When Eliphaz spoke to Job the first time (Job 5) he gave him good advice (“Do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds but His hands make whole,” 5:17–18), but showed no compassion. In his response (chapters 6–7) Job focused on three things: 1) that his friends were no help to him. “My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away (6:15)… Now you are nothing, you see terror and are afraid (6:21)… Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you undermine your friend (6:27).” 2) That his own resources were exhausted. “Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze (6:12)?” And 3) that he could not expect help from God because God had become his enemy. “While your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be (7:8).” “You set a guard over me (v. 12),” that is, You keep me from escaping from my trouble and from my miserable life. “You scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions (v.14.)” There was no one at all to help him.
In his complaint to God, found really in all of chapter 7, Job said some startling things. They are things that most of us would never dare to say, but they gave forceful expression to what Job was thinking and feeling. His words were absolutely sincere; he did not try to hide what was in his heart. And he made very clear what was troubling him. It was not that he had lost all his possessions and all his servants, nor even that his children were dead, but that God, without any cause that Job could discern, had turned against him. This was the reason that he could not take Eliphaz’s advice.
Among the most startling things Job said are the words, “Let me alone.” He wanted God to go away from him. God’s presence was not a help but trouble and misery. He said, “What is man, that You should exalt him, That You should set your heart on him, That You should visit him every morning, And test him every moment?” Those words are an echo of Psalm 8: “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor (vv.4–5).” But they turn the meaning of it upside down. In Psalm 8 David celebrates the great honor that the Lord has given man by his visitation. But Job, though initially he seemed to be thinking along the same lines (he spoke of God exalting man), said, “You only visit him to test him every moment. Your visitation brings only trouble.” And again, “Will you not look away from me, and let me alone till I swallow my saliva (v.19)?” He was like the rich man in the parable of Lazarus who asked Abraham to send Lazarus with just a drop or two of water to cool his tongue. Even a few seconds of relief would be immeasurable comfort. Further, “Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target (v.20)?” Job was unaware of any sin that needed confession and pardon. He had truly been blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil, as God himself could testify. And finally, “Why then do you not pardon my transgression, And take away my iniquity (v.21)?” If I have sinned, are you not “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Exod. 34:6–7)?”
God had become his enemy and Job did not know why. That was the heart of his anguish and bitterness, the reason that he loathed his life and longed for death.
It is very striking, then, that Job did not simply turn his back on God and flee from him. Instead, he turned to him and poured out his heart before him. He did the right thing. And that, I think, is the best lesson we can learn from Job: When in suffering we are bitter, loathing life, longing for relief and comfort while God is far away or too close for comfort, then we should pour it all out to him in prayer. That is the road to healing, though there may be a long, dark way ahead before we can find peace. Even in his bitterness, Job was convinced that the answer to his trouble was in the God who was besetting him behind and before.