Justifiable Complaint Series

Disraeli, as the Prime Minister of England, was once walking

with a friend. As they went along the street in London, they met a

distinguished looking gentleman. Disraeli greeted him, and asked,

"How is your old complaint?" The man responded that it was

getting worse, and he was sure it would be the death of him. Disraeli

and his friend walked on, and the friend asked him who that

gentleman was. Disraeli said, "I haven't the faintest notion." " But

you asked him about his old complaint," protested the friend.

Disraeli replied, "I have found that almost everybody has some

complaint, and they like to talk about it." Here was a man who

knew human nature. He knew that some negative feeling lurks in

the heart of just about everyone, and even those for whom life in

general is okay. How much more is this the case for those who suffer

life's worse trials? The question is, is it wise to express your

complaint?

To complain or not to complain, that is the question. The book of

Job forces us to ask this question. The obvious answer is no, we

ought not to complain about life. After all, nobody likes a

complainer, and a horse cannot be kicking and moving forward at

the same time. The poet wrote,

A horse can't pull while kicking,

This fact I merely mention,

And he can't kick while pulling,

Which is my chief contention.

Lets imitate the good old horse,

And lead a life that's fitting.

Just pull an honest load and then

There'll be no time for kicking.

Job's friends were saying something like this to him about his

negative reaction to his tragic circumstances. Eliphaz has just told

him to be happy with the chastening of the Lord. Job fires back and

answer in chapters 6 and 7, and it must have made their ears tingle,

and their blood boil, for Job insists that he has a right to complain.

In 7:11 he comes to this conclusion, "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 meets fire with fire, and we are compelled at this stage of the

conflict to start choosing up sides. Job is not lily white in all his

suffering. Before this conflict is over, he too will have to repent for

much of what he says. The issue now, however, is, does he have a

right, and the freedom to complain? His friends said, "Knock it off.

It is not proper for a man of God." Job says, "You guys don't know

beans about suffering. It is not only right, but it is necessary and

normal. You expect animals to stir up a fuss if they don't have food.

You understand the beast, but you criticize me for crying out when I

cannot eat, because life is as tasteless as egg whites without salt." If

Job is right, those who complain that we ought not to complain are

the ones who have no right to complain.

Spurgeon says that Job speech here is primarily a justification of

his right to complain. Job argues back using the same categories as

Eliphaz used in his speech. Eliphaz used comparison and contrast,

and Job responds with a comparison and contrast of his own. Let's

look first at Job's

I. COMPARISON.

Job compares the weight of his grief with the sand of the sea. He

argues that such a great measure of weight justifies complaint. Job

is saying, "Look you guys, this is not much ado about nothing. I am

being crushed, and you offer me counsel that fits a man who has just

found a worm in his apple, or a pit in his pie, or a pebble in his soup.

I am not making a mountain out of a molehill. You guys are

reducing my mountain of tragedy to a molehill of triviality. I cannot

begin to exaggerate the heaviness of my soul. The weight of my

calamity is so enormous that the sands of the sea cannot match it.

The sand of the sea was a typical figure used to describe what is

infinite in number or weight."

Job's defense is that the degree of the load does make a difference

in what is acceptable behavior. The teen-age boy who jumped off a

bridge and killed himself, because his favorite TV show was

canceled, was off balance. A cry could be acceptable behavior for

that degree of disappointment, but more than that is abnormal.

People have taken their own life for all sorts of trivial reasons, like

missing a train, or low grades. Job wanted to die too, but in his case

it is a normal feeling. There is not a normal man alive who can