Job continues in this chapter – Man has a hard service on earth and his days are like a slave. He is given months of emptiness, nights of misery. He tosses and turns in his sleep. He is clothed with worms and dirt. His days are swifter than a sewer’s needle, and comes to an end without hope. Life is a breath, he believes he will never see good again. As a cloud fades and vanishes, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up. He will speak in the anguish of his spirit, and complain in the bitterness of his soul. He is not guarded, his bed is not a comfort because he is terrified by dreams and visions to the point that he would choose strangling and death. He loathed his life, his days are a breath. Why does this observer make so much of man, set his heart on man, visit him and test him? If Job were to sin what does he do to the watcher of mankind? He asked why he made him his mark, and why he had become a burden to the watcher. He asked why he doesn’t pardon his sin and take away his iniquity? He believed he would then lie in the earth; but he would seek him but he would not be alive.
Suffering is misery. When Job is awake he is tormented at the thought of the loss of everything, and by the boils and worms that are on his skin. When he tries to find comfort during his sleep at night he is terrorized in his dreams. The onslaught of the enemy against Job is more than just the loss of family, property, health, and a wife that would encourage him to turn away from God – it’s also psychological. The enemy is attacking his mind. Though we suffer in this world, set your hope upon God. He is the only one with the power to redeem, and though our suffering seems inexplicable and arbitrary, preach the truth to yourself that it’s not. The trials of God’s people display His glory and sufficiency when all the things of this world are stripped away. The rawness of Job’s lament shows us that even in the darkest times we can take our trials and complaints to God. Be honest with Him. He already knows what’s in your heart and in your experiences, so go to Him fully exposing your heart, and trust Him for His care.