SCRIPTURE: Job 21
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
When I think about what I am saying, I shudder. My body trembles. Why do the wicked prosper, growing old and powerful? They live to see their children grow up and settle down, and they enjoy their grandchildren. Their homes are safe from every fear, and God does not punish them. [Job 21:6-9]
This is one of life’s hardest questions – why does it seem that bad people prosper?
Job knows that he is questioning the all-wise, all-powerful God of the Universe – he shudders as he does so – but he still brings his complaint to God.
The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ ‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. “‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’ [Matthew 13:27-30]
Jesus gives a clue to the answer behind this difficult question in one of His kingdom parables.
When Jesus talks about the kingdom of God, He is talking about how God is at work rebuilding creation paradise, the world He originally created and that we messed up.
Through Jesus, He is in the process of making things right, of restoring order and justice and love and truth.
But according to this parable, He does this carefully, allowing the “good” and the “bad” to grow together until the end.
That means the “bad” will affect the “good”, and the “good” will affect the bad.
But it also means that the “good” will suffer in part because of the “bad” which is permitted to grow for a season.
Notice why, according to Jesus, the “bad” is permitted to grow for a season – it will uproot the wheat!
Somehow it is in our best interest that the “bad” not be eliminated right away.
Why is this? Not sure I can answer this completely, but here is one thought – the wheat is so entwined with the weeds that the wheat would end up being punished too.
Or put another way, if God simply punished all the “bad” stuff, we would also be punished.
It is God’s mercy that prevents Him from simply, immediately punishing the “bad” – because we would be punished too.
It is God’s love that He allows His rain to fall on the good and the bad, so that everyone has a chance to repent.
In this season of growth, where the wheat and the weeds grows side by side in each of us, God is constantly at work to rescue us, to help us, to forgive us, to prepare us for the harvest day.
Does this settle life’s hardest question for us, does it satisfy our need to know why bad people prosper?
Not likely, but it does give us something to hang on to, a reason to not give up when everything is falling apart.
What are the options:
- God is good and there is a reason (Jesus’ answer)
- God is cruel and we just need to accept it
- There is no God, no reason, no justice
I choose Jesus’ answer!
PRAYER:
Lord, I hate the suffering and evil that goes on in this world, and I wish it would stop. But I also trust that what You are doing is for the best, so I cling to You through the mess. I trust that You are good, and that there is a reason!