“For when Your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness.” This second half of Isaiah 26:9 comes to mind repeatedly. The first part of the verse reads: “With my soul have I desired You in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek You early…” The prophet’s theme of Trust in the Justice of God begins in verse 3, which most of us know well: “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed in place because he trusts in You.”
I suspect that it’s a theme in many minds of late. Not only the minds of Christians, who believe that “whatever you sow you shall reap”, but also in those of non-Christians who say: “What goes around comes around.” Pagans of old believed that a god named Nemesis caught up with evildoers sooner or later, likely when least expected (Acts 28:4). Justice requires Judgement.
The verse came to me again when two brothers in the USA were sacked: one from the high office of Governor of New York State, the other from his role as a high-profile commentator on CNN. Who would have thought either possible – much less both? The thought came again when an actor who imitated, mocked and scorned US President Donald Trump during his term in office, found himself having to answer how a pistol held by him thought to contain blanks shot dead the director on the set of a movie in which he was acting.
These events await legal and other outcomes. But what if God’s judgements are taking place all around us, but our trust is that they will take place in the future, at a time known only to God? If this is so, and I suspect that it is, our trust that God’s justice will be ultimate, not immediate, makes it harder for us to answer the question most asked by non-believers, which is: “Where is God when all these injustices take place, day after day, on earth?”
The murder of the innocent by out-of-control crazies. The deceptions and outright lies of politicians. The unjust decisions made by magistrates who appear unwilling to uphold the laws of the land. The list is long.
We look forward to The Great Judgement and the exposures that will shame forever those who answered to God for sins committed during their lifetime on earth. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” He will, of course. But will He not do so to some degree now, as well as then? Might he, in fact, be deciding verdicts, issuing penalties, and making judgements of which we are unaware?
What if the onus is on us for these things to take place sooner? Are we waiting for and expecting God’s judgements, as Isaiah the prophet and his people were? (Isaiah 26:8) Are we desiring Him in the night and early morning, as did the people and the prophet? Few things in life are “all up to God” – most are, in fact, up to us. Not least the injustices we can put right in our own family and among our own friends; the rest we can leave to God.
As for those things that need to be put right but we cannot see how, and can only wonder when they will be: maybe it’s time to see them as taking place around us, every day, in the rise of those who are willing to do right, and in the fall of those who can only do wrong. God can save the USA, Australia, the United Kingdom, but will He? Well, how do we know that He is not doing so every day — it’s just that we are not seeing it? (1 Chronicles 16;14) But His Judgements will fully and finally be seen when every person who ever lived is called to answer for what they did or failed to do during their lifetime.
Until then, I will continue to pray that God’s judgements will be seen on earth in ways so visible, so unanswerable, that many more will turn from their evil ways and to the ever-waiting Jesus for God’s forgiveness.