This morning’s newspaper headline shouts that a teenager on meth kills a young father with his car and gets eight months for his crime. In another section, the news tells of a man who commits major financial fraud and is put away for several years. Comparing the two puts a knot in my gut. Where is justice?
Today’s Scripture reading brings up a related and huge question. Are all the bad things that happen in the world controlled by a sovereign God who has His reasons for them? Or are they simply a result of sinful man doing his thing and God does not interfere?
2 Samuel 21 starts out with, “During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, ‘It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.’”
Israel had made a covenant to protect the Gibeonites but the previous king tried to kill them. Because of this, God tells David why He held back blessing from the entire nation. Then David makes an effort to put things right and restore the good fortunes of his country.
The New Testament says that what happened in the Old Testament instructs Christians. God’s relationship with Israel shows the church what He is like and what He wants from us. Yet, He calls us the ‘new’ Israel, and as God’s people under the New Covenant of grace (vs. law), His blessing is ours because of Christ, not because of what we do or fail to do.
However, He still disciplines us. He disciplines me as an individual. My sin has consequences that affect me and others. Could my sin affect even the whole church? Or my country? In other words, would God withhold blessing from Canada, or my city, or my church, or family, if I held on to a sin and refused to obey Him?
The grace and mercy of God have led some people to think they can do bad things because “God will forgive me.” They also say things like, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” With attitudes like this, I’m thinking it is little wonder that Christians are often accused of hypocrisy. Yet we are not the only ones who think this way. The rest of the world seems to be coming loose from any sense of right and wrong.
Further, the church seems so powerless against the tide of evil that is sweeping through our world. I’m thinking that maybe my sins do not cause all the bad things that happen, but they certainly prevent me from doing anything to stop them or to make things right.
David was a godly king who had clout. He could right a major wrong because of his position. When I read the newspaper, I feel sad and angered by the prevalence of crime and a huge lack of justice. I’d like to be a godly king with the power to change laws, beef up the system, do something about lawlessness, but I’m not. What can I do?
Then I remember another Old Testament verse and think, if 2 Samuel 1 has some application to our world today, then so does this one from 2 Chronicles. It says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
It’s time that the church wakes up, that I wake up. In the power of God, good people can make a difference, but we cannot take for granted that living any old way has no effect. I cannot even criticize a world-gone-nuts, never mind change it, unless I’m totally in step with God.
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