When in Pain, Complain... to God

Job 7:7–11 (ESV) “Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. 8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone. 9 As the cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up; 10 he returns no more to his house, nor does his place know him anymore. 11 “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

One thing Job does immediately after hearing from his first friend is simply this - he brings his complaint to God. Notice the reasoning in verse 7. He tells God to remember his life is short and he believes he won't see good again. And so he has nothing to lose. He then proceeds to voice his complaint to the Lord. 

I think if we learned to do this, the world would be a far better place. Instead of broadcasting our hurts on social media, instead of talking about this with 5 or 6 friends, instead of desperately trying to worm our way out of the situation, let us consider to take our complaint to the Lord of all.

Think of how Jesus modeled this for us on the cross. One of the 7 statements was a question of the Almighty. 
Matthew 27:46 (ESV) And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Jesus questioned God's action in His moment of death. He did so loudly. Notice that He sought God's forgiveness of His enemies and then took His pain to God. We often miss this in the crucifixion but it bears meaning for the wellness of our soul. 

If we bring our complaint to the One who knows it and can do something about it - there is hope. Job is a long way from that. But he's going about it the right way. With the knowledge that he has, he's letting God know there's real pain here and he doesn't understand.

The second part of his speech calls into question the purpose of his life. If all there is for him now is terror, what's the point?
Job 7:16–18 (ESV) I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. 17 What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, 18 visit him every morning and test him every moment?

This can be how we all feel at times of struggle. What is the purpose? Yet again the reader is given a tremendous truth to answer Job. The purpose is to magnify the goodness of God in the face of the enemy's attacks! Now Job does not know this. But the reader does - having had the back-stage pass to heaven previously. So we are being invited into the blind suffering with Job to have an answer for ourselves when we suffer and complain. 

Answer: There is a purpose. And you may not know it. And it's okay to let God know you're hurting and disappointed. He won't be shocked by your feelings. He already knows them. So don't bottle it up, let it out to the ONE who cares. 

Amen.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God’s View of You

Sometimes I think we imagine that God is mostly disappointed with us. That He puts up with us and bears with us because He has to (after all He is love), but most of the time our glaring weaknesses weary Him and make His day miserable. Of course, this is the devil’s doing in our minds. The truth of scripture bears out that the world has to get staunch-raving evil before God is totally weary of us. And the stories in the Old Testament remind us with each passing character that God is patient, loving and kind to His very flawed inconsistent servants. Saul is a case study of this. His lineage will not hold the kingdom, that has already been stated from the mishap of offering the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to arrive in 1 Samuel 13. His next great gaff will happen in the chapter to come in 1 Samuel 15 where his own kingship will be taken from him and the anointing placed on one soon to come. Yes, God will regret making Saul king and we’ll talk about that next. But for now...
Read more

The Stain of Slavery

One of the greatest pains in my heart over the history of the church is the fact that many "Bible-believing" Christians used the Bible to promote, continue, and enable slavery in America's past. It may have happened elsewhere, but I'm an American, and I know it happened here. Then, some repeatedly make the claim because of a tiny amount of verses where God informs Israel on how to take slaves, it means the Bible is a pro-slavery document. How absurd. The overarching narrative of the Bible is that God sets the slaves free. The second book testifies to this part of God's character.  Getting to Jeremiah's day, one of the reasons Israel's nation was handed over to exile was because they enslaved each other. This attitude was so engrained into the culture of Israel that they had a hard time giving up slavery even in the face of national catastrophe.  In Jeremiah 34, the king is promised that he will die in Babylon, but he will die in peace. Jeremiah 34:3–5 (ESV...
Read more

Leaders Who Later Fail

Remember Johanan from Jeremiah 41? The man who saved many others from the threats of the murderous coup? He seemed like a noble leader. But time reveals a lot.  Jeremiah 42:5–6 (ESV)  Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.” These are the words of the presumptive leaders of Israel in the land while the nation is in exile. The previous chapter saw a hero arise to protect a few remaining survivors. His name was Johanan. On the surface, he seems like a good man, seeking the will of the Lord in his leadership position. Jeremiah returns with directives from the Lord: Jeremiah 42:10 (ESV) If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant y...
Read more