At the (virtual) Bible class we attended last night, we considered Ecclesiastes chapter 8. In particular we looked at verse 14:

“There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.”

The Preacher basically says, “It isn’t fair.”  And it’s not.

He is not the only writer to note this, and lament it. In fact, this is a substantial theme that recurs in scripture. 

• Job is the most obvious example, and the unfairness issue is the major point of the book. Especially note 21:7-21.

• Asaph in Psalm 73.

• David in Psalm 37.

• An unnamed psalmist in Psalm 92.

• Jeremiah in Jer 12:1-4.

• Habakkuk in Hab 1:13-17.

And of course many secular writers and philosophers have also noted the disconnect between the outcomes people “deserve” and what actually happens. Some go so far as to use this as an argument that there can’t possibly be a God, at least not one who is just or loving.  Believers continue to struggled with this issue, just as did the believers who wrote the passages mentioned.

So what’s the answer?  Is God fair, or not?  Well…He is not. We humans have a warped sense of what is “fair” or “just”. To begin with, those words don’t mean the same thing!  If you want fairness, then the divine law says, “The wage of sin is death.”  We ought to take care in calling  on God for “fairness”—fair would be every one of us sinners perishing. Thanks be to God, that in His mercy He provides a way of escape from “fair”!

The other issue is whether God is “just”.  And here, we have only to read carefully, notably right in the context of the passages we’ve mentioned.  It is true, as the Preacher and others say, that it seems like the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer.  But these writers remind us, and we NEED to be reminded over and over:  God doesn’t work on our timescale. His focus is eternal. We focus so intently on the immediate present that we lose perspective. These writers (and others of course) remind us:

• “My feet had almost stumbled…For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked,” Asaph writes. (Ps 73:2-3)  But after detailing his lament, he finally reflects, and says, “Then I discerned their end.  Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.  How they are destroyed in a moment!” (v 17-19)

• The Preacher discerns the long term: “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.” (Ecclesiastes 8:12-13)

• David’s counsel is, “Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! … In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.”  (Ps 37:7-11)  This of course is the source of Jesus’s declaration in the beatitudes that “the meek shall inherit the earth”.  Without question Jesus knew and understood the context.

There’s lots more in the same vein. We don’t LIKE waiting for the Lord’s  timing, we don’t LIKE the wicked having the upper hand (and seeing that it has been thus for all time). We want it solved NOW!  Just as those inspired writers did. As always, we need to listen to them all the way through. And as always, we need to look to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).  He said to the disciples (to us!), “Is this what you are asking yourselves, what I meant by saying, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” (John 16:19-20)

We may very well weep and lament now—all of those earlier writers did, and the disciples did. Not only over the injustice of Jesus being killed, but over his absence, which means the continuation of injustice in this world. It is so hard to hang onto the divine perspective!  But Jesus goes on, with words we have to hold onto tightly: “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” (v 21-22)

We will see him, and our hearts will rejoice!

Love, clinging to this promise,

Paul

If you have any feedback, please contact me at: paul.zilmer@gmail.com