Is it wrong to be frustrated with God?
Scripture is full of people who told God, to His face, that His dealings hurt and made no sense — Habakkuk asking how long, Jeremiah accusing Him of enticing him, Job charging Him with cruelty. So the question is not whether believers feel frustration with God, but what they do with it, and where the honest cry ends and rebellion begins.
Groaning and grumbling
Commenting on the prophet who opened his book by asking God why He would not act, one writer draws a line that runs through the whole subject:
Hamilton SmithFaced with all these sorrows the prophet groans in spirit, for God's word allows a groan, but never a grumble (Romans 8:22-27). What is more, the prophet utters his groans to the Lord. Sadly, we as believers too often tend to discuss the failures of God's people among ourselves in such a bitter spirit that the groaning becomes mere grumbling, or complaining about what God allows in His dealings with His people. Such complaining words to one another may betray either a hidden spirit of rebellion against God, or an attempt to lift ourselves up by belittling others. It is good for us if we escape these traps by pouring out the anguish of our spirits and the exercises of our souls before the LORD.
What a complaint says about God
When David's attempt to move the ark ended in a man's death, David was angry rather than searching himself. One writer turns that scene on the reader:
William KellyDispleased with whom? It is a sorrowful thing to say — he was displeased with the God of Israel. But do not think this so strange either. When you murmur and complain about His chastening in your own case, what are you doing but expressing your displeasure at the Lord? Do you suppose, beloved, that any trial which happens to you, whatever its character, is apart from Him? That affliction comes from the dust? … It may fall on you through someone else's wrongdoing. But that is never a reason to justify you, nor the slightest excuse for being displeased with God.
Weakness is treated differently from unbelief
Habakkuk's opening words sound like an accusation, yet the answer he received was not a rebuke. One commentator explains why:
H. L. RossierHabakkuk was a man of faith, and his first words, "Lord, how long…", show it. His faith, however, needed strengthening and light. It was mixed with weakness. And it did find an answer full of mercy, for God reprimands unbelief, but not the weakness of our human nature. Our weakness is met with the compassion of the One who was "in every respect tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
The right address for it
Abraham once asked God for proof that His promise would hold. Rather than treating that as scandal, a writer sees in it a pattern for us:
Frederick W GrantIt is beautiful to see how Abraham flings it all out — doubt and all — and casts it down before God. "Pour out your heart before him," says the Psalmist. "Do not be anxious about anything," adds the apostle, "but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God." In these very requests, what a number of things unworthy of Him! But He who already knew them in the heart would have us pour them out in His presence — and what relief the heart gets that way! How many of these workings of unbelief the psalms give us! Yet they are poured out before God, and the soul stills itself in that blessed presence as it can nowhere else.
How God met a servant who had had enough
Elijah ran from Jezebel, sat down under a tree and asked to die. What came next is the measure of God's patience with a discouraged believer:
C. H. MackintoshInstead of granting the petulant request of His harassed and disappointed servant, He seeks to feed and strengthen him for further effort. This is not "the manner of man," but it is — blessed be His name forever — the manner of God, whose ways and thoughts are not ours. Man would often deal roughly and harshly with his fellow, making no allowance for him, acting in haste and severity. Not so God. He always deals in the deepest pity and tenderness.
God's verdict on Job's rash words
At the end of the book, God told Job's friends they had not spoken of Him what was right, "as my servant Job has" — even though Job had said far harsher things than they had.
William KellyWhat is that especially which God singles out as the right thing? On the surface of the book one might think Job had said as many wrong things about God as the rest. It would even appear to a shallow reader that Job had spoken more rashly than Eliphaz or his two friends. But the truth is that the grace of God bears far more tenderly than men suppose with the random words men utter under the pressure of such a terrible trial as Job's.
The same writer adds where Job finally spoke rightly: not in his fine speeches, but when he "humbled himself utterly before God" and owned Him "to be perfectly right."
Summary
- Permitted. God's word allows a groan, but never a grumble — the feeling is not the sin.
- Addressed. A groan spoken to God is prayer; the same words spoken to others about God curdle into grumbling and can hide rebellion.
- Weighed. He reprimands unbelief, but not the weakness of our human nature; grace bears tenderly with words uttered under crushing pressure.
- Answered. To the servant who asked to die, God sent food and strength, not severity — He always deals in the deepest pity.
- Resolved. Complaint ends where Job's did: not in fine speeches, but in humbling himself and owning that God is perfectly right.