Life’s unfair…
Kids come home from school and talk about their day:
“The teacher said...and that’s not fair.”
“My friend…and that’s not fair.”
“It rained again; it’s just not fair.”
After supper mom and dad discuss their day:
“The boss told us...and that’s not fair.”
“I can’t believe what happened to…; that’s just not fair.
“Did you hear what’s happening overseas? That’s really unfair.”
I’m not saying that people complain all the time (though some do). Rather, I think we spend a lot of time thinking about and talking about and wringing our hands about the many inequities of life, that is, the stuff that’s not fair.
The Psalmist often cried out to God because of the inequities of life. Yet, he concluded that God was his strength. He said that he “will wait upon the Lord.”
What does that mean, to wait upon the Lord?
In short, it means that a person is willing to endure the inequities of life and allow God to straighten everything out later. To wait upon the Lord means that, while the inequities in life are real, I will trust that God is also aware. I will be content to allow God to take action in His time as He sees fit.
So, is that really fair? Is God being fair?
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. —Romans 12:19
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. —Romans 12:21
The simple idea is that God understands that life is not fair and He promises to deal with the inequities of life. We just need to be patient… because...
The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. —2 Peter 3:9
From the opening pages of the Bible mankind has opposed God by declaring his selfish independence. The flood at the time of Noah dramatically shows what man deserves because of his arrogance: death. So, the question we should be asking is, “Why has God allowed us to live!?” The passage above answers.
The justice of God demands payment for sin; the justice of God demands death. Yet the love of God demands forgiveness, fellowship...life.
God will allow the guilty to live, but only if someone dies in their place, but who? Each person must bear his/her own guilt for sin. So, who is there to take my place, to take your place? The answer: Only someone who is sinless; someone who has no sin debt.
The prophet Isaiah wrote of the future Christ saying that God would be satisfied with his sacrifice. He went on to say that “He will bear their iniquity.” (53:11) Jesus, the Christ, was the satisfactory sacrifice for you and me because he was sinless. That’s not fair that he took my place and your place, but it is just! It satisfied the debt requirement for sin.
Is life fair??? No; you are still alive.
Is life full of inequities??? Yes, but God is patient...are you?
It is as if God said to Moses, “I AM who I am...I am just.” And he did…
The LORD God...who will by no means leave the guilty unpunished…. —Exodus 34:7
How big is your God?
How big is your sin?
Is your God bigger than your sin...or the other way around?
Is there something in your past, something that you can't seem to shake? Is there something you have done wrong and the memory comes back to haunt you from time to time?
Perhaps you hurt someone in such a way that you cannot forgive yourself. Whenever you think of that person, you remember what you did and the guilt feelings rush back.
Perhaps it is something you did that someone witnessed (or you think they witnessed). When you are around that person, the memory returns. You wonder what they think of you, but you are afraid to bring it up in conversation. You know what you think of yourself. The guilt hangs over you.
Do you have some sort of sin that will just not go away? (Some call it a vice or an addiction.) It is your weakness and you know it. You wish you could shake it, but you cannot. Stubborn 'will power' is not enough. You fall once again and guilt washes in all over again...and then again...and again.
Have you ever gotten angry with God? Not everyone has, but some people shout back at God when things go badly. Some even refuse God or rebel against him. Have you? Have you ever shaken your fist at God and in your heart walked away for a time? Coming back to God is hard, so very hard. You think, "How can He accept me back?"
Can He; will He?
Did you know that forgiveness is part of the character of God? It is His nature to forgive, and what will he forgive?
Speaking about Himself, God said that He forgives: sin, iniquity, and transgression. These are three different words in the Hebrew Old Testament, each describing a different way in which a person can sin.
Their precise meanings might be illustrated by imagining a person who is walking along the right moral path toward good.
- Sin misses the goal, perhaps by wandering aimlessly, perhaps by distraction. To 'sin' is to fail or come short of the goal. God forgives sin.
