Hiand welcome
Yes.
He was honest; he was saying how he felt instead of fuming inside but pretending that everything was fine. The lord knows, and sees, how we feel and what we are thinking anyway; so may as well be honest.
He was saying that he didn't understand God - who does? Or why he didn't do something.
Plenty of people - Abraham, the Psalmists, Job, the disciples, etc have questionned and complained to God.
Maybe in an ideal world; but people do, and God is gracious and replies, reassures and helps us.
Not really.
It's saying that we don't like/understand what he is doing. Just because we might not like him doing something - like forgiving certain people, asking US to forgive certain people, give a financial gift, or calling us to go and work somewhere - it doesn't mean he is wrong to do it.
We can say "Lord, why did you do/say/ask that of me?" without suggesting that God doesn't know what he's doing.
Also, we need to be sure that something IS God's word, or action, and not just assume it must be because we agree with it.
David often questioned God and, in his Psalms, was completely honest - about God having forgotten him, about wanting God's enemies to die etc etc. Yet David was called "a king after God's own heart."
Exactly. It's being honest.
If God told us to walk into an enemy's city and tell them to repent (Jonah), go with the nation into exile which was the Lord's judgement on their sin, and you were training to be a priest, (Ezekiel), preach repentance to a nation that wouldn't listen, (most of the prophets re Israel), roll away the stone covering the tomb of a dead man (Mary and Martha re Lazarus) and many other things - would you immediately and joyfully accept and obey, or wonder if , and why, God would really say such a thing?
The Lord sees our thoughts and our hearts anyway; it's not right, or healthy, to suppress doubt, fear or anger and pretend we are fine with everything and fully understand God's ways.
So you think that Jesus didn't really feel abandoned by God, crushed under the weight of the sin of the world; he only said it to fulfill a prophecy?
Why would he do that?
Wouldn't saying that you felt that God had abandoned you but not meaning or believing it, be dishonest? Jesus didn't sin.
So, either it wasn't a complaint, or complaining isn't a sin.
Jesus asked in the Garden of Gethsemane, that the cup of suffering should pass from him. Yes, he said "your will be done"; but as he had already predicted his death and said that he had come to give his life as a ransom for many - he knew God's will.
So why did he ask that he might be spared it?
I believe because he was human, and it is a human thing to want to avoid pain, rejection and an agonising death. I don't think he had that experience - of being distressed and sweating blood - for the fun of it.
Thanks for your warm welcome
. It's been interesting to read all the different opinions on here. It reminds me of how we must be careful in how we 'divide the Word' (this born of the fact that there are quite a few differing opinions on the same biblical event). Although there is much of what you have said that I can't agree with, I am grateful and appreciative for your willingness to spend time in sharing your views with me. May God continue to lead us into all truth. Blessings.
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