Context No. 3426 of 4322 · Job
Context · Reflection
Job 7:17-21: in context
17What is man, that you should magnify him, that you should set your mind on him, 18that you should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? 19How long will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone until I swallow down my spittle? 20If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself? 21Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now will I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I will not be.”
Job takes the words of a psalm of praise and turns them inside out. Where Psalm 8 marvels that God is mindful of man, Job, in his pain, cries: what is man that you make so much of him, that you test him every moment and never look away long enough for me to swallow my spittle? God's constant attention, a comfort in the psalm, feels to suffering Job like relentless scrutiny.
And he pleads: why do you not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity, for soon I will lie down in the dust and be gone? This is honest, anguished prayer, the words of a man so worn down that even God's nearness feels like a burden he cannot escape. And yet, even here, Job is still speaking to God, still asking for pardon, still addressing the One he cannot understand. In our confusion and pain, we can, like Job, keep talking to God, bringing him even the complaint that his own attention has become hard to bear, rather than falling silent and turning away.
When even God's attention feels like a burden in my suffering, can I, like Job, keep speaking honestly to him rather than turning away?