When, O Lord, when?

“Then I said to myself, “As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me.  Why then have I been extremely wise?”  So I said to myself, “This too is vanity.” Ecclesiastes 2:15

Vanity – Hebel, the same word used to talk about the futility of basing our existence on what we do, is used in this verse to shine the light of realism on the paradox of injustice in this world.  Victor Hamilton points out that this group of verses in Ecclesiastes questions the disconnect between righteousness and justice.  Evil men prosper while good men suffer.  The man who rejects God (the fool) goes to the grave exactly like the man who obeys God (the wise).  We all know the truth of the saying, “Do the right thing and get punished.”  Justice seems to be a fickle wind, a fleeting breath.  When, O Lord, will You set the scales right?

Biblical faith never glosses over the anomalies of life on earth.  Biblical faith is not about fairy tales where the good people win and the bad are punished.  The Bible’s observation of life on Planet Earth is that some things just don’t seem to add up.  Life is mysterious and some mysteries don’t seem so good.

How is hebel associated with justice?  If you build your identify on what’s fair, you are quite likely to be dismayed.  If you hold on to the belief that doing what’s right will bring reward, you are in for some heartache.  God doesn’t give us what we deserve (thank goodness) and the universe seems to follow suit.  Living on the basis of the balance sheet won’t bring you fulfillment either.  The emptiness that follows us in our work also shows up in the way we measure what’s fair.  What I deserve and what I get are too often quite far apart.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, realized that I must take life as it is, not as I want it to be.  God is still God even if I don’t see why He doesn’t do something about injustice.  I get to choose:  I can let God be God and carry out His agenda for me in spite of the personal results, or I can demand that life be fair and blame God when it is not.  It all depends on Who you serve.

Are you a servant who carries out the orders of the master even when you can’t see the plan and don’t like the results?