- Iniquity
distorts the path by bending or twisting the right path and ultimately not
achieving the goal. 'Iniquity' includes different ways in which a person rationalizes wrong or renames wrong as if it is right. God forgives iniquity.
- Transgression
is an abrupt breaking off of the path. It comes with the conscious intent to leave the path; rebellion. God forgives transgression.
You see, God forgives all kinds of sin regardless of the way in which a person sins. So, there is NO WAY OUT...You cannot possibly think that God cannot forgive your sins. As a result, there is true hope for everybody!
Now, someone reading this is dying to interject: "Don't forget to tell folks that they must repent!"
That is correct, but just calm down; this is not about US. This is about God and His forgiveness. It is about Him and His divine character.
Here's the point. God does not have to 'try' to forgive. Forgiveness is not 'second' nature. He does not have to wrestle with the reality of your sin and how repulsive it is and then make himself forgive by force of will. God forgives because it is his nature to forgive. It is just the way He is.
It is as if God said to Moses, "I AM who I am...I AM a forgiver."
He did.
The Lord God...who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin....--Exodus 34:7
Our God...greater than our sin!!!
Eyes squint. Jaws clench. Fists tighten. Nostrils flare upon inhale.
You've seen it...ANGER!
(Expect fire upon exhale.)
If you have ever made someone angry, very angry, and that was not your intention, what a relief it was when they slowly exhaled and began to relax their fists...jaw...eyes: Self-control.
Better yet is the person who demonstrates self-control before the anger begins. They do not flare up quickly. They do not have to cool down; they never heat up in anger! The circumstances could have made the person angry, but the anger was controlled at the very beginning. Slow to anger.
Imagine yourself among a small group of friends. Everyone is asked to list a few words or phrases related to 'love.' Surely someone writes compassion; also grace and kindness. Would anyone write down, 'slow to anger'?
When God passed in front of Moses and verbally identified himself, the first few attributes expressed different facets of God's love.
The LORD, the LORD God,compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.
--Exodus 34:6
- Compassion is an expression of God's love as He withholds anger and rejection that are truly justified.
- Grace is an expression of God's love as He generously gives when it is completely undeserved.
- Lovingkindness is an expression of God's love as He makes promises simply because he loves, and with that same love is loyal in keeping His promises.
[Read more on these expressions of love...Compassion, Grace, Lovingkindness]
Right in middle of these love expressions is the attribute, 'slow to anger.' I cannot help but think that slow to anger is yet another expression of God's love.
Worded slightly differently, the expression slow to anger describes God as one who takes a long time in becoming angry; an anger procrastinator. It reminds me a number of older people I have known; people who have experienced life and understand human nature. They know something about human weakness; they understand the human dilemma. They recognize the brevity of life and know the things in life that are of value, true value. They know the futility of anger and its destructive end.
They are not unconcerned or uncaring, they simply know how to live without acting impulsively or overreacting to life's circumstances.
Isn't that a loving characteristic? Isn't it an act of love when a person does not become angry quickly? Isn't it a sign of love when a person does not lose his or her temper? We might not always 'see' the absence of impulsive anger, and as a result might not recognize the love that is there. However, it is an expression of love and it is an attribute of God.
God does not 'try' to take a long time in becoming angry. It is not his 'second' nature. It is not by force of will or internal fortitude that God wrestles with himself and overcomes the impulsive flare-up of anger. It is by nature that God takes a long time in becoming angry. It is just the way he is.
It is as if God had said to Moses, "I AM who I am . . . I AM slow in becoming angry."
Oh wait...He did!
The LORD God...slow to anger....
--Exodus 34:6
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness....
--Psalm 51:1
What is lovingkindness?
It sounds sweet, but what does it really mean?
You can separate the compound word into two words, loving + kindness, and get an idea. However, the full meaning is masked by translation and ancient usage. The English language really does not have a good word to translate the full meaning of the simple Hebrew term: chesed. (Sounds like KEH-sed.)
