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
suffer what Job suffered and not complain, and feel that life is to
bitter to swallow anymore. Great men have wanted to die for much
less.
Moses wanted to die because his people were so discouraging.
Elijah wanted to die because he felt so alone and discouraged. These
two great men of God could have been lifted from their pit of
depression by some good positive thinking, but this would have
fallen flat with Job. Anyone who thinks positive thinking is always
the cure, has not faced reality. If you were counseling Job, and
wanting him to look at the bright side of things, what would you tell
him? Would you say, it could be worse? Do you suppose he would
have been encouraged if you told him he might have had eleven or
twelve kids who were killed, instead of just ten? Positive thinking is
of most value to those who are suffering because they have been too
negative in their thinking. Job thinking had nothing to do with his
tragedy, and so no change in his thinking could make a difference.
There are times when negative thinking is a necessity. It may be
a necessary evil, but it becomes a necessity. The greatest men of
God all through the Bible and history practiced what we are calling
justifiable complaining. We could also call it, therapeutic negative
thinking. David says in Psalm 142:1-2, "I cry with my voice to the
Lord, with my voice I make supplication to the Lord, I pour out my
complaint before Him, I tell my trouble before Him." This is what is
called catharsis. It is a pouring out of the poison inside, which is
necessary for healing. Job is not alone in his complaint about life's
trials.
Some may object that Old Testament saints are not our guides.
Sometimes Old Testament behavior is sub-Christian, but the study
of suffering reveals that those who suffer without complaint are the
ones on the sub-Christian level. In other words, if you suppress
your emotions so that you can take everything life throws at you
without complaint, you are not being Christlike at all. You are
conforming to a pagan standard. Let me explain that. Back in 300
B.C., a man by the name Zeno started a philosophy called stoicism.
It basically said that you will find happiness by suppressing all
emotion. You must learn to destroy all the weakness of emotion, and
face suffering and death with no sorrow, and the good things of life,
with no joy. It was a back to nature type philosophy, where the goal
was to get rid of human emotion, and learn to be like the animals.
Animals do not cry or complain when a loved one dies. The goal of
the Stoics was to be as indifferent to suffering as a worm. Whoever
heard a worm complain?
Epictetus, and early Stoic, said, you need to harden your
emotions by breaking something in your house everyday, and say, "I
don't care." You keep moving up to more expensive things until
you can see your pet killed and say, "I don't care." The ultimate
perfection is reached when you could see your whole family wiped
out, like Job did, and simply turn and walk away saying, "I don't
care."
The Stoic said everything is God's will, and so you are to
discipline yourself to accept everything, however tragic, without
struggle or emotion. Some of our popular sayings come from the
Stoic view of life. "Grin and bear it; that's the way the ball bounces,
the cookie crumbles, and the cake breaks." Emotions were evil to
the Stoic. Both laugher and tears were obscene. The nicest
compliment you could give a Stoic was to say, "In all the years I've
known you, I've never seen you show any emotion." This extreme is
rare today, but the gist of it has come into our culture. The
American Indians followed this philosophy, and so did many of the
white pioneers. It still survives as part of the tough rugged
American image, and is behind every parent who says to his weeping
youngster, "Big boys don't cry." All of the Bible big boys did cry,
but even little Stoics did not cry. The Stoics seem so virtuous when
they opposed negative emotions, but this is really sub-Christian.
Seneca was one of the great Stoics. He lived the same time as
Jesus did. He taught that anger was a hideous emotion, and one
should never show it in the slightest degree, even though he beheld
his father murdered, and his mother raped. He ends his long essay
on anger like this: "There is no surer proof of greatness than to be
in a state where nothing can possibly happen to disturb you."
According to this view, Jesus was not great, for He expressed a great
deal of emotion. Neither the Old Testament, nor the New Testament
support this pagan philosophy. The Bible says God made man much
higher than animals, and just a little lower than angels. His
emotions are one of the things that make him unique. God expects
man to be an emotional creature. He is made to feel all of the
positives of joy, and the negatives of anger and suffering. A man is
only truly healthy when he can express his feelings. Every feeling
has a legitimate right to be expressed.
Paul said we are to be angry but sin not. There is a sinful way to
express anger, but there is also a good and right way. Paul did it,
and so did Jesus. All emotions can be right in the proper situation,
even those that we see Job expressing. This is hard for many
believers to accept, for it seems to lead to inconsistency. That is
what Job's friends were accusing him about. A man of God should
not be negative. Job says that is blind, unrealistic idealism that does
not fit reality. Job is a great comfort to millions of God's children
who suffer. His response, and his theology does fit their actual
experience of life. He did not pretend to be a super-spiritual sufferer
who could just grin and bear it, and say praise the Lord anyway.
He treated tragedy with respect by feeling it, and expressing those
feelings. There was no escapism with Job. He got no comfort by
trying to deny the reality of evil. Many believers often try to
pretend that there is no evil. This is not healthy at all. Job is
healthy, for he condemns evil for what it is.
Job demonstrates the beauty and the duty of inconsistency. Let
me be clear here, it is never valid to be morally inconsistent. It is
never a virtue to disobey God. But there is an inconsistency in
feelings that is an important part of the Christian life. Job is a great
example, and we need to learn to apply this truth to our own lives.
