Friday 11th September 2026
Reading Job 7:11-15
‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,
that you set a guard over me?
When I say, “My bed will comfort me,
my couch will ease my complaint”,
then you scare me with dreams
and terrify me with visions,
so that I would choose strangling
and death rather than this body.
Reflection
One of the big questions that we must ask when using trauma as a lens for reading the Bible is ‘who is it that is traumatised’? Was there a historical person called Job who is being described? Is Job a literary creation who was used to reflect the experiences of the writer? Either way, we have to remember that all we have access to now is a text, not a real person. No self-respecting psychiatrist would attempt to give a diagnosis on the basis of a story or poem without speaking to the writer in person, let alone if that person lived two and a half thousand years ago! We also have to remember that different cultures will interpret both the causes and the symptoms of what we now call trauma differently.
Regardless of what was going on behind the text, it is clear that the book of Job demonstrates a profound understanding of the way that humans respond to extreme stress and threat. One of the most commonly recognised symptoms of trauma is a sense that the traumatic event is persistently being re-experienced, for example through nightmares or flashbacks. Job 7 mirrors this experience. The protagonist describes how he longs for his bed and the oblivion of sleep. When he goes to bed, though, he tosses and turns, his sleep interrupted by nightmares. We can imagine the character awakening from a terrifying dream with his heart pounding and sweat pouring off him. Maybe he dreamed of his dead children or saw the messengers coming across the field again to tell him that armies had destroyed his livelihood.
Whilst sleepless, restless nights can be incredibly isolating, the Bible reminds us that we are not alone at these times. Others have been there too. Job, this faithful, upright, Godly man is described as experiencing this. Maybe the writer themselves, or someone they knew well, experienced flashbacks and nightmares. We don’t know who or what inspired the book, and yet we know that there is a rich tapestry of human experience behind it. Even when it seems that we are entirely alone and that our pain is unique, Job can remind us that there are others who have been there before and who understand what we are going through.
Prayer
A prayer for the night time
God of the quiet hours,
hold me as the darkness deepens.
Let the weight of the day slip from my shoulders.
Let me rest in the truth
that I am loved,
that I am known,
that I am not alone.
Keep watch through the night
and whisper peace into my sleep.
Let morning come
with the promise of light. Amen.
(The Revd Phil Nevard, used with permission)