Newsletter May 2022 Part 2
God’s justice
“Your words have been harsh against Me,” says the Lord, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts? 15 So now we call the proud blessed, for those who do wickedness are raised up; they even tempt God and go free. (Malachi 3:13-15)
Throughout the ages, God’s people have complained. So much of what we see and experience just doesn’t seem fair. Good people suffer while those who practise evil seem to get away with it and even benefit from their wrongdoing. So we ask the question, ‘Why does God allow such injustice?’
Speaking through the prophet Malachi, God rebukes His people for their harsh words against [Him]. By suggesting that there was no benefit in serving God (v. 14), they were questioning the very integrity of their Maker and Lord. By claiming that the wicked and proud were being blessed, they were implying that God was unjust. By assuming the role of judges, they were in fact elevating themselves above God, who alone is just!
How many times have we questioned God, when things have not gone our way? How many times have we begrudged the seemingly undeserving for their apparent success? Have we not, like God’s people in the days of Malachi, spoken harshly against God? Who are we to decide who should be blessed and who should be punished? Do we see as God sees? Where were we when He laid the foundations of the earth? (Job 38:4) Are we more qualified to run the universe than the One who created it?
We are mere humans; our view is limited and we see only what is happening in the here and now. Meanwhile God is watching and taking note of all we do and say (Malachi 3:16). He is just, and His judgment will come – in His time. He is in no hurry to bring justice to the world, but when it does come, what will be written about us in His book of remembrance?
Malachi states (3:16) that those who feared the LORD spoke one to another. What would they have spoken about, as they meditated on His name? Rather than complain and question God’s justice, they would have declared His glory and majesty. Rather than focusing on the sins of others, they would have marvelled at God’s boundless mercy that had caused Him to forgive their sins. That’s why God calls them His jewels! (v.17) When judgment comes to the world, He will spare them. Then all will be able to discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who truly serves God and one who does not. (v.18) Until then, we must trust that God is just and that He knows what He is doing – without our presumptuous instruction.
As humans, we want to see justice done immediately. We want God to deal with those who deserve punishment in our eyes. God will judge the earth. But He will do so according to His perfect justice – not ours. And He will do so in His time. To God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. (2 Peter 3:8) He is still calling others, as He has called us, so they too can receive His grace and turn from their wicked ways to serve Him. It is not His will that anyone should be eternally lost.
One day Jesus will return and then He will judge the world in righteousness. On that day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Meanwhile let us do all things without complaining and disputing, that [we] may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom [we] shine as lights in the world. (Philippians 2:14-15) And let us in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for [us]. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)
Pastor Konrad