words are very dark. They are the expression of his heart. They are the expression of those going through the greatest pains and trials of life. Let’s read the whole chapter together.

Job 3:1-26
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said:

“Let the day perish on which I was born,
    and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’
Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it,
    nor light shine upon it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds dwell upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.
Behold, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry enter it.
Let those curse it who curse the day,
    who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light, but have none,
    nor see the eyelids of the morning,
because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
    nor hide trouble from my eyes.

“Why did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
Why did the knees receive me?
    Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
    I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
with kings and counselors of the earth
    who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
or with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.
Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there,
    and the slave is free from his master.

“Why is light given to him who is in misery,
    and life to the bitter in soul,
who long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
who rejoice exceedingly and are glad
    when they find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
For my sighing comes instead of my bread,
    and my groanings are poured out like water.
For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
    I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

What a contrast these words are to his response in chapter 1! In chapter 1, he said, “The LORD gives, the LORD takes away, blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). It is the difference between an initial response, and the response of suffering. The initial response came from Job’s love for God and his character, but as time went on and as the pain and sorrow sunk in, it wore him down. He had thought about it. He had prayed that it wouldn’t come. And when it came, he was ready. “Blessed be the name of the LORD.” But then a week, two, four weeks, two months passed. The pain and sorrow sunk in. It wore him down.

We get a hint about what he most feared in chapter 1, verse 5, where he would rise early and offer sacrifice for his children, fearing they might have sinned. Perhaps his children were the deepest thing. He expresses such pain in these words of chapter 3.

One of the great things about the Bible is that it doesn’t back away from the hurts of the human experience. Here we see front and center the raw expression of a man’s painful experience. The Bible isn’t this big positive self-help book that should make us happy. It takes in the difficulties of human experience.

Such expressions of pain and anguish in the Bible are called “Lament.” These laments are not rare in the Bible. In fact, a third of the Psalms can be classified as lament. There are individual laments and there are corporate laments. Individual laments might be David when he is being hunted down by enemies. Corporate laments would be more like our country responding to 9/11. Judah would have responded with corporate laments as Babylon came and destroyed, would lament corporately them.

Consider a few of the Lament Psalms. They aren’t hard to find.

Psalm 6:6-7
I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
    it grows weak because of all my foes.

Psalm 10:1
Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Psalm 13:1-2
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Psalm 55:4-5
My heart is in anguish within me;
    the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me,
    and horror overwhelms me.

Psalm 88:1-4
O LORD, God of my salvation,
    I cry out day and night before you.
Let my prayer come before you;
    incline your ear to my cry!
For my soul is full of troubles,
    and my life draws near to Sheol.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
    I am a man who has no strength.

I could quote Psalms of lament for a long time, in which the writer is in anguish before the LORD and crying out from the depths of his heart of the pain that he is experiencing. The source of the suffering in the Psalms is varied. Sometimes the suffering comes from physical illness (Psalm 38:3-8). Sometimes the suffering comes from fear and anxiety (Psalm 55:4-5). Sometimes the suffering comes from sin and guilt (Psalm 38:4). Sometimes the suffering comes from loneliness (Psalm 25:16) or betrayal (Psalm 55:12-14) or injustice (Psalm 10:7-11) or even God’s silence (Psalm 22:1-2). That’s what makes the Psalms so helpful to us. That’s why many of us are drawn to the Psalms as we face the sorrows of life: they deal head on with the suffering and pain of life.

What particularly helps us about the Psalms is that the expressions of pain and sorrow and hurt come not merely from human experience, but from the experience of one who walks with God. As Mark Vroegop has well said, “To cry is human, but to lament is Christian.”^[1] He also said, “Anyone can cry, but it takes faith to lament.”^[2] And that’s what is so helpful to us about lament in the Bible: it deals with the suffering of life from a godly perspective. “To cry is human, but to lament is Christian.”

And chapter 3 is the lament of a godly man. Remember how Job is introduced to us: “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). Job chapter 3 lets us see the painful suffering of a godly man in the midst of his pain. And his pain is raw. But it is a lament, because it comes from a godly man who wrestles with his pain with a deep belief in God. The ESV is good to identify chapter 3 as a lament. It summarizes this chapter with these words: “Job Laments His Birth.”

