Job and Depression
“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 ESV)
Take in these words for just a moment, if you would. Blameless. Upright. One who feared God. One who turned away from evil. Job is a good man. In this way, he foreshadows the one who would be not only blameless but perfect. Not only upright but righteous. One who not only fears God but IS God. One who not only turns away from evil but is victorious over sin and death. Job is only a faint shadow of the perfection of Christ, but he does show us the outlines of what that perfect man would look like.
And yet just a short time later, Job is sitting on a trash heap outside of town using a broken pot to scrape at his oozing wounds. Job was rich, famed for wisdom, had a good family, servants. He was respected and loved. He was happy. And yet he is about to be plunged into the abyss of a night so deep he craves death.
When Darkness Falls
Job chapter three is one of the bleakest and darkest chapters of the whole Bible. He curses the day he was born. He curses the night he was conceived. He cries out against his own mother and father. Instead of the joy and promise of childbirth, he wishes he had never existed, that he had been stillborn. He rails against life itself. “”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,” (Job 3:20–21 ESV)
Here is a man crying out in bitterness of soul, longing for death that will not come to him. He searches for death more than those pursuing wealth dig for gold or precious stones. The only thing that could make Job happy would be for him to die. He would be glad if he could finally be laid in the grave. He is sighing and groaning day and night. Job’s nights are long, miserable, and sleepless. His days pass swiftly in pain and misery. Job is enduring the depths of torment usually reserved for the sinful after death.
Who Is Responsible?
Job’s friends are confident they know why all this has happened to Job. Job has sinned. This is his fault. Job did something wrong and that’s why this is coming on him. But repeatedly the Bible has presented Job as blameless. God himself calls Job blameless. Job maintains his innocence, but protests in chapter 7 that if he has done something wrong, then why won’t God just forgive him? Why would God punish him in such an extraordinary way rather than simply accepting his sacrifices and taking away his iniquity? God makes crystal clear throughout Job, and especially at the end that Job’s friends are wrong. This is not Job’s fault.
Of course, we see in the first two chapters of Job that it is Satan who strikes Job. It is Satan who stirs up the Chaldeans to raid his camels and kill his servants. Satan who stirs up the Sabeans to kill his farm animals and servants. It is Satan, the Prince of the Power of the Air, who brings down lightning to kill his sheep and servants. And it is Satan who brings a wind to destroy the house where Job’s children are feasting, killing them all. When you think about rebuking Satan and “binding” him, remember who you speak of. Satan is the evil instrument of death throughout the world. He can bring your world crashing to the ground in a day.
Yet, in the end, Satan is merely an instrument as Job makes clear. Even Satan knows this as he tells God “But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:11 ESV) Satan waits with anticipation wondering if God will grant his request. If God says no, Job will continue to prosper. His servants will live, his cattle will thrive, his children will marry and have their own children. Job will rest in his bed at night healthy and happy. All of Heaven waits on God’s answer in verse 12. It is God who stretches his hand out against Job. Not because Job has sinned. Not because he is powerless, or Satan is outside of his control. But for his own glory, out of his own goodness and wisdom, God himself is the ultimate actor. God alone is God.
We shouldn’t get any of these truths out of order. People do suffer the consequences of bad decisions, sinful actions, and the sin of others. Satan and his demonic hosts do work in the world. He stirs up sinners to harm others. He brings about what we think of as natural disasters. He works through the system of the world which is set against all that is good and right. Sometimes there are really things we can point to and say, “This is to blame”.
But while it is good to identify those causes, we should never lose sight of the ultimate cause. Satan would love to wipe out your home with a flood right now. He would love to rain down fire from heaven on each of us and reduce us to ash. But he can’t. Not without God’s permission. And there is no end of examples from my own life where my foolishness or sinfulness has resulted in my own hurt. But even that cannot happen apart from God’s permission. For the Christian, this means that even our mistakes are all part of God’s work in our lives. Our sins, our mistakes are the near cause of suffering many times. Satan is the near cause of much suffering. But God is the ultimate cause behind all that happens. Satan is only a tool in his pocket.
What We Know About Depression: Or Journey Into the Abyss
Bad things happen in this world. When they do, humans get depressed. Job has good reason to wish for death. He lost everything dear in this world in an hour. He is sick and miserable. Lack of sleep is both a cause of and a result of depression. Job’s wife is against him. His friends bring only blame. Job protests his innocence, but his entire religion has just been called into question as well. He continues to trust in God but cannot understand how God could do this to him. It hurts to have your foundations shifted in such a way. It is perfectly understandable that Job should be so crushed that he prays for death.
