Why Does God Delay So Long in Bringing Justice?
by Paul Earnhart
via Biblical Insights, Vol. 14 No. 8, August 2014
In Ecclesiastes 8, the Preacher concludes his wise counsels and observations with the frequently repeated warning that, however great may be the wisdom of men, it can never penetrate and explain God’s work “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 8:16-17; cf. also Ecclesiastes 1:18; 3:11; 6:12; 7:23, 24; Job 5:8, 9; 26:14; Psalms 145:3; 147:5; Romans 11:33-36). God’s mind is infinite and His ways unsearchable. He is in heaven, and we are on the earth (Ecclesiastes 5:2), and “the secret things” still belong to Him alone (Deuteronomy 29:29). That is what we human beings need to know about the “unknowable.” There are things which are not for us to know (Acts 1:6-7).
But I want to take a brief excursus to address a subject raised in Ecclesiastes 8:11: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Solomon is not naive about the grave injustices with which the world under the sun is beset. He raises the issue frequently. In this verse, he ascribes much of human wickedness to the delay in punishment. It seems unlikely that Solomon is referring to the inaction of human rulers, since they are typically seen as unconcerned about doing what is just (Ecclesiastes 8:3-4). It seems far more probable that the reference is to God’s delay in punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous (Ecclesiastes 7:15; 8:14). It is an age-old question (cf. Job 21:7-15; Psalms 10:1-11; Psalms 73; II Peter 3:3-10), and it has not gone away in the 21st century. Why does a righteous God allow such things? Why does He at times seem so far away and unconcerned about these grievous inequities? Why are we left to struggle in a world that sometimes makes no sense?
Of course, God could bring immediate justice to this world, where Solomon himself observed that “there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). And how many of us would be left if such divine justice were meted out? But let us envision a world where sin and righteousness were immediately punished or rewarded. A world where the moment one contemplated an unholy thought or act, a pain of such severity would strike the perpetrator that it would produce a scream of agony. And, also, every righteous act would bring exquisite pleasure or result in immediate wealth and power. How many sinners would there be, and how many holy? We would all be like rats in a maze, seeking to avoid pain and diligently pursuing pleasure. And do you imagine that God would know what was truly in our hearts? The truth is that God is testing us in this broken world to see who we really are (3:18). In this way, He tested Israel in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 5). “Whom the Lord loves He chastens and scourges every son whom He receives” (Proverbs 3:11, as quoted in Hebrews 12:6).
C. S. Lewis gives some good insight on this subject in his Screwtape Letters, a fictional correspondence between Screwtape, a demon, and his nephew Wormwood. Screwtape says to Wormwood:
“You must have wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the Irresistible and the Indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of His scheme forbids Him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as His felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for Him useless. He cannot ravish, He can only woo.... He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs - to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish.... He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if the will to walk is really there, He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys” (The Best of C.S. Lewis, pp. 37-38).
This is a frequent cry in the Psalms (Psalms 42; 74; 88). Sufferings, like the puzzling mysteries of God’s providence, can be an instrument of transformation and blessing in the Lord’s hands. They drive us to trust in Him even when we do not understand. So the Psalmist said, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.... It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (Psalms 119:67, 71).
