Complaining Against God

This is from a recommended blog, Pilgrim’s Rock by Craig Biehl. It’s a book excerpt as well. Click the image below to read at source, and then click the link at the bottom to connect with part two of the article.

Is It Okay to Complain Against God? (Part One)

Have you ever been angry and disappointed with God, or questioned His goodness in the midst of deep and dark struggles? Have you ever been so disappointed with God’s response to your prayers that you wanted to give Him a piece of your mind? After all, He knows our weakness and is big enough to take it, right? But, does God understanding our weakness give us the right to complain against Him? Moreover, can it ever be proper to complain against our Creator? Let’s see…

He Hears Our Cries

God is good. “His work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He” (Deuteronomy 32:4). “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you” (Psalm 89:14). And in the end, “He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity” (Psalm 98:9). And from His love and care for His children, He calls us to cast all our cares upon Him (1 Peter 5:7). To Him we may cry in our troubles: “Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; preserve my life from dread of the enemy” (Psalm 64:1). “I pour out my complaint before Him; I tell my trouble before Him” (Psalm 142:2). God welcomes our cries for help and understanding. He responds with great compassion to our needs and weaknesses:

Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:9-11)

Asking the Right Question

Our question, then, does not concern our freedom to cast our cares upon God or to bring to Him our cries and complaints, for Christ purchased for us that marvelous privilege. Our question concerns the right to complain against God, or to question His wisdom, goodness, or righteousness in His governing the affairs of the world and our personal circumstances. Put another way, can we as created, sustained, and dependent on God for all things complain against a God of perfect power and goodness, who always acts in perfect righteousness, who always desires the best for His people? Or, can finite and fallen people sit in judgment over the source and standard of all righteousness?

Have You Considered Job?

To answer our question, we turn to Job. After all, if anyone had the right to complain against God it was Job. Used by God as an example to His adversary the Devil, Job suffered because He was righteous. And suffer he did, with great personal loss and intense, prolonged physical suffering.

Early in his agony, Job did well in accepting God’s rule and righteousness: “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times” (Job 9:2-3). But, time and pain wore on. And as we all know how our physical suffering challenges our spiritual demeanor, so Job eventually resorted to criticizing God for causing and ignoring his plight. He sought an audience with God to argue his case against Him.

Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man’s years, that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand? Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether (Job 10:3-8).

Job’s complaints not only increased as his suffering lingered, he turned to questioning the righteousness, knowledge, and goodness of God. He even went so far as to imply that God favored the wicked! But was Job right in this? And even if he was not, would God not grant Job the right to his accusations given the depth of Job’s agony and his ignorance of the cause of his suffering? Our answer will come in Part Two.

—Adapted from Craig Biehl, God the Reason: How Infinite Excellence Gives Unbreakable Faith, Carpenter’s Son Publishing, 2015.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Click the title below to read part two.

Is It Okay to Complain Against God? (Part Two)

A Place for Lament

Mike Bell posted this on Internet Monk earlier this week. For it to make sense we had to use the picture as well, so, in light of the double crime (!) why not read this  at source: What about Job’s Kids? (Be sure to also read the comments.)

I had an interesting picture in my facebook feed the other day.  I don’t usually repost much, but this one really caught my attention as it represented how I was feeling that day.

On particularly rough days, when I’m sure that I can’t possibly endure, I like to remind myself that my track record for getting through bad days so far is 100% and that’s pretty good.

Nice thought, right?

It reminded me of what I had read just the previous day from James 5:11:

As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

So what happened to Job?  The Sunday School version has God taking everything away, but blessing Job with even more than he had at the beginning.  This version tends to gloss over the 40 chapters of suffering that occurs between the taking away and the restoring.

Ever since I reposted the facebook meme I have had second thoughts.

Why is it so bad to say “life sucks”, full stop.   Job “loathes” his life and wishes he had never been born.  He continues this theme for most of 40 chapters.  In other scripture, David cries “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!”  Why are we so afraid of lament?  Why do feel the need to put on masks when we go to church?

And what about Job’s kids?  The book of Job portrays them as partiers.  After every birthday party Job presents a sacrifice, just in case his children got carried away.  We get the sense that the book portrays them as less than ideal so that it can be shown that what he ended up with was better than what he started with.  Even so, his kids couldn’t say that their “track record for getting through bad days was 100%.”

That is the second problem that I have with the facebook post.  Some people don’t make it.  People die, commit suicide, are incapacitated by injury and disease, or are completely overwhelmed by circumstances.  Maybe I am overthinking this, but a post that says it’s “pretty good” that I made it through the day could come across as pretty insensitive to those who are going through significant struggle or loss.

