O that my words were written down!
Job 19:23-27a (NRSVue)
O that they were inscribed in a book!
O that with an iron pen and with lead
they were engraved on a rock forever!
For I know that my vindicator lives
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been destroyed,
then in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see on my side,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
Job’s words are stinging: “And after my skin has been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side” (Job 19:26-27). This is not a statement of redemption’s victory. And it is certainly not, as Amy Erikson rightly notes, a “postmortem encounter with God” (309). Job is not merely calling readers to reflect on death after death. Job’s haunting challenge is to those of us who are living while watching other living persons whose flesh is literally being eaten away by the violence of war, occupation, and military weapons. Job’s words are an assertion of innocence in the face of suffering, haunting and holding readers accountable.
Job’s stinging words in the passage come right after his friend Bildad’s admonishment in the previous chapter, where Bildad asks Job, “How long will you hunt for words?” (Job 18:1). Bildad pushes Job to stop complaining. As someone who self-identifies as a Christian, this makes me wonder if my own Christian community struggles with the place of complaint against injustice in social and ecclesial life. The influence of positive psychology on Christian theology has deeply affected the vocabulary of the church and Christians. While concepts such as forgiveness, gratitude, and hope are commonplace, complaint is often pushed to the backseat, the trunk, or shoved out of the vehicle altogether.
Although my sources assess Christianity in particular, I wonder, further, if religious people in general have gotten accustomed to violence—so much so that complaints against violence are labelled negatively.
When one probes into the matter, one does discover a historical sense of embarrassment within Christian theological thinking that views complaint against injustice negatively. Early Christian apologist Tertullian (160–225 CE) portrayed Job as an example of patience, arguing that Job “uttered nothing out of his mouth but thanks to God” (Dov Weiss, Pious Irreverence, 42). Given that Job does complain and is adamant that his complaint is legitimate, it is remarkable that Tertullian argues otherwise. The textual evidence is against Tertullian. For instance, Job argues, “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” (Job 7:11). In another instance, Job argues, “Far be it from me to say that you are right; until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. I hold fast my righteousness, and will not let it go” (Job 27:5-6).
Job’s three infamous friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite are, no doubt, overwhelmed by Job’s intense suffering (Job 2:11-13). However, instead of taking Job’s complaint seriously, they are united in blaming Job for his own suffering. Job’s friends deflect attention from Job’s complaint and locate the center of gravity in something else, making it seem as if Job is the problem. The effect this has on Job might be termed (to use that famous American phrase) “gaslighting,” which sociological commentators have defined as “tactics [that] damage victims’ sense of reality, autonomy, mobility, identity, and social supports.” Despite his friends’ efforts to stop Job from complaining, Job does not. Job continues to complain, resisting his friends’ gaslighting.
If the approach of Job’s friends is an unworthy model, then what else can we do as we listen to the complaints of those who continue to suffer bodily harm in our own time—those, whose bones cling to their skin and flesh, who barely escape by the skin of their teeth (Job 19:20)? What, then, might it mean to take Job seriously and give complaint the driver’s seat? In his chapter, “Are Individual Complaint Psalms Really Prayers?: Recognizing Social Address as Characteristic of Individual Complaints,” Derek Suderman argues that it helps to note that so-called aversive behaviors like complaint and lament in the biblical witness are “said out loud” and “overheard” (163). This public dimension of biblical prayer makes it a social and political act rooted in spirituality.
In her piercing book Complaint! Sara Ahmed, reflecting on an insight from a lecturer who lodges a complaint with institutional processes, lifts up the category of complaint as that which can create greater knowing, an “extra vision”:
“It’s a bit like if you complain you get extra vision. It is suddenly like you can see in extra violet. And you can’t go back.” You can’t go back to the person you were before the complaint; you can’t unsee what you have come to see through complaint. Putting glasses on, being able to see what is going on, to see more, is also to see what you did not see before. Complaint can also give you a capacity to explain what is happening (19).
It is this “extra vision” that complaint generates that I’d like to place in our minds and on our hearts as a thing to discern in prayer and deed. What might it mean for us to truly listen to the legitimate complaints against injustice?
When Russia attacked Ukraine, I mistakenly believed that national and international complaint would end the war in a week. It is now over three years at the time of this writing that the Russia-Ukraine war continues. I have shed my mistaken belief. Meanwhile, we are witnessing persons’ flesh literally being eaten away by the violence of war, occupation, and military weapons in more than one part of the world.
While there are many things that are often outside our individual control, there is one thing within our control, namely, our response to suffering. In a social media post in October 2025, Presbyterian minister Katie Mulligan wrote, “The world is watching us right now the way we watched Tiger King.” Mulligan’s post draws on popular reactions to the strange-yet-true events portrayed in the TV series, asking perhaps if consumers of information have gotten accustomed to perilous absurdity.
Complaint is evident in different parts of our world today where people are acutely aware of the bodily harm inflicted on and against them. The use of a substance like white phosphorus in war zones is a horrific case in point that demonstrates how weapons of war are literally eating away the flesh of persons. While countries have found cruel ways to argue that such substances are not “chemical weapons,” it is undeniable that the Jobs of the world are right in bringing a case against the world for scrolling past suffering.
