The Complaint

"Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel,

“My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Isaiah 40:27

At first blush, this verse, and the ones that follow, would seem an admonishment to those who complain that God has not been attentive to their suffering.  And that is exactly what it is.  And it is often a needed and fitting admonishment that all of us will need to hear at various times.

So, I’m great with the admonishment from God through the prophet Isaiah.  But I am less excited with how we use texts like this to shut down the complaint entirely.  The logic goes something like this: “God is sovereign and eternally good.  His wisdom is beyond ours – so far so good – therefore quit your whining and suck it up.  To continue is to blaspheme the Name of God.”  That is put rather baldly, but it suffices.  In essence we say to ourselves and to others, “How dare you question the sovereign plan of God by complaining of your lot in life?”  It SOUNDS very reverent and respectful.

But here’s the problem.  As much as all of this is theologically true, we do not relate to God as a theological concept.  Our whole insistence as Christians is that God is PERSONAL.  As I have said before, He is Person, not Thing.  We will never relate in a loving way to a Person who dismisses the cry of our heart because He knows better.   We might live in respect or in fear, but not in love.

The complaint is necessary.  The complaint is needed.  And that is not just because emotionally or psychologically we need to be heard.  It is because in the Scriptures the complaint is made, heard and answered.  Job and Jeremiah are a couple of the great Biblical complainers.  I know that we call Jeremiah’s words a lament, but what is a that but an older, more elegant way of saying complaint.  Read the Psalms, full of the cry that God is not hearing or responding, wondering when he will act.  “How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?” 

Job’s complaint or lamentation is frank and honest and questions God’s actions.  Shocking.  But here is what is important.  God listens to the complaint from beginning to end.  It is not until after we hear, “The words of Job are ended.” (Job 31:40) that God responds with “Where were you when I….” (Chapter 38 and following).

What is remarkable about this personal God is that he will hear our audacious complaint – from beginning to end.  It is in part because of this that we inveterate complainers begin to understand his Goodness and Sovereignty.

Now, if we continue to complain – make a career of it as many do – and never stop to listen, to hear the response of God, we will eventually stop being just a complainer and become just a complaint. C.S. Lewis observes this in The Great Divorce.

In the end, the answer to the complaint is as we hear from the prophet, “The Lord is the everlasting God.”  And once our complaint is exhausted this Word restores us.

            Why do you say, O Jacob,

                        and speak, O Israel,

            “My way is hidden from the LORD,

                        and my right is disregarded by my God”?

            Have you not known? Have you not heard?

            The LORD is the everlasting God,

                        the Creator of the ends of the earth.

            He does not faint or grow weary;

                        his understanding is unsearchable.

            He gives power to the faint,

                        and to him who has no might he increases strength.

            Even youths shall faint and be weary,

                        and young men shall fall exhausted;

            but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

                        they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

            they shall run and not be weary;

                        they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:27-31 ESV)