Philip Cronnell, president of Kansas City Baptist Theological
Seminary, in his book Survival Of The Unfit, has a chapter on the
saving grace of inconsistency. He calls true inconsistency a breathe
of life, and the key to Christian freedom that prevents error, and
preserves sanity.
Christian who cannot be inconsistent are like Job's friends. They
are locked into a rut of conformity that does not permit them to
experience the fullness of reality. Cronnell says, "The man who, in a
right way, can be boldly "inconsistent" can live on both sides of a
truth." Job was this kind of a man. He could be honest with all of
reality. Those who cannot, like his friends, tend to become either
heretics or bigots, because they are so afraid of being inconsistent,
they refuse to acknowledge that there is another side of the truth.
The globe of truth is too massive to handle with a single hand. This
is not only a great lesson of Job, but of the entire Bible. If we do not
grasp the need for inconsistency, we will have a hard time making
progress in Christian maturity.
Inconsistency is like the play in the steering wheel that allows you
to go one way or the other. Those who demand that there be no
inconsistency are trying to drive with a locked wheel. They will soon
be in the ditch, because the road of life is full of curves, and if you
are not prepared to adjust to the changes, you will be forced off the
road. Let me give you a specific illustration. The Bible clearly calls
us to rejoice always, and to rejoice with those who rejoice. If you
look in on that side of the truth, and refuse to deviate whatever
comes, you will soon be in the ditch of disobedience. How will you
obey the command to weep with those who weep, and fulfill the ideal
of, blessed are those who mourn. There is a time to laugh, and a
time to cry, and the Christian must be prepared for both, for it is a
blessed inconsistency to be free to be all things to all men. Job's
friends lacked this freedom, and were very poor comforters because
of it.
Only the inconsistent Christian can be a whole and healthy
Christian, for we must in inconsistent to deal with reality, which is
so variable. Job's friends kept trying to say that life is always
consistent. The good always prosper and the evil always suffer. Job
said you can go ahead and live in your fantasy world, but I must live
where I am, and where I am it is not that way. I live in a world
where the good suffer, and where they have to let off steam by
complaining and being angry, in order to keep from cracking up. I
am so miserable I want to die Job said. You tell me, to be consistent
with my faith, I should be happy, but you are the abnormal ones. It
is normal to be inconsistent, and to feel the reality of tragedy, and to
express strong emotions in suffering.
Who is correct in this debate? Christians will be found on both
sides. The friends of Job were wise and godly men. How do we
know for sure which is the example to follow? As Christians, we go
to the ultimate source, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Did Jesus
have only positive emotions, or did he also have strong negative
feelings? The facts make it clear, Jesus agrees with Job. There are
justifiable complaints in life, for Jesus was sinless, yet we see Him
complaining of both His friends and His enemies. It is a startling
fact that when God entered flesh in Jesus Christ, He did not enter it
in its pre-fallen state, but, rather, in its fallen state. Jesus was
sinless, but He still lived in a body that could suffer the effects of sin.
He suffered cruelty, injustice, and death, all of which are the result
of the fall. Paul says in Rom. 8:3 that God sent His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh.
Jesus did not take on a fake body, and one which was not of this
world. He took one just like ours. It was able to feel pain and
suffering, and even temptation. Jesus experienced all of the
weaknesses of the flesh. He was tired and hungry. He was angry
and disappointed. He knew sorrow and grief. Jesus took that
human body into the presence of God, where He will ever be one
with man. It is transfigured now, but Jesus will never forget what
we must endure in the flesh. He is ever sympathetic with our
suffering and grief. The cross is the culmination of identification.
On the cross Jesus experienced the worst that evil could do to man.
On the cross Jesus wears our humanity, shares our infirmity, and
bears our iniquity.
In living a real human life we see Jesus doing the very things we
often feel guilty for, because Job's friends keep telling us this is not
proper for a child of God. Jesus felt frustrated with His disciples,
and He complained of their dullness. He said, "O men of little faith,
do you not yet perceive?" Several times Jesus complained of their
lack of faith. He experienced even deeper frustration with those He
came to save. When they would not listen, He wept. This would
have seemed inconsistent to Job's friends, but it is the beautiful
inconsistency of a compassionate heart that feels like breaking when
men miss God's best.
Jesus was aggravated with James and John, who wanted to call
down fire from heaven on the Samaritans. Jesus said you are not of
my spirit. He rebuked Peter and said, "Get thee behind me Satan."
To His three closest disciples He complained, in His saddest hour,
"Could you not watch with me one hour?" One hour is all he asked
from those who were to receive eternal life from His suffering. The
point is, Jesus felt negative emotions, and He expressed them. We
haven't even looked at His anger at injustice and hypocrisy. He
blasted the Pharisees, and cleansed the temple with great anger.
The life of Jesus confirms that Job's emotions were legitimate. Jesus
was completely honest with His human emotions, and He cried out
on the cross, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?"
That is the essence of what Job's complaint is all about. In the light
of the cross, we must agree with Job's defense, and recognize his was
a justifiable complaint.