I have a friend who lost his job, was then divorced by his wife, and his kids no longer want to talk to him.  Should I go and give him a friendly slap on the back and say, “Isn’t it good that you are making through the day?”  Or what about the cashier from the variety store behind my house who was shot in a robbery and left as a quadriplegic?  How would my post make him feel? Or those who a physically or sexuality abused on a daily basis?

Sometimes life is tougher than we can manage.  When I see others in that place I need to learn to sit and listen, and not be so quick with the clichés.  I also have to be willing to take off my own mask and admit to others when I am having a miserable day, or week, or month, or year.  For some “life is tough, and then you die.”  I find it really hard to call that “good.”

What do you think?  Am I overreacting here?  Or is there a need for us to be more considerate of those who are having difficult times?  Do we need to recognize and practice lament in our own lives?

Knowing When To Shut Up

If this picture looks familiar, it’s the fifth time we’ve used it here. See below for links to other articles.

Many of us our conscious of the Bible’s emphasis on stillness and waiting. What person reading this hasn’t heard, “Be still and know that I am God?”  But silence is a very different discipline. It can be motivated by various factors and offers various kinds of benefit and blessing.  The problem for some of us is that we like to talk, and if you talk and talk all day, you’re almost certain to come out with a sentence or two you wish you could at best modify, at worst retract completely.

James 1:19 says

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.  (NIV)

Eugene Peterson really focuses this text:

Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear. (MSG)

The book of Proverbs, needless to say, covers the virtue of holding back from speaking with these words:

Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.  (NASB)

Some of the alternative renderings here are interesting:

• [is esteemed] a man of understanding (KJV)
• he is considered perceptive (NKJV)
• seem intelligent (NLT); is deemed intelligent (ESV)
• thought wise  …  and discerning (NIV)

There is great value in saying things like:

• I’ll need some time to formulate a response
• I’ll have to get back to you on that
• I don’t know
• That’s something I need to think about
• I’m not sure how I would answer that

Or just

• Hmmm

Of course this is a lesson that many statesman, politicians and civic leaders have learned the hard way. The importance of restraining their speech; of keeping their speech tightly under control.

So this is a lesson we can apply in our relationship with family, extended family, neighbors, co-workers, fellow-students; and people we meet in the course of every day life when conducting business, using services, shopping, etc.  But what about in our relationship with God?

Some of you may have already thought of this passage in Job 40:

The Lord said to Job:

² “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
    Let him who accuses God answer him!”

³ Then Job answered the Lord:

⁴ “I am unworthy—how can I reply to you?
    I put my hand over my mouth.
⁵ I spoke once, but I have no answer—
    twice, but I will say no more.”

The NLT translates verse five, “I have said too much already. I have nothing more to say.”  Job is at the end of himself in terms of his wrestling with God, and is now repentant and contrite.  Matthew Henry’s Concise commentary says of this passage:

Communion with the Lord effectually convinces and humbles a saint, and makes him glad to part with his most beloved sins. There is need to be thoroughly convinced and humbled, to prepare us for remarkable deliverances.

After God had shown Job, by his manifest ignorance of the works of nature, how unable he was to judge of the methods and designs of Providence, he puts a convincing question to him; Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him?

Now Job began to melt into godly sorrow: when his friends reasoned with him, he did not yield; but the voice of the Lord is powerful. When the Spirit of truth comes, he convinces. Job yields himself to the grace of God. He owns his offenses,  and has nothing to say to justify himself. He is now sensible that he has sinned; and therefore he calls himself vile. Repentance changes men’s opinion of themselves. Job is now convinced of his error.

Those who are truly sensible of their own sinfulness and vileness, dare not justify themselves before God. He perceived that he was a poor, mean, foolish, and sinful creature, who ought not to have uttered one word against the Divine conduct. One glimpse of God’s holy nature would appall the stoutest rebel. How, then will the wicked bear the sight of his glory at the day of judgment? But when we see this glory revealed in Jesus Christ, we shall be humbled without being terrified; self-abasement agrees with filial love.

Yes, God searches the hearts and minds of people and knows their thoughts; but even so, we can ‘say’ too much to him.  This is a reminder that being slow to speak applies even with our relationship with our heavenly father.

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The picture that accompanies today’s text has appeared four times before here. I wonder if that means something?

• Knowing When To Say Nothing (March 12, 2011)
• Don’t Hair Trigger Respond to Your Critics (July 21, 2012)
• Purity of Speech (July 6, 2012)
• Exemplary Speech (March 29, 2012)