When things are not going well that’s almost exclusively a matter of our personal perspective.
Whatever your difficulties are in life, even suffering and persecution, we would tend to categorized as unjust. We all have an innate sense of justice, though it may be quite tainted being brainwashed by a worldly perspectives.
For a circumstance to be deemed unjust suggests there is an ultimate right or wrong, otherwise why should anything be considered right or wrong?
With moral relativism, it’s easy to see how only the survivors or the more “powerful” make the rules. That doesn’t necessarily lead to much contentment, nor does that necessarily lead to the truth.
Alternatively, when people trust in an absolute truth, that absolute truth will at some point be put to the test. Often times a people will unite behind a moral relativism that is that is accepted as an absolute truth.
As tragic as it sounds, most people will not be able to discover their error in their assessment of the truth until they stand before God in judgment.
But for those who understand the nature of a good and sovereign God, develop perspective on all things, even especially diversities in life. Trials in a believer’s life work for the ultimate good of those who must suffer, when in their weaknesses they allow God.s strengths to work.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28
When circumstances are chaotic and suffering is paramount, knowledge and understanding of eternal truth (wisdom) and the nature of a good God become invaluable.
None of this is possible unless one trusts God and trusts His word in order to gain insight from it. The nature of the true and living God and the reason this offers the best solution and only eternal solution, is because God’s attributes and promises are stated clearly in the Bible and the Bible is able to argue for itself. As a believer, through genuine humulity, the truth is revealed, God is found to be trustworthy and therefore trustworthy in all circumstances.
This is where the reality of God’s sovereignity is applied to powerful effect. If God is good and does everything for the ultimate benefit of the believer, then God who controls the outcomes of even the most dire circumstances (i.e. Joseph, almost murdered, abandoned to slave traders, or the judgment and exile of the Israelites into the Assyrian and Babylon empires, the struggles of the Apostle Paul and many other historical examples). This reality, taken to heart along with other truths about God and about a believer’s life, will bring Godly peace in an unGodly world.
The truth is anchored in Jesus Christ, the foundation of our redeemed relationship with God.
Once God blesses you through faith, then by the Holy Spirit guiding through the minefield of cynicism and unbelief, the truth then explodes into your once clouded conscience like unclogging a sewer drain of your self-righteous ego. Your heart begins to transform by the power of the Holy Spirit. Truth and Peace because of the Truth in God’s goodness becomes real.
When there appears to be no justice
My thoughts often go back to an acquaintance I met at a network marketing meeting back in around 2014. He was told me about a whole central american village community that was massacred by the local armed death squads. Especially since these villagers were God fearing Christians or Catholics, he could not reconcile the suffering with a good God. He could, like most people, not see any justice of such abject suffering.
Not everyone has a clear-eyed view of eternity and the temporary nature of this life whether one dies at 20 or 120.
His anecdote was in response to my quoting of the personal development teacher Jim Rohn who loosely based some of his teachings on Scripture. “If you draw close to God, God will draw close to you.” (paraphrasing). My acquaintance responded that he did not believe that was true and then proceeded to tell me his story about the massacre.
The actual passage is from James:
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. – James 4:7-9.(Italics added for emphasis). There are other passages that convey a similar meaning.
Suffering and tragedy are some of the toughest realities humans must confront. Sometimes they demolish a person’s state of mind and their life. The answers in the Bible are still difficult but they are built upon God’s promises and eternal truths. Such Books and Job and Habbakuk deal directly with human suffering on both an individual level and a national level. In both Books is God’s glory and soveignty highlighted and the critical role faith has in the life of a believer, especially those who suffer.
Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, offers another perspective over suffering and that is the kind that is direct result of a chosen people, with miracles, prophetic authentication, and divine miraculous deliverance in their history, punctuated by traditions of remembrance, who, over time seriously succumb to sin, are not trusting in the blessings of God, although God’s sovereign will and common grace has been and continues to be exhibited.
Furthermore, the ancient Israelites as a people, who otherwise were as apt to roll in the gutter as much as the regional child sacrificing, sexually immoral and idolatrous pagans, instead of being wiped out, God preserved as His chosen people through a faithful and God fearing remnant.
Through God’s chosen people would come the promised Savior.
With a history of promises, judgment and deliverances, in very clear contexts of a people who are either turning towards or turning away from God, God’s word stood clear. In His long suffering, God continues to woo a disobedient, self-absorbed, self-righteous and defiant humanity, with the glorious and personal invitation to Try Him.
“Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty. – Malachi 3:7b
Most importantly, in the short by powerful Book of Malachi, God’s prophet foresees the coming of John the Baptist who prepares the arrival of the Messiah in His First Coming:
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. – Malachi 3:1
This is followed a chapter later by the prophetic vision of Lord’s Second Coming when the return of Elijah will be a sign of the imminent Day of the Lord:
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” – Malachi 4:5
Following Malachi’s there were no prophets and after about 400 years, John the Baptist, began his ministry of preparing the way for Jesus. The Lord’s Second Coming is yet to come.
The Sovereign Will of God is very much at work.
16 Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
17 “On the day when I act,” says the Lord Almighty, “they will be my treasured possession. I will spare them, just as a father has compassion and spares his son who serves him. 18 And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not. – Malachi 3:16-18
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel from the late Pastor John MacArthur, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
All quoted excerpts have footnotes removed, usually from Legacy Standard Bible (LSB), sometimes from New International Version (NIV), on rare occasion the Amplified Bible (AMP).
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6-16-24