Saturday 12th September 2026
Reading Job 7:16-21
I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.
Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
that you set your mind on them,
visit them every morning,
test them every moment?
Will you not look away from me for a while,
let me alone until I swallow my spittle?
If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?
Why have you made me your target?
Why have I become a burden to you?
Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.’
Reflection
Despite Job being in conversation with his friends, he repeatedly addresses God. He accuses God of being the one who is inflicting his suffering upon him. In today’s passage, Job portrays God as a stalker who refuses to leave Job alone. Wherever he turns, God is watching him.
This is a disturbing image and not one to be brushed over. Job has done nothing wrong and yet God inflicts suffering upon him. This is an image deeply at odds with an understanding of an all-loving God.
People have grappled with the image of an abusive God that appears in Job, particularly in the aftermath of the Holocaust. How do we deal with extreme, undeserved suffering if we believe in a loving God who makes and keeps promises to humanity? What do we do when it seems that God is not acting in this way?
There are different ways of approaching this issue. We can try and come up with an explanation of why God allows bad things to happen. Common suggestions are that suffering occurs because we have sinned without realising it or that it is character building. These explanations can be problematic though; such explanations can never justify why children are abused or genocides happen.
The Jewish scholar Zachary Braiterman suggests an alternative, which he terms ‘antitheodicy’. He describes this as “refusing to justify, explain, or accept” the relationship between God and suffering. An antitheodical approach recognises that terrible things happen to innocent people and that God should stop it, and it refuses to explain this away. Instead, an antitheodical approach protests against God. It says ‘I believe that you are all-loving and all-powerful. I believe that you can and should protect me. So why haven’t you?’
This is the approach that Job takes. Braiterman points out that this approach might be considered blasphemous, but it is not atheism. It does not reject God. Instead, it holds God to account. It maintains a stubborn belief that God is loving and powerful, and calls God out when this seems not to be the case.
Job’s protests against God became the subject of much attention in post-Holocaust Jewish theology, but protest against God is something that can be very uncomfortable in the Christian tradition. Nonetheless, we see throughout the Old Testament humans protesting when it seems that God has gone too far – Job does this, as well as Abraham, Moses, and the prophets.
Prayer
Lord, I believe in You.
I believe in Your Word
and I believe that hope is in You.
I believe that You hold power and majesty.
I also believe in humanity.
I believe that we are worthy of love,
I believe that we are worthy of peace.
I believe that we do not deserve suffering.
I will not be silent when I am in pain
or when I see others in pain.
I will not accept it.
I will not justify it.
I will cry out to You, Lord,
Just like Job and Jeremiah and Abraham and Moses,
because I hope for something better
and I refuse to give up that hope. Amen.