Different translations of the Bible use terms such as kindness, lovingkindness, mercy, steadfast love, enduring love, and others to express the meaning of chesed.
Many writers have described chesed as 'covenant love.' It is true that chesed often appears in the context of a covenant. However, one Hebrew scholar has accurately observed that chesed is not tied to the covenant, rather, the covenant is tied to chesed.
The picture painted by the term chesed is that of a deep love that would motivate someone to make a covenant promise to another. Once the promise is made, the covenant promise acts as a reminder of the original love. More specifically, God's lovingkindness [chesed] moved him to make a covenant promise with man, and it also described his loyalty to that covenant promise. He will never forget a covenant promise that He has made. He will not leave it unfulfilled.
After King David had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband killed to cover up his sin, he was confronted by the prophet Nathan. David confessed his sin and prayed to God for forgiveness by appealing to God's lovingkindness. [Read this in Psalm 51.]
David understood that there was no sacrifice that he could offer to take his sin away. According to the justice of the Law of Moses, there was no forgiveness. So, he appealed to God's chesed. He was not trying to back God into a corner as if to force God's loyalty to His covenant promise. Rather, David was crying out in desperation for God to love him with the same love that moved Him to make the covenant promise in the first place.
David appealed to the very nature of God. He recognized the enduring love of God that had moved Him to make promises to his forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to the nation Israel. David appealed to the divine kindness of God that would motivate him to initiate a covenant promise. David's appeal was that God would continue his steadfast love toward him because He had already loved him.
Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness [chesed]....
--Psalm 51:1
God does not try to love [chesed]. It is not his 'second' nature. He does not analyze and synthesize a situation, wrestle with his will, and then finally decide to love. It is his nature, his identity. It is just who he is.
It is as if God had said to Moses, "I AM who I am...I am chesed."
Oh, wait...He did!
The LORD God...abounding in lovingkindness [chesed]....
--Exodus 24:6
Have you ever had an occasion in which you were so happy that you wanted to celebrate? You received a promotion or a bonus at work, or a new child was born into the family, or very difficult circumstances were resolved. You wanted to celebrate and share your happiness with friends. So...YOU threw the party. YOU bought the meals. YOU provided for friends and family because you had received a special gift.
That kind of giving is an illustration of grace, and few shine brighter than King David of ancient Israel.
King David desired to build a more permanent temple for God that would replace the portable tabernacle that had been made at the time of Moses. The prophet Nathan gave him the 'go ahead' to proceed with his plans. However, at God's instruction Nathan quickly returned to tell David that as a warrior he had too much blood on his hands. He would not build a temple for God, instead, the temple would be built by his son Solomon.
Nathan continued with God's message to David, a prophecy and a promise:
Your house and your kingdom
shall endure before Me forever;
Your throne shall be established forever.
--2 Samuel 7:16
Though David may have felt a little sad over not being the builder of God's temple, he understood the magnitude of the promise. In response to God's gracious promise, David searched for someone on whom he could show grace. He found Mephibosheth, the crippled son of his dear deceased friend Jonathan.
David brought Mephibosheth to his palace in Jerusalem, restored his family's land to him, and invited him eat daily at the king's table. Mephibosheth recognized his inability to offer anything in return and referred to himself descriptively as a 'dead dog.' Yet David was delighted to offer his gift of kindness. (Read about Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9.)
In a figurative way every Christian is a Mephibosheth before the King of heaven. In reality, as sinful creatures we are nothing but 'dead dogs' before God, useless and undeserving.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
--Ephesians 2:4-8
God does not try to be gracious. It is not 'second' nature to him. It is not a battle of the inner will in which grace wins out over something else. God is, in himself, by nature, full of grace. It is as if God could have said to Moses, "I AM who I am, I am grace."
Oh, wait . . . He did.
The LORD God . . . gracious....
--Exodus 34:6
