How do we apply divine justice to the events in our world? What shall we say when someone asks us, “Ain’t that awful?” Your only concern is what God calls you to do.
Recall that Our Lord consistently portrays Himself as an eastern sheikh. In Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) feudal custom, the sheikh is the law. Our Lord did not simply spin off some body of moral principle to which we can refer at our convenience. All justice is weighed and meted out in His Presence. Keep in mind that He depicts Himself as just passing through, living in a tent.
Granted, a part of the symbolism is that you and I are tents that fold quickly when the Lord is finished with us here. However, there is a much broader sense that He doesn’t have the same strong attachment to this plane of existence that most humans do. This universe is just a hobby to Him. While He takes seriously His commitment to us who make Him Lord in our lives, we will most assuredly outlive this universe.
So would you imagine it matters much to Him that the US-Israeli crypto-army called ISIS might have destroyed the reconstructed ancient temples in Palmyra, Syria? Keep in mind that this is the same God that routinely wipes out whole civilizations as a normal part of His operations on this planet. The Tower of Babel? It was never finished. The Exodus? Egypt took a long time to recover. Atlantis? Not even mentioned and the Bible and we don’t really know where it was. The Library of Alexandria? Swamped in a tsunami. What men call sacred relics of the past, God sweeps away on a mere whim and regrets nothing.
Perhaps I’m not the only one who has seen Westernized preachers squirm when trying to explain Romans 9.
What shall we say then? Is there not unrighteousness with God? Let it not be! For He said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” So then it is not of the one willing, nor of the one running, but of God, the One showing mercy… You will then say to me, “Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will?” No, but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me this way?” (vv. 14-16, 19-20)
It is just barely possible that, if you were to study the ANE culture and intellectual traditions, then you might be able comprehend the Law Covenants of the Bible well enough to predict how God might rule in most situations. But if all you have is your cognition for this task, you’d get it wrong often enough to shake your confidence. However, if you can engage the wisdom of your heart, that passage in Romans is no problem at all.
In case you forgot, Jesus told one disciple not to concern himself with the fate of another disciple, but to focus on his own efforts to follow the Lord. God did make His justice as clear as it could be made in His Son, who also brings in His wake a substantial sacred literature to help with some context. However, you cannot really know a person if your heart is not activated to discern the full implications of their moral character as compared and contrasted with God’s.
Justice is always personal. You alone stand before God, though it may well be as a fellow-heir with Christ. But the issue will be justice between you and God, not some objective judicial principle that is easily applied to others. The only things you rightly bring to His attention are those things He has placed in your hands.
At any rate, you can blame any destruction by ISIS on the US and Israeli governments. That’s the moral essence of such issues when you stand before God. Sure, you can intercede on behalf of the victims, but you should have been doing that since before ISIS arose from its CIA training camps. And if you care enough to seek His face to save some of the relics of the ancient past, know that He may well have rather firm plans to the contrary. If that stuff matters for His own glory, it will stand. Otherwise, no man can save it.
Take a look at what is reported in the news as some kind of tragedy. Make sure you strive to grasp the whole context and realize that God has shown a casual contempt for a lot of things that make humans weep. They have no clue what really matters — His glory. Be ready to shed anything at His whim.
The starting point is that we all deserve a short miserable life, a lingering painful death and eternity in Hell. That is what Scripture says is our default situation since the Fall. Anything better than that is pure mercy and grace, so make amends as soon as you can. His justice makes room for a direct appeal and He most certainly does play favorites.
