One of the first things people do when they face hardship is to start blaming. We blame ourselves, we blame others, we blame society as a whole, and we blame God. Suffering must be someone’s fault, and when we are hurting we are often determined to find the guilty party. We already talked about victim-blaming, so today we’re going to focus on blaming God.
In Job 10, Job blames God for his problems. At least he starts the chapter announcing that he is going to “complain freely” so you know what you’re in for. He says that God is oppressing him, rejecting him, nitpicking him when he’s done nothing wrong, created him simply to catch him doing something bad, and pouring out anger on him. It makes sense. Job is hurting. But here he’s lashing out and hitting hard, questioning the motives and heart of God.
While blaming God might be understandable and make us feel better for a time, in the end it creates bitterness in our hearts and alienates us from God. In Job 31 we see an alternative: appealing to God. Notice the difference between chapter 10 and chapter 31. In the first, Job is making accusation after accusation. In the second, he is asking a lot of questions. He’s asking where he’s gone wrong and ultimately declaring his own innocence. He is still wondering if God is somehow punishing him, but he’s asking instead of blaming. The feelings underneath are ultimately still the same, but the approach is different. When we appeal to God, we are asking him to show us more than we can see. If we do that with a truly open heart, we are more likely to heal.