Thy Strong Word — Job 7: Sleepless Nights and Endless Suffering

Job poetically expresses his deep despair and frustration as he compares his life to a forced labor sentence and his days to a long, agonizing night. He feels abandoned by God and questions why he must endure such relentless suffering. Will Job find any solace? Or will his pleas for relief go unanswered?

The Rev. Dennis McFadden, assistant pastor at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, IN, joins the Rev. David Boisclair, guest host, to study Job 7.

Why do the righteous suffer? That’s the burning question at the heart of the book of Job—one of the most profound and challenging books in all of Scripture. From a Lutheran perspective, Job’s story isn’t just about a man enduring unimaginable hardship; it’s about wrestling with God’s will, grappling with well-meaning but misguided advice, and ultimately finding comfort in God’s grace rather than human understanding. As Job’s friends offer simplistic answers, Job demands the truth, and God’s response reminds us of His infinite wisdom and mercy. Through it all, we see glimpses of Christ—the truly innocent sufferer—who redeems our pain and points us to the cross, where suffering meets salvation. Join us as we journey through Job, confronting tough questions about faith, suffering, and God’s mysterious ways with hope grounded in Christ alone.

Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

Thy Strong Word is graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation. Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven. Learn more at lhfmissions.org.

Job 7

Job Continues: My Life Has No Hope

7 “Has not man a hard service on earth,
    and are not his days like the days of a hired hand?
²Like a slave who longs for the shadow,
    and like a hired hand who looks for his wages,
³so I am allotted months of emptiness,
    and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
⁴When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
    But the night is long,
    and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
⁵My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
    my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
⁶My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle
    and come to their end without hope.

⁷“Remember that my life is a breath;
    my eye will never again see good.
⁸The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
    while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
⁹As the cloud fades and vanishes,
    so he who goes down to Sheol does not come up;
¹⁰he returns no more to his house,
    nor does his place know him anymore.

¹¹“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.
¹²Am I the sea, or a sea monster,
    that you set a guard over me?
¹³When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me,
    my couch will ease my complaint,’
¹⁴then you scare me with dreams
    and terrify me with visions,
¹⁵so that I would choose strangling
    and death rather than my bones.
¹⁶I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
    Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.
¹⁷What is man, that you make so much of him,
    and that you set your heart on him,
¹⁸visit him every morning
    and test him every moment?
¹⁹How long will you not look away from me,
    nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit?
²⁰If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind?
    Why have you made me your mark?
    Why have I become a burden to you?
²¹Why 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.”

Rev. Dr. Phil Booe

Native North Carolinian Rev. Dr. Phil Booe serves pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, and host of Thy Strong Word on KFUO Radio. His parishioners probably think he can’t teach Bible study without a mug of coffee in his hand, and he’ll always be happy to eat a plate of sushi. When he’s not shepherding his flock or teaching on the radio, you might find him watching bad movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and especially binging RiffTrax and MST3K episodes. Some day he’d love to travel to the Lutheran homeland in Germany, but for now he spends time in Minnesota with his wife, son, daughter, and cat, and looks forward to Holy Week every year.