Do we have any
complaints in life?
Job was a man
“blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job1:8), and yet
he suffered.
And who are we,
although confessed believers in the Lord Jesus, not to suffer for
righteousness’ sake?
1)
Painful sores from
head to feet
2)
Misery; bitterness of
soul; sighing as daily food; groaning
3)
No peace, no
quietness, no rest; only turmoil
4)
Dismay, discouragement
5)
Anguish, misery, loss
of appetite
6)
Unrelenting pain
7)
Sleeplessness; body
clothed with worms and scabs; broken and festering skin
8)
Anguish of spirit;
bitterness of soul
9)
Frightening dreams;
terrifying visions
10) Terrified
11) Loathing for life; bitterness of soul
12) Shamed;
drowning in affliction
13) Frightened with terrors
14) Tormented
15) Wasting
away; rotting
16) Pain is
not relieved; pain that won’t go away; worn out; shriveled and gaunt; loss of
family, property, wealth; shattered; crushed; gauntness; jeered at; dark
shadows around the eyes; struck in the cheek and scorned
17) Broken;
surrounded by mockers
18) Spit
upon by passersby; dimming eyesight
19) Near
death
20) Crushed, humiliated; bad breath; reduced to
skin and bones; no response from God; alienated from family; shunned by
servants; scorned by little boys; detested by intimate friends; loathsome to
own family; detested by those who used to love him
21) Mocked;
gnawing pain that never rests; terrors
22) Churning inside him never stops; skin grows
black and peels; high fever; mourning
23) Incurable wound
++++++++++++
[(2:7)
So Satan
went out from the presence of the Lord and
afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his
head.]
[(3:20-24)
20 “Why is light given to
those in misery,
and
life to the bitter of soul,
21 to those who long for death that
does not come,
who
search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22 who are filled with gladness
and
rejoice when they reach the grave?
23 Why is life given to a man
whose
way is hidden,
whom
God has hedged in?
24 For sighing has become my daily
food;
my
groans pour out like water.]
[(3:26)
26 I have no
peace, no quietness;
I have no rest, but only turmoil.”]
[(4:5)
But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged;
it
strikes you, and you are dismayed.]
[(6:2-7)
2 “If only
my anguish could be weighed
and all my misery be placed on the
scales!
3 It would surely outweigh the sand of the seas—
no wonder my words have been
impetuous.
4 The arrows of the Almighty are in me,
my spirit drinks in their
poison;
God’s terrors are marshaled
against me.
5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass,
or an ox bellow when it has fodder?
6 Is tasteless food eaten without salt,
or is there flavor in the sap of the
mallow?
7 I refuse to touch it;
such food makes me ill.]
[(6:10)
Then I would still have this consolation—
my joy in unrelenting pain—
that I had not denied the words of
the Holy One.]
[(7:3-5)
3 so I have
been allotted months of futility,
and nights of misery have been
assigned to me.
4 When I lie down I think, ‘How long before I get up?’
The night drags on, and I toss and
turn until dawn.
5 My body is clothed with worms and scabs,
my skin is broken and festering.]
[(7:11)
“Therefore I will not keep silent;
I
will speak out in the anguish of my spirit,
I
will complain in the bitterness of my soul.]
[(7:13-16)
13 When I
think my bed will comfort me
and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 even then you frighten me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I prefer strangling and death,
rather than this body of mine.
16 I despise my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone; my days have no
meaning.]
[(9:34)
someone to remove God’s rod from me,
so
that his terror would frighten me no more.]
[(10:1)
“I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my
complaint
and speak out in the bitterness of my
soul.]
[(10:15-17)
15 If I am
guilty—woe to me!
Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift
my head,
for I am full of shame
and drowned in my affliction.
16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion
and again display your awesome power
against me.
17 You bring new witnesses against me
and increase your anger toward me;
your forces come against me wave upon
wave.]
[(13:21)
Withdraw your hand far from me,
and stop frightening me with your
terrors.]
[(13:25)
Will you torment a windblown leaf?
Will you chase after dry chaff?]
[(13:27,28)
27 You fasten my feet in shackles;
you keep close watch on all my paths
by putting marks on the soles of my feet.
28 “So man wastes away like something rotten,
like a garment eaten by moths.]
[(16:6-16)
6 “Yet if I speak, my pain is not relieved;
and if I refrain, it does not go away.
7 Surely, God, you have worn me out;
you have devastated my entire household.
8 You have shriveled me up—and it has become a witness;
my gauntness rises up and testifies against me.
9 God assails me and tears me in his anger
and gnashes his teeth at me;
my opponent fastens on me his piercing eyes.
10 People open their mouths to jeer at me;
they strike my cheek in scorn
and unite together against me.
11 God has turned me over to the ungodly
and thrown me into the clutches of the wicked.
