Job 7 Devotional

Bringing the Complaint to God

“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.”Job 7:11 (BSB)

Job's reply turns from his friends to God himself. Human life, he says, is hard service (7:1-2). His nights drag on, his skin is broken, and his days race past without hope (7:4-6). So he will not keep quiet. He will speak out of the anguish of his spirit (7:11), and he speaks directly to God.

Then he asks a question that echoes Psalm 8. There, David marvels that God pays any attention to mere humans at all (Psalm 8:4). Job asks the same thing, but bitterly: why does God watch him so closely, testing him every moment and never looking away (7:17-19)? He ends by asking why God does not forgive his sin before he lies down in the dust (7:21). None of this is resolved in the chapter, and it should not be rushed. What stands out is where Job takes his pain. He does not walk away from God; he argues with him. Complaint addressed to God is still a way of refusing to let him go.

To think about: What complaint have you been carrying silently that you could bring directly to God instead?