Pain Speaks

As I delve deeper and deeper into Job, I am convinced that the book of Job exists to show that God receives it when His people speak from their pain. Job isn’t counted as speaking rightly because of what he says. He’s counted as speaking rightly because he speaks to God and he speaks with unrestrained honesty. God tells Eliphaz that God’s wrath is against him and the other friends (42:7) because “[they] have not spoken of me what is right, my servant Job has done” (42:8).

A simple analysis of Job’s comments and the friends’ comments in Job 3-27 and Job 29-31 will reveal that much of what Job says to God is not something we’d affirm. “Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. And he has shriveled me, which is a witness against me; my leanness has risen up against me, and it testifies to my face. … God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me as his target; his archers surrounded. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground. He burst me open again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior. … My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure” (Job 16:7-8, 11-14, 16-17).

Who among communities of faith today would call God an enemy warrior who rushes against them? Look at the violence in Job’s words! If his description were played out in images or in a movie, it would be rated ‘R’ for being so gory. When is the last time we sang a song praise – “Praise God, King of Kings, Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Slasher of Kidneys, the God who shows no mercy”? We don’t say what Job said about God and yet Job is the one who spoke rightly about God.

On the other hand, consider the words of Job’s friends. God is sovereign, they say! Amen, we shout! God is just, they say! Amen, we shout! So many of the words about God spoken by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are indicative of theology we find elsewhere in scripture. It is a theology about God’s lordship and goodness. This theology is crucial to what we believe.
So Job says things we wouldn’t say. His friends say things we constantly say. And Job is counted by God as right, and his friends as wrong. In fact, they are so wrong, their only hope is to have Job pray for them (Job 42:8-9). Does this mean we are to change our theology so that it conforms to Job’s? Do we praise the God who “seizes [our] necks and dashes [us] to pieces”?

That would be a mistake. We know the story of the cross. We know that God loves us, heaps grace upon us, and desires a love relationship with each of us. We know that! What we have to do with the book of Job is understand how the Holy Spirit has used it to empower disciples in their expression of faith. The book of Job is God’s way of saying to His children, “When you hurt, bring it to me, no matter what it is.”

God does not want us to clean up our language and get our act together and then come to Him. He wants us to come when we are a mess. Remember, the rightness of Job is in the fact that He speaks directly to God, attributes all to God, and speaks completely honestly. Only when we turn our attention on God and speak with absolute honesty (transparency is another way of thinking of it) are we ready for whatever response God will give.

Beware of writers who turn to the book of Job for answers. When someone offers a neat set of precepts that reduce debilitating pain to a problem solved by following the steps, and they reference Job in support of their trite solution, it is a clear indication that they do not understand Job at all. A lot of writers do this. The most recent one I read is Rick Warren. I love most of what he does, and would recommend it. But don’t trust him when it comes to Job. He writes a piece about being free of past pain. To bolster his teaching, he turns to Job. He writes “Job says,” but then he quotes Eliphaz (5:2). We’ve already attested to the fact that Eliphaz is counted as speaking wrongly.

I say this about R.Warren and about other excellent writers because Christians who teach through the writing of articles and essays and books write under a sense of pressure to provide answers. But, the book of Job doesn’t offer answers! Job offers permission. Maybe beyond that, Job prods us to speak from our own darkness. In our moments of deepest pain, Job, which is poetry not didactic narrative, tells us to speak clearly, creatively, emotionally, evocatively, and even accusingly to God. God can take it. God will match our emotional intensity, and God will not abandon us. Things won’t necessarily get easier. But without God, there is no outlet for the pain and no relief. Nor is there any purpose it. God doesn’t cause it. But God will bring good from it if we stick with Him.

So, use Job as an example. Look to Job as a role model. Speak to God directly. Don’t hold back. Say exactly what you feel.

For the Rick Warren piece, go to http://www.pastors.com/blogs/ministrytoolbox/archive/2009/08/12/five-reasons-to-let-go-of-hurt.aspx

To be noticed by God - Blessing or Curse

To be noticed by God – blessing or curse?

