When God’s Way Doesn’t Look Fair from Our Side of the Fence

Well now, come ease yourself up onto that ol’ front porch settee right over there, friend, and make sure that you mind that flower basket sittin’ by your feet. An ol’ katydid is hollerin’ from the hedge like it’s the chairman of the county meetin’, and an ol’ gray plow horse down the road is standin’ there with the expression of somebody that has done reviewed life’s arrangements and found several of them mighty questionable. Truth be told, we’ve all had days just like that.

Sometimes life looks plum unfair. One person gets the blessin’ we prayed for. Another person seems to skip through trouble while our trouble sits right down beside us and unpacks a suitcase to be stayin’ for a while.

Israel looked at God’s dealin’s and declared, “That’s not fair.” But Ezekiel 18:29 turns the question around sayin’, “Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of the Lord is not fair.’ O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?” Could it be that God sho’-nuff’ sees somethin’ we don’t?

God’s justice is never careless, crooked, or confused. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “All his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

Ezekiel’s message plum wasn’t that every hardship is punishment. It was that God judges rightly, calls people to repentance, and offers mercy to those that turn to Him. In Ezekiel 18:32, God says, “Turn yourselves, and live ye.”

His justice and His mercy are not enemies. They meet in perfect holiness.

And when we can’t understand His ways, Abraham’s question in Genesis 18:25 still steadies the heart as it says, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Father, when life seems uneven, help me trust Your wisdom instead of judging You by what I can see. Search my heart, lead me in repentance, and teach me to rest in Your justice, mercy, and goodness. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Now gather your things together and mosey right on over toward the gate, friend. A lil’ ol’ kingfisher can git to fussin’ down at the creek all mornin’ and never change where the creek water is runin’. An ol’  mud turtle can git to glarin’ in anger at the sunshine and still not make the sun move even an inch. When life don’t add up from where you’re standin’, don’t confuse a limited view with an unjust God. Keep right on trustin’ the Judge of all the earth because He sho’nuff sees the whole picture of the field of our lives.

With joy,

Gwen