How Long?

Friends of one of my sons have a young daughter going through difficult cancer treatment. The Dad wrote about his spiritual experience in this prolonged journey. They have not so much asked God “Why?” as they have asked “How long?” They are believing this means “How long until healing?” but for many who agonize over the suffering of someone dearly loved it means “how long until death?” This can be especially excruciating for parents with a child. When it is an elderly parent or spouse whose suffering is prolonged, the question “How long?” may see death as release from the suffering.

I looked up in the Bible all of the instances the question “How long?” I didn't know what I would find, and my observations are not an exhaustive study. What I found took me in some unexpected directions that at first seemed not to address the way these parents are asking “How long?”

First I noticed that in the books that come before the Psalms, “How long?” is asked many times, but not in the sense of “How long will God let suffering go on?” but in the sense of “How long will God's people stray from Him?” The questioner is God. We humans are the ones who have wandered off into unresponsiveness. God is anxiously calling us back.

But in the Psalms the roles reverse and the Psalmists ask “How long will God permit this suffering, this evil?” These questions are not about the personal suffering of illness but the corporate and personal suffering of God’s people at the hands of evil people or questioning why God takes so long to bring judgment on or release from evil people.

The question does show up in this way a few times in the prophets (Isaiah 6:11; Jeremiah 12:4; Habakkuk 1:2; Zechariah 1:12). With the exception of Isaiah 6, these are all post-exilic. I would be interested to see what, if anything, can be known about the dating of the Psalms that ask this question. Whether post-exilic or not, I suspect this questioning comes when Israel and Judah are past prime and longing for former glory.

So it seems the earlier occurrences of “How long?” are God asking the people how long they will wander off before returning to the covenant. These questions do persist into the prophets. Not until later does the Bible record people asking how long God will allow them to suffer at the hands of evil people. Either way, the question is about how long human rebellion and evil can go on, not how long we have to endure personal suffering such as disease that comes in the course of life.

However, I don't think this means it is wrong for parents to ask “How long will our child have to suffer this illness?” In fact, I take the tone of the Psalms that directly challenge God with by asking “How long?” as permission and even encouragement to confront God with our honest and profound questions.

Nor does this mean illness should interpreted as some kind of warning to repent. Disease and other personal suffering seem to be accepted as part of life in Scripture, not normally as a judgment from God for some sin. But “How long?” is just not asked about that kind of thing.

The question “How long?” seems to connect with “waiting on the Lord,” which also permeates the Psalms. This is more profound than just the difference between our sense of time and God's timing. Somehow it has to do with recognizing that God is working when everything seems static. Like watching the dark settle over sky and earth following sunset, it all happens imperceptibly, yet with definitive force. Even when nothing seemed to be happening, the changes come.

So asking “How long?” whether or not the circumstances have a Biblical president recognizes and accepts, even welcomes the imperceptible work of God when nothing seems to be happening.