do you only love the ones who look like you

Where is God in the night sky?

Where is God in the city light?

Where is God in the earthquake?

Where is God in the genocide?

-“Vise Versus” by Switchfoot

If God is love why do people suffer unjustly? Why do the wicked get away with as much as they do? Why doesn’t God punish them with bolts of lightning or something even worse like making the earth eat them alive like he did in the Old Testament? The question comes up in almost everything. I’ve been reading Job off and on for the last two months and this question comes up in Zophar’s final speech as he tells Job that he [Job] must be wicked because of the ‘punishment’ God has afflicted on him. In Job 20:4-5, Zophar exclaims “Do you not know this of old, since man was placed on earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment?” and in the next chapter Job replies “How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their destruction come upon them, the sorrow God distributes in His anger?” (Job 21:17). Job’s question is one that is commonly relatable I think. How are we supposed to have peace in God in our world where parents in Thailand think nothing of selling their 13 year old daughters into prostitution so they can afford to buy color televisions for the sole purpose of fitting in with neighbors? How about people like Joseph Kony turning young African children into monster soldiers? I’m sure everyone can come up with at least two examples of something that is obviously not right in our world, some might even go as far as to say “everything”.

Are there complete answers to these questions? Some people would say that we can never know the answers because our poor little puny brains can’t take all the divine wisdom that went into making the universe, which could be slightly true, but seriously . . . that seems like an excuse to walk on without examining things closely—therefore giving us the label as “blind” and “unscientific”. No, we can’t know EVERYTHING (like we don’t know the hour Jesus will come back) but if we develop our God-given brain cells by thinking critically about our world and the issues of life (like why bad people live the longest and never seem to get punished) we could at least come to a better understanding of what we DON’T know instead of walking on nonchalantly painting flowers in soft pastel colors.

I think there are a few answers to be found for why the wicked “prosper”. The first and foremost being that “[t]he Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). I think the reality of the matter is that God is so much more loving than we are—He wants people like Joseph Kony and terrorist groups who kill American and Iraqi troops to come to repentance. He cares about them as much as He cares about anyone else—“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and then “[t]hey lie down alike in dust, and worms cover them” (Job 21:26). I have a hard time stomaching the idea that God can love a person who maims little children for life by slashing their faces with machetes, but then who am I to “. . . teach God knowledge, since He judges those on high” (Job 21:22)?

Also, I think there is a sense of divine comedy as Jon Foreman wrote, “[i]s this fiction or divine comedy? Where the last of the last finish first—living is simple”. Perhaps the greatest irony of all time—if anyone wants to be great they must be the servant of all (Luke 22:27). I think God planned it this way to keep His followers humble. So because of these seemingly reverse rules of life, the righteous (like Job and Lazarus in the parable) suffer in sackcloth and ashes and the Rich Man eats and drinks . . . and yes one day they always die. It would be very easy to say “A-ha! They finally get what they deserved along!” when the wicked finally do die, but I think we need to be constantly reminded that God still loved them to the bitter end—even though they rejected Him—and if we call ourselves His disciples, we too must love the cruel men who think nothing of taking a 15-year-old’s virginity away from her for the sake of supposed self enrichment. We must, when thinking about these people, bring into account the thought-provocative question “do you only love the ones who look like you”? When we look around us and see all that is wrong, we must remember that we are part of a story—a story that is written by all the choices we make—that does have an end, and judgment shall come.