“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”
“You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet.”
“O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

That is one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 8. The verses quoted about (NRSV) are vs. 1, 4, 6, & 9. Obviously this is a song of triumphant praise. The singer can think of nothing better than to be noticed of God, empowered by God, and partnered with God.


Then, we turn to Job 7:17-18. He is, he says, speaking in the “anguish of his spirit” (7:11). “I will complain in the bitterness of my soul” (also verse 11).

“What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them, visit them every morning, test them every moment?”


Don’t Job’s words sound a lot like Psalm 8?
“What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them” (Psalm 8:4)?
“What are human beings, that you make so much of them, that you set your mind on them” (Job 7:17)?
Syntactically and rhetorically, these verses are incredibly similar scholar Michael Fishbane says. But how different is the message!


The singer of the Psalm yearns for God; Job yearns to be overlooked and ignored by God. He just wants God to leave Him alone. Ironically, the very reason Job is in his fix, diseased and burdened by the loss of wealth and the death of children, is God did in fact leave him alone. He removed his “hedge” (Job 1:10) of protection. Job begs God, “Will you not look away for a while” (7:19)? But it is when God took away his protection that Hell broke loose in Job’s life. The very thing Job asks for as he complains “in the bitterness of his soul” is what created that bitterness.

But, he doesn’t know that. Job is completely oblivious to dealings of Satan and God in chapters 1 & 2. He doesn’t know about Satan or care about Satan. Job’s only recourse is from God. When His life was grand, he gave God all the credit (see 1:5-6). Now that it is all gone, Job lays all the blame on God. In good and bad, for Job it is all about God.


That is worth noting. How bad, or how good is life for you right now? Either way, deal directly with God. No matter the emotion that bubbles and burns in you, deal with God. Don’t let losses turn you away from God. Don’t let successes lead you to become narcissistic and forgetful of God. Bring it all to God. In saying that though, I don’t say do as Job do. We do well to do what Job did, but not the way He did it.

A disciple’s faith is truly developed when even in times of great grief, he can sing Psalm 8. Our faith is resilient and unyielding and unbroken, when in the worst of times, we can truly believe Psalm 8. We truly believe that God is Lord and that God cares for us mortals and that God notices us mortals. When, no matter the circumstance, we trust that to be noticed of God is a good thing, then we are walking the road of discipleship.

Job’s pain was speaking when he begged God to “let [him] alone” (7:16). In the same breath, he asked God to leave, but talked to Him unendingly. I once had a church member kick me out of her house three times. She was so angry with me, she said, “Go.” But, then she unloaded an illogical vituperative harangue. Then a second time said, “You need to leave my house.” Before I could put on my coat, she dumped another load of vitriol. Then a third time kicked me out. Even when I left, she only half meant it. Job threatened to take God to court. Job accused God of being his enemy. Job said broke him to pieces and God shot him through with arrows (16:12). But Job also kept on talking to God.

What I suggest here is that we likewise keep on talking to God, but not lose sight of God’s absolute love for us. It may seem God has given up on us, but He hasn’t. In the midst of the trial, we show our faith when we sing the praise of Psalm 8.


To do this, I prescribe to you, dear reader, and to me, a simple exercise. In bland times (those days that are unremarkable, not worth remembering for good or bad reasons), memorize Psalm 8. Fix it in the mind and heart. Pray the reality of the Psalm into the soul. One day, all day long, pray, “O Lord, show me what it means that you are “mindful of human being.” Another day, all day long, pray, “O Lord, teach me what it means in my life that I am “a little lower than [the angels].” And line by line, pray for understanding of this Psalm. As we pray, God will give that understanding. Furthermore, the Psalm will become so familiar; the words will be a trusted resource when hard days come.

And finally, when we meet Job, we must give compassion. We will surely encounter in the journey of life that bitter person who “complains in the bitterness of [his] soul.” We do not represent Jesus well if we judgmentally tell that hurting one he ought to buck up and praise God. No, we silently sit by his side, hold his hand, encourage his spirit, pray on his behalf, model joy and hope, and walk with him no matter how broken he is. Will he eventually walk out of his misery and happily praise God? That’s between him and God. Our responsibility is to love, even as we stand in the power of the love God has given us.