Let’s consider his lament by working through the chapter. In the first ten verses of chapter 3, we see how 

1. Job Cursed the Day of His Birth (verses 1-10)

We don’t know how old Job is. He’s got ten children, and those children were old enough to hold parties together. So maybe he is 50, 60, or 70. He takes us back some 50, 60, 70 years to the day he was born. He says in verse 3.

Job 3:3
“Let the day perish on which I was born,
    and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’”

Each of you can think about the day of your birth. And with the internet, you can easily see what happened on that day. I looked back at my birthday, April 5, 1967.^[3] On that day, Wilt Chamberlain, the great basketball player, set an NBA record of 41 rebounds in a playoff game. That record still stands today, 59 years later. On that day, Piet de Jong formed his coalition government of the Netherlands. On that day, Hermann Joseph Muller died. He was an American geneticist who won the 1946 Nobel Prize for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation. And on that day, baby Steve was born at 11:35 in the evening.

And Job says, “Let that day perish.”

Job 3:4-6
Let that day be darkness!
    May God above not seek it,
    nor light shine upon it.
Let gloom and deep darkness claim it.
    Let clouds dwell upon it;
    let the blackness of the day terrify it.
That night—let thick darkness seize it!
    Let it not rejoice among the days of the year;
    let it not come into the number of the months.

In other words, let us go from April 4th to April 6th of that year, so that I was never born! Don’t let Wilt Chamberlain set the playoff rebounding record. Let the Netherlands government experience another day of uncertainty as he tries to form their coalition. Let Hermann Joseph Muller live another day. Let’s just skip that day altogether.

Of course, such a thing is not possible. It’s poetic of the pain. Job is saying that the pain he is experiencing in his trial isn’t worth the joys of what he knew in life. He is forgetting the joys of being a father, bringing ten children into this world. He is forgetting the joys of serving the LORD. He is forgetting the privilege of being esteemed by God as the greatest in the land (Job 1:8). His suffering is too great at the moment to remember these things. This happens often in suffering: all you can do is look at your suffering, and you can’t remember the joys outside of it. Suffering can make you tunnel-minded, so that all you can think about is your pain at that moment.

Job goes on.

Job 3:7-10
Behold, let that night be barren;
    let no joyful cry enter it.
Let those curse it who curse the day,
    who are ready to rouse up Leviathan.
Let the stars of its dawn be dark;
    let it hope for light, but have none,
    nor see the eyelids of the morning,
because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,
    nor hide trouble from my eyes.

Verse 8 mentions Leviathan. Perhaps this is like waking a sleeping bear.

Job isn’t alone. Jeremiah the prophet picked up the same poetic picture when he was persecuted by Pashhur the priest, who beat Jeremiah and put him in the stocks for the night (Jeremiah 20:2). In Jeremiah 20, we read of his lament.

Jeremiah 20:14-15
Cursed be the day
    on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
    let it not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
    “A son is born to you,”
    making him very glad.

Jeremiah’s words are Job’s words. Jeremiah was probably reading the book of Job when he wrote these words. He came to feel the same sentiment and expressed it using much the same language. God forbid that you would ever reach such a point in your own life. This is about as low as you can go, hating the day in which you were born. I don’t know how much lower you can go. Which has good news to it as well. Because Jeremiah endured and came out the other side. And Job endured and made it out on the other side. And if Jeremiah and Job made it, we can too.

This is the New Testament application given to us in the book of James.

James 5:10-11
As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

And Job endured his suffering for many chapters, until he experienced the compassion and mercy of God. And know this, however deep may be your suffering, the compassion and mercy are on the other side for those who remain steadfast under the trial. Even if you experience the “one thing” that you most fear in your life, even if you experience this, the compassion and mercy of God will be there, eventually. Now, that’s not to say that it’s easy or clean. It was messy for Job.

