Does God give an extra reward to the unfortunate?
Question:
I don't know if its blasphemy or not but I have been struggling with a particular problem. I know that these are just thoughts and feelings that Satan puts in my head, but I sometimes feel like if God is unfair to all His children. I feel He must like certain people more than others because there are people with a lot of disadvantages. For example, I feel bad for people who are blind or have a certain disability. I wish I can help them out, but there is nothing that I can do. I don't like feeling and thinking like this and I try to push it out of my head.
I also fear that I will end up blind or with a disability because I will have feelings full of despair. I know something like this has not happened to me, but if it did I would not know how to deal with it I would try my very best not to, but I think that I would reproach God for it even though I don't want to.
Please help me understand why some people are born like this and why some people are suffering and others not. Do people who went through a lot in this world somehow get compensated in heaven?
I try not to feel this way, and I fight it, but I am concerned about all these negative feelings toward God.
If someone has a wonderful life and goes to heaven and somebody has a bad life and goes to heaven, does God give any special benefits to the person who suffered a lot in this world to make things fair?
Answer:
Blasphemy is the purposeful slander of another person, accusing that person of doing evil when you know that it isn't the case. "But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him" (Numbers 15:30-31 NASB).
- Defiantly (beyadh ramah): Literally, with a high hand. Think of it as meaning voluntarily bringing focus on yourself. It means knowingly, willfully, obstinately. It is a person who does something because he wants to, even though he knows God or others are against it. This is the type of person who would dare anyone to stop him.
- Blaspheming (meghaddeph): to revile, blaspheme, cut, or wound. This is a person who is trying to cause damage to another through words. "My dishonor is continually before me, and the shame of my face has covered me, because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles, because of the enemy and the avenger" (Psalms 44:15-16). It is related to an Ethiopian word which means "to throw stones," so think of it as the old childhood taunt "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!"
- Despised (bazah): to regard with contempt, to see it as worthless or despicable.
- Broken (hephar): in this context, not kept or violated the commandments of God.
- Guilt ('aonoh): Literally, to bend, twist, or distort. It is the word for sin or iniquity because it is a distortion of what is good.
When you don't understand, when you have questions, that isn't blasphemy -- it isn't even close.
In regards to the less fortunate, I can't fully answer your question because there are a large number of reasons why people are in the situation they are in. See "Does God Make the Handicapped?" Being a man with limited insights into what is truly happening, I can only guess in some cases as to why things happen as they do.
Are bad things going to happen in your life? They do in everyone's lives. The fact that you weren't there to see them happen in another person's life or that you can't detect the aftermath of those events doesn't mean they did not happen. "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 1:6-7). While it is out of our control to prevent bad things from happening to us, we do have the promise of God that He will limit them. "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it" (I Corinthians 10:13). There is no reason to live in fear that something might happen that you won't be able to handle. You need to have more faith in God and His love for you.
One thing God does do is watch out for the less fortunate. The Old Law is filled with warnings that the less fortunate are not to be taken advantage of. "You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge" (Deuteronomy 24:17). "Defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy; free them from the hand of the wicked" (Psalms 82:3-4). God promised to step in if someone did so. "But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless" (Psalms 10:14). "The LORD watches over the strangers; He relieves the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down" (Psalms 146:9).
Heaven is so wonderful that is far beyond what any of us deserve or expect. When talking about such a vast reward, it doesn't make sense to talk about one getting more than another. The wonder and the beauty of it are to receive it.
God knows. He watches. And this life is so short that any misery is just a passing thing anyway. "For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away" (James 4:14). It is only because this world is currently all that we know that we get our viewpoint twisted up.