But this isn’t the only way depression strikes. Sometimes the sun is shining, birds soar in the blue sky, and heaven and nature sing! And yet a darkness blacker than midnight comes over the soul. A darkness that can even be felt. It’s a surprise. Looking back the person may realize there were warning signs this was coming. Maybe even certain triggers that prompted this plunge into the abyss. Things from your past maybe even all but forgotten that come back to torment you in the disguise of current circumstances. But no cause you can point to and say this is what’s wrong. Nothing other than your body’s chemicals unbalanced like the blood sugar of a diabetes patient. Except these are the chemicals of your brain.
Suddenly, world shrinks to the narrow thread of agony that reverberates inside the heart. Sleep flees, it’s hard to breathe, eating requires a strength of will almost beyond superhuman. Color ceases to exist in the brightest room. And the sufferer once again prays to God for the only comfort imaginable — death.
Over and over like a sledgehammer bashing at the gates of sanity is the one thought — the world would be better without you. Everyone would be so much better off if you didn’t exist. It comes with the pain of a lash applied to fresh wounds. Fire spreads from the heart to the lungs, the arms. It is a struggle to draw the next breath. You are worthless. You are beyond worthless. You make everyone’s life worse. You ruin everything you touch merely by existing in the same room. Die. Die! DIE! DIE!!! Some small voice of sanity fights the battle, seeming so weak and insignificant. It strives to remind you that these are lies, that you cannot give in, that this will pass. But each moment lasts a lifetime and there is no relief. The sledgehammer crashes again. And Again. And again. The gates weaken. Will they hold this time?
Outwardly there may be little sign that anything is wrong. Someone close to you may ask if anything is wrong. They aren’t sure. You seem unhappy maybe. But not overly so. You can laugh at jokes. You interact with people with little to show the battle within. At other moments you may weep uncontrollably for no reason. As the sledgehammer strikes once again, you may be so physically weak you fall to your knees unable to hold the gates of your mind and stand at the same time. But secretly. Because you are so ashamed of how you feel. So certain if you give the slightest sign of what is taking place inside that everyone will finally say what you suspect they’ve been thinking all along. You are worthless. They would be better off.
Somehow a week goes by. Then another. The darkness begins to crack in places. The forces slamming against the gates of sanity weaken in their relentless attacks. You gain a moment when you think you may survive. The darkness swallows you again. But the next day you have another moment and another. A few more days and the light begins to return. But you are so weary. Scarred from a battle no one has seen. Tender and raw.
Introducing The God of All Comfort
Trite clichés rarely bring comfort to the truly bereaved. Job’s comforters are full of such empty words. “God won’t give you more than you can bear” is palpably a lie. The soul crushed beyond endurance would laugh at your banality, would teach you the meaning of suffering. But it cannot.
Blame does not help. There will be a time to examine the sin that brought someone to the abyss, but that is best saved for dawn when they can see it more clearly. Even if it be true that this abyss is one of their own creation, the first step is to bring them back into the light. Save their life first. Preach hope. The sufferer knows well their guilt, feels it more acutely than your cheap shot.
“Everything happens for a reason”. It’s true. And there is a reason the person is picturing you with a bloody nose as they fight to restrain their fists. Such generalities are worse than saying nothing. Tell them the reason. Tell them of the God who does not just let things “happen” but “works” all things for our good. Don’t be like the poor friends of Job. They failed to bring any real comfort. Their fault was ultimately that they didn’t know God. When God was revealed to Job, all his questions were answered. Let us be those who bring God into the darkness. He is the light that shines in the abyss.
But let us bring the real and living God. The one who was hungry and thirsty, sweaty and bloody. The one who inspired Psalms of anguished prayers, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” The God who cried those words out himself as he died in darkness. Job 3 is one of the darkest in the Bible, but as Job’s goodness is merely a shadow of The Righteous Man, so his suffering is only a shadow of the blackness that fell at Calvary. There the wrath of God was fully poured out on one who was truly innocent. And this is our God. He is the Man who drank deeply of the bitter cup of death. And so he is able to sympathize with us even in the black abyss. He is able to offer real comfort as only one who has tasted the darkness can know. This is the God of all comfort.
