Job 7:11

In life there is a time to vent your frustrations, and there is a time to be silent. When under extreme pressure, and by extreme that could mean different things to different people, but when under pressure, then venting is good.

Certainly burnt toast does not qualify one for making protests. But as you grow up spiritually, then your break point, or flash point is raised to higher levels as you are more able to deal with the troubles that you come face to face with during your life. Immature folks can get upset with burnt toast or a flat tire, while more advanced folks, spiritually speaking, are able to sail through massive disasters in their life.

Psa. 142:2

2 I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him. NASB

Protests to God, are allowed. Whining, complaining, blaming, murmuring, nagging, insulting and so forth are demonstrations of ones lack of inner capacity and growth, and those do not qualify as allowed behavior.

Most of us can look back on our lives and, if we are objective, we can see that there are probably many occasions where we should have fallen off the face of the earth. And yet, now pinch yourself, we are still here! Why? Because of our unique ability to survive in life? No. Because God has a plan for our lives.

God should have allowed us to fall flat on our face and then remove us from this existence. But, here we are.

Job makes his protest. Job is under horrendous suffering. He has a right to ask the questions, and in so doing teaches us the answers so when our turn comes along, we can know the answers to our suffering, even though we will still make our protest.

Job is adamant. He is on his dying bed, taking his last dying gasps of air, or so he thinks, and what does he do? Does he remain silent so that he can die gracefully? No, he is determined to go down fighting.

By the way, Job is not so arrogant that he will protest to God and then be disrespectful. He will confess later in this chapter. But when you have an enormous amount of pent up frustration energy, it is good to have a punching bag. Not someone to punch, not a dog to kick, not a family member to blame or complain to, but something that will allow you to vent, respectfully. Go out and run a mile or two, or buy a punching bag. But whatever your choice of venting is, just do it without acting like a two year old.

Job is under extreme pressure. Your problems are not all of the extreme nature, so suck it up and grow up when that is appropriate. You can certainly think of someone in this world that has it far worse than you.

Job is now addressing God. He is not leveling his protests to his friends. Even in his extreme pain, Job is still hospitable to his guests. And as we will later see, Jobs wife is still shuttling back and forth in the background tending to their guests, while simultaneously listening, without interfering in the conversation, despite her antagonistic attitude toward Job.

Jobs wife vented against Job. Job vented to God.

Jobs wife had her own stresses to deal with. She too, lost a great deal in these recent months, and she too, has emotional issues. And just as Job will confess to God, and in so doing will eventually regain his former status and more, so too, Jobs wife will recover her composure and 'make-up' so to speak.

How do we know this? They will have ten more children. I am sure you can figure this one out on your own. And those births will probably occur during the course of the next thirty years. Also, the names of those children will teach us a lot about the parents, especially Jobs wife. But more on that later in our study.

Job is ready to lodge his first protest. So we will pick up there, tomorrow. The kids are bugging me to hurry up and come watch the show, '24.' We just have to know if the US is going to get blown up by the bad guys. Oh, the pressure!

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