12 All was well with me, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the neck and crushed me.
He has made me his target;
13 his archers surround me.
Without pity, he pierces my kidneys
and spills my gall on the ground.
14 Again and again he bursts upon me;
he rushes at me like a warrior.
15 “I have sewed sackcloth over my skin
and buried my brow in the dust.
16 My face is red with weeping,
dark shadows ring my eyes;]
[(17:1,2)
1 My spirit is broken,
my days are cut short,
the grave awaits me.
2 Surely mockers surround me;
my eyes must dwell on their
hostility.]
[(17:6,7)
6 “God has made me a byword to everyone,
a man in whose face people spit.
7 My eyes have grown dim with grief;
my whole frame is but a shadow.]
[(17:13-16)
13 If the only home I hope for is the grave,
if I spread out my bed in the
realm of darkness,
14 if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or
‘My sister,’
15 where then is my hope—
who can see any hope for me?
16 Will it go down to the gates of death?
Will we descend together into the
dust?”]
[(19:1-20)
Then Job replied:
2 “How long will you
torment me
and
crush me with words?
3 Ten times now you have
reproached me;
shamelessly
you attack me.
4 If it is true that I have gone
astray,
my
error remains my concern alone.
5 If indeed you would exalt yourselves
above me
and
use my humiliation against me,
6 then know that God has wronged me
and
drawn his net around me.
7 “Though I cry, ‘Violence!’
I get no response;
though
I call for help, there is no justice.
8 He has blocked my way so I cannot
pass;
he
has shrouded my paths in darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor
and
removed the crown from my head.
10 He tears me down on every side
till I am gone;
he
uproots my hope like a tree.
11 His anger burns against me;
he
counts me among his enemies.
12 His troops advance in force;
they
build a siege ramp against me
and
encamp around my tent.
13 “He has alienated my
family from me;
my
acquaintances are completely estranged from me.
14 My relatives have gone away;
my
closest friends have forgotten me.
15 My guests and my female
servants count me a foreigner;
they
look on me as on a stranger.
16 I summon my servant, but he does not
answer,
though
I beg him with my own mouth.
17 My breath is offensive to my wife;
I
am loathsome to my own family.
18 Even the little boys scorn me;
when
I appear, they ridicule me.
19 All my intimate friends detest
me;
those
I love have turned against me.
20 I am nothing but skin and bones;
I
have escaped only by the skin of my teeth.]
[(30:1-23)
“But now they mock me,
men
younger than I,
whose fathers I would have disdained
to
put with my sheep dogs.
2 Of what use was the strength of their
hands to me,
since
their vigor had gone from them?
3 Haggard from want and hunger,
they
roamed the parched land
in
desolate wastelands at night.
4 In the brush they gathered salt
herbs,
and
their food was the root of the broom bush.
5 They were banished from human
society,
shouted
at as if they were thieves.
6 They were forced to live in the dry
stream beds,
among
the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7 They brayed among the bushes
and
huddled in the undergrowth.
8 A base and nameless brood,
they
were driven out of the land.
9 “And now those young men
mock me in song;
I
have become a byword among them.
10 They detest me and keep their
distance;
they
do not hesitate to spit in my face.
11 Now that God has unstrung my
bow and afflicted me,
they
throw off restraint in my presence.
12 On my right the
tribe attacks;
they
lay snares for my feet,
they
build their siege ramps against me.
13 They break up my road;
they
succeed in destroying me.
‘No
one can help him,’ they say.
14 They advance as through a gaping
breach;
amid
the ruins they come rolling in.
15 Terrors overwhelm me;
my
dignity is driven away as by the wind,
my
safety vanishes like a cloud.
16 “And now my life ebbs
away;
days
of suffering grip me.
17 Night pierces my bones;
my
gnawing pains never rest.
18 In his great power God becomes
like clothing to me;
he
binds me like the neck of my garment.
19 He throws me into the mud,
and
I am reduced to dust and ashes.
20 “I cry out to
you, God, but you do not answer;
I
stand up, but you merely look at me.
21 You turn on me ruthlessly;
with
the might of your hand you attack me.
22 You snatch me up and drive me before
the wind;
you
toss me about in the storm.
23 I know you will bring me down to
death,
to
the place appointed for all the living.]
[(30:27-31)
27 The
churning inside me never stops;
days of suffering confront me.
28 I go about blackened, but not by the sun;
I stand up in the assembly and cry
for help.
29 I have become a brother of jackals,
a companion of owls.
30 My skin grows black and peels;
my body burns with fever.
31 My lyre is tuned to mourning,
and my pipe to the sound of
wailing.]
[(34:6)
6 Although
I am right,
I am considered a liar;
although I am guiltless,
his arrow inflicts an incurable
wound.’]
