HOW LONG, O LORD?

 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.

Romans 12:19 (NIV)

                Today in my devotions I read a piece about the justice of God. The question that was raised was, why don’t we see God’s judgment carried out in our world today? It seems like the wicked get away with their sin, while the righteous often suffer for it. This question is very timely as we watch the ongoing struggle in Ukraine. Why doesn’t God stop the aggression against the Ukrainian people? Thousands of lives are being lost because one man has decided it is his right to re-establish the former Soviet Union. It isn’t fair. It isn’t right! How can God allow this to keep going on?

                Even as I write those words, I can hear the words of the Psalmist ringing in my ears. How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked be jubilant? Psalm 94:3 (NIV) Throughout the Psalms we encounter the Psalmist pleading with God to punish evil doers and complaining about God’s seemingly reluctance to do so. Our hearts resonate with the Psalmist. How long, O Lord, will you allow the wicked to go unpunished?

                We need to be very careful when we ask such questions. We are entering dangerous ground that we don’t fully understand. If we look at the breadth of Scripture, we can get a glimpse of how God has answered the Psalmist, and us. We can also see how we should respond.

                The first thing we need to accept is that God’s ways are not our ways. We do not, nor can we, understand all of God’s plans and purposes. God is sovereign and has the right to act as He pleases. What we can be sure of is that God is in control and He will accomplish His plans and purposes, even if they don’t make sense to us. As it says in Isaiah 55:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:8-11 (NIV)

                In addition to God’s sovereignty, we need to recognize God’s mercy and grace. If God were to exercise His righteous judgment on the earth, none of us would survive. We all are sinners and deserve God’s wrath. But because of His grace and mercy, shown to us through Jesus Christ, we have been saved from God’s wrath. God is currently withholding His judgment so that more people might have the chance to turn toward Him and be saved. As it says in 2 Peter 3:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
2 Peter 3:8-10 (NIV)

                There is a day coming when God’s justice will be exercised in full. All of the wickedness of the world will be accounted for. Every person will have to give an account of their life. Those who have placed their faith in Christ will be pardoned. Those who have rejected Christ will face judgment. But that is sometime in the future. What about the present?

                Although it is hard for us to see, God’s judgment is at work even right now, albeit on a restrained scale. What we see is only the surface of life. We don’t see all that is really going on. Although God’s final judgment means total destruction of sin, evil, and wickedness, God is allowing people who choose that path to face the immediate consequences of their sin. Paul makes this clear in Romans 1.

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
Romans 1:18-32 (NIV)

                Although it may look on the surface like the wicked are getting away with their rebellion, the reality is very different. Even now they are paying a high price for their sinfulness. God is allowing them to face the consequences of their choices. They are facing broken relationships, which leads to loneliness and isolation. Because of these broken relationships, their hearts become hard, so that they cannot experience the love they so desperately desire. God allows them to degrade themselves with temporary pleasures that can never really satisfy them. Sometimes this leads to physical consequences in the form of poor health. But it also leads to greater dissatisfaction and an insatiable need for more and more. Another consequence of unrestrained sin is the breakdown of social and family structures. Care for others is replaced with an obsession with self. Relationships meant to nurture and support a person are damaged and often forfeited. Ultimately, a life lived without God leads to hopelessness, despair, meaninglessness, and futility. The book of Ecclesiastes makes this abundantly clear. Without God in a person’s life everything, everything, is meaningless.

                So how should we respond? What is the answer to the pain and suffering in our world? The answer is to turn our eyes toward Christ and away from the injustice of the world. We should grieve for the injustice in our world, but not as those who have no hope. Our hope is in the overwhelming, redeeming love of Christ. We need to intentionally steal ourselves against the despair that Satan wants to drag us into. Instead, we need to patiently wait for the Lord, for He is faithful and He will act. We also need to do our part to deal with the evil in the world by demonstrating a better way to live. Instead of standing on the sidelines condemning others, we need to be taking the lead to show a better way. And above all else, we need to place our hope and our trust in God. The Psalmist was not afraid to bring his complaint before the Lord, but in the end, he renewed his trust in the sovereignty of God. So must we.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)