We are familiar with the troubling question: why do bad things happen to good people? It’s a perpetual problem. Every age has new books and discussions on it. Some interesting and helpful things are said, but the problem is never fully solved. God left it unsolved.
There is another problem, the flip side: what about when good things happen to bad people?
The Bible clearly teaches that there are rewards for righteousness and punishments for wickedness. This is found throughout the Bible, but perhaps most clearly and repeatedly stated in the book of Deuteronomy, where God was preparing the Israelites to enter the promised land, warning them against adopting the idols of Canaan and urging them to cling to the Lord.
Punishment for sin; rewards for righteousness–very clear, very understandable. And yet sometimes it doesn’t seem to work out that way. When we see wicked men seem to go from strength to strength, we wonder why God doesn’t put a stop to it.
There’s one biblical figure that comes to my mind here, though he is an obscure figure: King Jeroboam II of Israel. Though he was a king of Israel (the northern kingdom of Israel) for 41 years, longer than anyone else, the Bible doesn’t say much about him. His name is Jeroboam, but to distinguish him from a previous king of the same name, he is called Jeroboam II.
He, like all the kings of northern Israel, did evil: “In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel became king in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord…” (2 Kings 14:23-24).
None of the kings of Israel, Jeroboam included, had the moral fortitude to remove the national idols–the golden calves–that were worshipped in shrines in Bethel and Dan.
Some of Israel’s kings received the judgments for their sins fairly quickly. But Jeroboam did not. He reigned a long time and even got to preside over relative national prosperity. It turned out to be the last season of prosperity Israel would see but nevertheless Jeroboam got to enjoy it, though the prophets Hosea and Amos spoke against the evils and injustice that were happening at this time.
And yet this king was spared from judgment, or so it seems. Even more surprising: Jeroboam got to preside over the expansion of his nation’s territory (vs. 25) and was even used by God to save Israel (vs. 26). Undeserved good things came to this evil man.
We see it often enough today–the wicked prospering. Unbelievers go from riches to more riches, from strength to strength, seemingly with no downsides to their lives. We feel the unfairness of it and may get discouraged or depressed about the evil that is allowed to go on. We can’t know everything about this, but there are a few things we can say.
1. God will certainly judge wickedness; we don’t have to obsess on it.
Our knowledge that God will handle the justice should free us from the stress, worry, frustration and temptations to vigilantism. “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay’, says the Lord,” (Romans 12:19). Ultimate justice absolutely will be taken care of; we don’t have to concern ourselves with it. It’s God’s task. On the other hand our task is to “leave room” for it–quit stressing. Move on from thinking about it so much. ‘Leave room’ is a command. That means it is not automatic. It is something we are told to do because we probably wouldn’t normally do it. But we can obey the command knowing that God will make sure of the justice. It will happen: unrepented-for wickedness will be judged. The only question is when.
2. God will bring justice in His own time.
It may seem to take too long. But scripture reminds us that God’s timeline is different than ours and he has reasons for the apparent delay that we might not be considering. We see one of those reasons in 2 Peter 3:8-9: “…do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” While we are impatient for the wicked to get what they deserve, God other factors in play that we are not considering. As Peter mentions, the second coming of Jesus (which has aspects of judgment connected to it) is delayed to allow more time for people to repent.
People in New Testament days were getting impatient (yes even back then)–why hadn’t Jesus come back yet? Impatience was causing anxiety then, and so it does now.
The answer then and now is this: don’t be anxious. God will handle it in his own time.
3. We ourselves were the recipients of God’s patience.
When we are bothered by God’s seeming slow pace of bringing justice on the sins of others, we should think about our own past. God’s patience was a benefit to us. The time-delay gave us an opportunity to repent. We were treated better than our sins deserved. We should be glad that justice was not visited on us quickly.
Jeroboam, unless he did some repenting that we aren’t told about, got his justice in due time in the afterlife. And justice would come to all Israel very soon; things would go downhill quickly. Jeroboam’s reign was the last hurrah, after him there were no more good times, only shorter reigns of kings, assassinations, diminishment and finally the nation ending when the Assyrians invaded and carried the people away. God’s justice will come in its own time.
The delay between sin and judgment is a merciful chance to repent. I knew a man who had a serious heart attack–he was not old, maybe early forties. His life was spared but he knew he was on borrowed time; his heart had been 90% damaged and the doctors said it was certain he would die before long, and he did die. I presided over his funeral. During his borrowed time he got right with the Lord. He made good use of that last chance.
God’s mercy toward sinners…we should think twice before getting too impatient about it.