Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you;
And therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
Blessed are all those who wait for Him. Isaiah 30:18
Last time I wrote about the idea of seeking God’s help rather than standing on our rights when we feel personally mistreated. How we respond to unjust treatment says a lot about us as followers of Jesus Christ.
But have you ever felt that perhaps God Himself was being unjust?
Abraham thought God seemed unjust when He said He was going to destroy Sodom.
Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18:25
Habakkuk made a similar argument. He understood that Israel as a nation deserved punishment, but to use Babylon to do it?! They were even more evil. How was that just?
Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he? Habakkuk 1:13b
What’s worse is when we perceive that God is treating us personally in a way that is unjust. And sometimes it feels that way. Job said in Job 19:6-7:
Know then that God has wronged me,
And has surrounded me with His net.
If I cry out concerning wrong, I am not heard.
If I cry aloud, there is no justice.
Why should you be the person who loses their wealth, or their health, or their child, or their spouse?
I don’t know why Satan targeted you for whatever sorrow you’ve endured, but even if God explained it all, would that take away the pain? Even if we could understand as He does, we would not necessarily say, “Okay, Lord, I get it now. Carry on.” Nor does God promise explanations. We must trust Him to do right.
This is exactly why He has given us accounts of people like Abraham and Habakkuk and Job. From their stories we learn:
- We’re not the first people ever to puzzle over such questions. And God doesn’t necessarily get angry when we ask.
- Prayer can change things. God will listen if we make an appeal; He may act upon our requests, as He did in the case of Abraham’s intercession for the few righteous people living in Sodom.
- There is always a reasoning behind what He allows, but He doesn’t always make it apparent to the person going through the trial. Job didn’t know it, but he was being tested. In the end, his faithfulness proved Satan wrong and brought glory to God.
- God is God, we are not, and in the end we must “keep silence before Him,” (Habakkuk 2:20). As God pointed out at length to Job, we were not present at the creation; we don’t have an inkling of His wisdom or power.
Do you still want to argue with the Almighty? You are God’s critic, but do you have the answers? Job 40:2 NLT
Just as we have the tremendous advantage of knowing Job’s whole story, God knows our whole story. He is patient with our questions, but in the end, although He has the answers, He doesn’t owe us an explanation.
Perhaps it would help to remember that Jesus’s rights were trampled on too. He submitted to injustice so that we could receive mercy instead. Why should he humble himself to serve us? Why should he be the one to take on our punishment? It wasn’t fair, but he satisfied the demands of justice in our place.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” Romans 9:14-15
When we complain that God has wronged us, that He has “taken away [our] justice,” (Job 27:2) our feelings are valid. But our reasoning is wrong. That God allows injustice in the world is not proof of His being unjust. It’s proof that sin has consequences. The proof of both God’s justice and mercy is Jesus Christ.
by Christie Cole Atkins
Dear God, it’s hard to look around and see so much injustice in the world, but when the pain is personal, it just feels so unbearable at times. Hold me up by the power of Your love, of Your word, of Your Holy Spirit, and of the example of Christ, who Himself endured injustice and pain at the hands of sinners like me. In His name I pray, Amen.
Related Reading:
Walk Worthy 