16 And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
17 I thought in my heart,
“God will bring to judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time for every deed.”
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time for every deed.”
18 I also thought, “As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. 21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?
As long as we are on earth we will not truly see justice done, because the people that are in the place of justice (judges, lawyers, police, etc) are all fallible humans. Sometimes the injustice is purely accidental simply because they're human, and sometimes it's intentional because they have evil intent.
The funny thing is that it's only when we've been wronged (or someone we love has been wronged) that we long for justice. When we're the ones that have done wrong, we want mercy.
Thankfully, our God is a God of justice and mercy, and there will come a time when He will judge everyone on the earth. Unfortunately, we don't see that until our death and so we remain frustrated by the lack of justice on the earth.
We are, obviously, much different than animals when it comes to our souls, our ability to have a relationship with God, and we rule over them as directed by God. But when it comes to our sin, sometimes we are a lot like them (in fact, we sometimes even refer to people acting like animals), and we will die just like they will. And, from a purely physical perspective, our lot is the same as that of the animals. We die and return to the dust of the earth. And what happens next is just a guess - none of us knows exactly what happens outside of our physical lives on earth because none of us has experienced it. Nobody has been dead for days and then come back to tell us what it's like. Except Jesus. He has told us what will happen at our deaths and we have only two choices - to believe Him and live our lives based on faith in Him, or to guess and live our lives based on a guess.
Jesus is the only One who knows what awaits us at the moment of our death.
Mark Driscoll.....
And he has told me that he’s my God. He’s told me that he is my judge. And he has told me that he is just and he has the authority to execute the necessary punishment to bring about justice for me. Not only that, he took it upon himself. And he invited me to himself. And he loved me. And he forgave me. And he redeemed me. And he healed me. And he showed me what my future is. My future’s not death. My future’s eternal life.
Tomorrow's scripture focus: Ecclesiastes 4:1-7
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