Isaiah 11
Oh, we think we’re so smart. We think we’re so enlightened. We look back at what people did in other times and other places and other cultures, and we judge, judge, judge. We’ve come a long way, baby. We would never act so ignorant and unrefined. We are educated and enlightened and politically correct. We look at the world around us, and we know what’s going on. We’ve got the 411.
Ecclesiastes 8
In this chapter, Solomon continues his theme that life isn’t fair: “There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.” (vs 14-15)
Psalm 37
Do you remember the Occupy Wall Street movement? If it seems like a distant memory, that might be because it happened nearly 10 years ago now, and there have been a lot of news cycles since then! But for a time, in 2011, the Occupy movement was just about the only thing people were talking about.
People were angry. They were upset and frustrated about the dismal state of the U.S. (and global) economy and the bankers and big corporations who contributed to the financial mess of those times. Calling themselves the “ninety-nine percent,” they accused the “one percent” of greed and corruption, claiming that they had unjustly and unfairly enriched themselves at the expense of others.
2 Chronicles 19
I was recently having a conversation with friends about justice. Particularly about our "justice" system and whether it correlates to God’s definition of justice. I don’t believe so, and I’ll tell you why. In this world, we are typically limited to a style of "justice" that is more retributive than anything else. For instance, if one person murders another, the only option available to us is to inflict some sort of punishment on the perpetrator for their wrongdoing—whether that be prison time or even sentencing them to death.
2 SAMUEL 11
Sometimes, Bible chapters seem scant on the information they provide about God. However, there is a very clear statement about God at the end of 2 Samuel 11. After David’s affair with Bathsheba and the ensuing cover-up (which included the premeditated murder of Uriah), the chapter ends with this declaration: "The thing David had done displeased the Lord." (vs 27)
2 SAMUEL 3
Sometimes it’s difficult to make a statement about God from a chapter in the Bible that doesn’t really mention God at all. However, in this particular chapter, one of the small (and often overlooked) events really stood out to me, and I realized it was a great opportunity to draw a contrast between our type of "justice" and God’s justice.
GENESIS 31
In this chapter, Jacob complains that Laban has changed his wages ten times. "However," Jacob said, "God has not allowed him to harm me. If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks gave birth to speckled young; and if he said, 'The streaked ones will be your wages,' then all the flocks bore streaked young." (vs 7-8)
