daily java

Daily Java: You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?
You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips but far from their hearts. (Jeremiah 12:1-2)

It is not sacrilegious to say that Jeremiah has a valid point. Why is it that people who have no love for God prosper and people who love God have a hard time?

It is not fair. Especially considering all of the scriptures that are in the Old Testament and in the New Testament telling us that God’s people will be blessed.

Then you look at the book of Job and see a man who was a righteous man who is the victim of a bet between God and the devil. The devil says that if he were blessed like Job he would be good to (a lie, but that is not surprising. He was an angel at one time, standing in the presence of God himself). God says that Job would be righteous even if he were reduced greatly in station and health.

Of course, Job stayed devoted to God. He was irritated (and had a right to be) and he questioned God (God never expected blind fools), but even in the midst of all this, he remained faithful to God. He never cursed him (as he was encouraged to do by “friends” and his poor wife who saw nothing but her husband suffering). He praised him through the pain.

God blessed him again, eventually. But he suffered the rest of his life because of it.

So look around. Idiots in Hollywood and the entertainment industry and government for that matter who make daily proclamations of their contempt for Christians and their lack of belief.

People who are godless who are rich beyond belief, people who do not care who prosper.

It is easy to say that they will get theirs. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord – we thunder. The old songs and promises of pie in the sky bye and bye, that there will be a better day coming.

They really do not matter as much when you are suffering. Why do people who are godless enjoy such good health while my godly and spiritual wife suffers in pain? Why do people who have no faith enjoy such wealth? Sure, it is only here for the moment, but the moment is, after all, what we live in.

There is no real answer. CS Lewis wrote a book on the Problem of Pain, yet ended with the acknowledgment that we do not understand it.

Jeremiah had a good point. God’s answer, a few verses later, was not a very good one. It was more or less what he told Job: deal with it. He added a comment that it would make him stronger. If you have raced with men on foot  and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by  the Jordan? (12:5).

This passage, as does Job and Hebrews 11 and others, says things happen to Christians. Just remain strong and know that I am God.

One guy sang a song that said, if you can’t see his hand, trust his heart. That is all we can do. We know God loves us and has a plan for us.

Things happen and sometimes they are for no good reason. I know that because I know that God is not the sender of evil on our lives. The devil does that. But God allows it. That is hard to accept and understand. But the passage: we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28) is absolutely true.

A trite and unsatisfactory ending to a very hard problem, but things will work out and God loves you, even when bad things happen.