We see his lament continues on. He moved from cursing his birth to questioning his birth. This is my second point: 

2. Job Questioned His Birth (verses 11-19)

He says, “I wish that I had never been born.” Look at verse 11.

Job 3:11-15
“Why did I not die at birth,
    come out from the womb and expire?
Why did the knees receive me?
    Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
    I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
with kings and counselors of the earth
    who rebuilt ruins for themselves,
or with princes who had gold,
    who filled their houses with silver.”

Job wished that he came out of the womb, only to be placed in the NICU, where he would die. Why did the knees receive me? Why was I nourished? I should have just been left. He says, if I had died at birth, I would have been at rest. Note that word “rest” in verse 13. He is looking for rest. He is looking for peace. He is looking for stillness, but he cannot find it. But he says, if I had died then, I would have been at rest. Job says that he would have been at rest with the great men of earth who had died as well.

Job 3:16-19
Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child,
    as infants who never see the light?
There the wicked cease from troubling,
    and there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners are at ease together;
    they hear not the voice of the taskmaster.
The small and the great are there,
    and the slave is free from his master.

If he had died in the womb, he would have been at rest in the grave with the wicked and the prisoners.

He is longing to be in the grave. Such is his depression that he questions his birth. Such is his suffering that he says, “I wish I were never born.”

Does that remind you of anything? One of the greatest movies of all time is the Christmas classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The movie centers around the story of George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, who seems trapped in the little town of Bedford Falls. George is a very talented man who longs to travel and see the world. He longs to do some great things, like building skyscrapers and bridges. But due to life’s circumstances, he is never able to leave that little town. Instead, he takes over his father’s business, the Bailey Building and Loan. Year after year he labors away, making loans to those in town, enabling people to purchase their homes and live nice lives. He doesn’t realize the difference that his life has made in the lives of so many in the town. At one point, a financial mistake is made and he suddenly finds himself in financial trouble. He is so depressed that he says to Clarence, the angel, “I wish that I had never been born.” Clarence then grants his wish and shows him what life would have been like if he had never existed. And like, the impact he had made is huge in the lives of so many people. He realized that impact, and it changes his perspective.

Now, if Job had this experience, to see what life would have been like if he had never been born, he would have seen the great impact he was never able to make. Turn over to chapter 31. This is a key chapter in the book of Job where Job puts forth his innocence and speaks of the lives that he impacted upon the earth.

Job 31:16-23
“If I have withheld anything that the poor desired,
    or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail,
or have eaten my morsel alone,
    and the fatherless has not eaten of it
(for from my youth the fatherless grew up with me as with a father,
    and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow),
if I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing,
    or the needy without covering,
if his body has not blessed me,
    and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep,
if I have raised my hand against the fatherless,
    because I saw my help in the gate,
then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder,
    and let my arm be broken from its socket.
For I was in terror of calamity from God,
    and I could not have faced his majesty.”

Think about it in light of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” If Job had never been born, all those lives he touched would have gone without. All the people who would have been cold. All the children who would have gone hungry. All the widows who would have been destitute. Job made a big impact. But suffering can cloud our vision of life. We can forget the pleasures of life. We can forget the joys of life. We can forget the blessings of the ways that God uses us in the lives of others. And this is indeed the case with Job. This is the case with all who suffer. They become myopic and forget the bigger picture. So remember this in your day of suffering, that you may not be seeing everything clearly. Remember this when your friends are suffering, that they may not be seeing everything clearly. Be patient as they work through it, as Job is doing here in his lament.

OK, let’s look at the last section, verses 20-26. In these verses we see that

3. Job Longs for Death (verses 20-26)

Job 3:20-26
“Why is light given to him who is in misery,
    and life to the bitter in soul,
who long for death, but it comes not,
    and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,
who rejoice exceedingly and are glad
    when they find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
    whom God has hedged in?
For my sighing comes instead of my bread,
    and my groanings are poured out like water.
For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
    and what I dread befalls me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
    I have no rest, but trouble comes.”

At this point, Job isn’t merely decrying his birth; he is longing for his own death. It’s because his life is so difficult at this point. He has been thrust into poverty. His children are dead. His wife is no help. He is suffering a painful illness. He just wants to die. Of course, he doesn’t take that action in his own hands. But he longs to die.

I have heard it many times at funerals of those whose loved ones have passed, particularly from a long illness. They often say, “She was ready. She was so tired. He was exhausted. It was too long, too hard. He just gave up.” That is where Job is. He’s not saying he will take a sword and kill himself. He’s just saying, “I’m tired. I’m ready to die. God, why don’t you just take me now?”

This is OK. When you are at the end of your life, it is OK just to let the natural process go and say, “God, I’m ready. Just take me.” If God is ready, he’ll take you. If God isn't ready, he’s got other things for you, and he will sustain you until his work through you is done.

But even mostly healthy believers can have such thoughts of finding rest in the grave. David Brainerd, a missionary to the Native Americans among the Delaware Indians of New Jersey in the 18th century, was a devout man. He struggled with tuberculosis and died when he was only 29 years old, in Jonathan Edwards’ home. Edwards then took his journal, put it together and published it. Spurgeon said it has done more for the missionary cause than any other book in the world. His journal has made a great impact among many young people. He wrote in his journal on Thursday, April 7, 1743.

Appeared to myself exceedingly ignorant, weak, helpless, unworthy, and altogether unequal to my work. It seemed to me I should never do any service or have any success among the Indians. My soul was weary of my life; and I longed for death beyond measure. When I thought of any godly soul departed, my soul was ready to envy him his privilege, thinking, "Oh, when will my turn come! Must it be yours first, or must it be yours first!" But I know these ardent desires at this and other times, rose partly from a want of resignation to God under all miseries, and so they were but impatience Toward night, I had the exercise of faith and prayer, and some assistance in writing. Oh, that God would keep me near Him!^[4]

That is Job’s lament. He longs to die. But he also longs to be near God. And that is where we will see Job eventually land.

Now, one of the things about biblical lament is that in the Psalms it tends to follow a pattern. First, there is a turning to God, which leads to a complaint to God of the situation of the Psalmist. Then, there is a request, followed by an expression of trust in God.

Psalm 13 begins with the turning to God with a complaint: “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?” In the middle we see the request: "Consider and answer me, O LORD my God." Then at the end of the Psalm we see the Psalmist expressing his trust in God, “But I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

That is exactly what David Brainerd did. He turned to God, expressing his complaint to God (and willingness to die). He ended the hournal entry above with a request and expression of trust in the Lord.

Regarding Job's lament, we don’t see that final trust in chapter 3. This is because Job is a big book. In chapter 42, we’ll get it. He essentially complains from chapter 3 all the way through chapter 41, and then chapter 42 brings the repentance and trust. But the lament does turn to God eventually.

I want to close by looking at a theme I have alluded to already. Notice the word “rest” running through this chapter. In verse 13: “I would have slept; then I would have been at rest.” In verse 17: “there the weary are at rest.” In verse 26: “I have no rest, but trouble comes.” Job is longing for rest and he cannot find it.

Jesus is our rest. Jesus says, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Sabbath rest of the Old Testament is a picture of Christ coming and granting us rest in him. We don’t have to toil. All has been done. We can trust and rest in Jesus. Hebrews 12 says that we are surrounded by all these people of faith who have walked with God, and what are we to do? We look to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12:2).

Consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:3). So consider Jesus. He is the one who gives us rest. Job was looking for it. He never found it in chapter 3. But church family, in your suffering, you can find rest in Jesus. Not all your questions will be answered. Not all your problems solved. But you can rest in Jesus, trusting in his sovereign plan for your life to take you through these trials. As Jesus told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you" (2 Corinthians 12:8).

This sermon was delivered to Rock Valley Bible Church on August 9, 2026 by Steve Brandon.
For more information see www.rockvalleybiblechurch.org.

[1] Mark Vroegop, Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), p. 26.
 
[2] Ibid., p. 34.
 
[3] “April 1967,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1967.
 
[4] David Brainerd, The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, ed. Jonathan Edwards (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2005), 118.