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When God Seems Really Unfair (October 27,
2002)
"The Lord
said to him, I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross
over there." Deuteronomy 34:4
Here is Moses at the end of the 40 years' wandering in the wilderness.
He has led his people out of Egyptian slavery and guided them through
the wilderness and many difficulties. He has taught them all the instruction
of the law that the Lord has given them as the means of life. He has prayed
for his people, as I mentioned last week, and he has reprimanded them.
He has done all the Lord told him to do from the time of the burning bush.
Everything in his life has pointed toward one overwhelming conclusion:
he will lead his people into the Promised Land. Everyone loves a happy
ending. This story has to have a happy ending. That means Moses setting
foot in the Promised Land. But the Lord says no.
Earlier in the book of Deuteronomy we are given one reason why. Later
we are given another. These two reasons don't agree. Parenthetically,
we should note that Deuteronomy represents a school of thought that if
bad things happen to good people there has to be a reason. (The writer
of Job disagreed with this strongly.) The first reason is that Moses can't
go in because the Lord was angry with the people for their rebelliousness.
That is, Moses has to suffer because the people were disobedient.
Toward the end of the book the reason shifts. Moses was said to be a bit
presumptuous once when he got water out of a rock. It's a bit unclear,
but God didn't get all the credit he should have. Just for having a moment
of pride Moses should be denied the goal of his life? Give me a break.
One is reminded of the story of the mother who told Johnny to eat his
oatmeal. "If you don't eat your oatmeal, God is going to punish you,"
she scolded him. He refused to eat. Then a storm came up, heavy rain,
wind, thunder, then lightening. The whole house shook. His mother called
out from another room: "Johnny, are you all right?" "Yes,"
he said, "I'm all right, but this sure seems like a lot of fuss over
a little oatmeal."
So it is with Moses. However, you paint it this seems out of proportion.
In the last chapter of Deuteronomy which we read today no explanation
is given. It is just stated as a fact. This is really better than the
explanations. As St. Francis said in a prayer to God, "sometimes
I don't comprehend you." Even the best efforts of theologians, such
as the book of Deuteronomy, are sometimes not adequate to explain the
tragedies of human existence. In this last chapter Deuteronomy rises to
the occasion, leaves off explanations, and just gives us the facts.
God's ways are above our ways, his thoughts are not our thoughts. "We
don't know" is sometimes a very good answer. We would have less religious
fanaticism that we tragically see so much of these days if more humility
were in evidence. Our knowledge is only partial, as Paul wrote. Moses
was allowed to see God's back, but not his face, which is a way of saying
this same thing. But to not know, and still believe, put one's trust in
God, that is an even better answer. Soren Kierkegaard thought it was the
best answer. It flew in the face of the facts.
To trust, even when it doesn't seem fair, is the only kind of trust which
is worthy of the word. God moves in a mysterious way, wrote William Cowper,
who suffered much in his own life from mental illness and depression.
Moses handles this major disappointment with exactly the same honor and
strength of character with which he led the people of Israel. He does
not sulk, he does not throw a fit and give up on religion because everything
doesn't go his way, he doesn't give up his faith in God. He doesn't say,
this seems like a lot of fuss over a little oatmeal. Through all of Deuteronomy
we see a strong and vibrant Moses who commands the attention of the people,
though he knows he will not see his life's goal fulfilled.
In retrospect, what seemed grossly unfair had both immediate and long
range benefits. Joshua was now the undisputed leader and he alone would
lead the people across the Jordan. Moses was not hanging on or in the
shadows looking over Joshua's shoulder. No one is indispensable. (Presbyterian
churches say the same thing when a pastor leaves. He or she should get
clean away and not look over the shoulder of the successor.) As great
as Moses was, the people of Israel learned a valuable lesson: they were
a people to be governed by laws - the commandments given at Sinai -- and
not by men. Even later when Israel had kings this idea was still prominent.
A government of laws and not of men. Several millennia later, it would
take people like Thomas Jefferson to rediscover this for the modern world.
Moses, facing this major disappointment, and with no discernible reason
for it that makes any sense except it is God's will, nonetheless goes
on. This is where his faith is one of the best examples in all of scripture
of the faith talked about in the New Testament - believing where it cannot
prove. Even when God seems most "unfair" the person of faith
is willing to say "there must be more to this than I currently understand"
and I will not allow this to alter my conviction that God is sovereign,
that God is still "keeping watch above his own", as James Russell
Lowell wrote.
President Jimmy Carter recently received the Nobel Peace Prize, an award
in my opinion he richly deserved. When he was in the White House Mr. Carter
once said "life is unfair". At the time it seemed an unfeeling
thing to say. But few people have done more to redress life's unfairness
for thousands of people the world over than Mr. Carter. His Christian
faith accepts that life can be unfair, but then that same faith urges
him to do everything possible to redress that unfairness.
Reformed Christians following John Calvin have always made a major point
of the sovereignty of God. "We confess and acknowledge one God alone,
to whom alone we must cleave, whom alone we must serve, whom only we must
worship, and in whom alone we put our trust," said the Scots Confession.
They didn't say, "whom alone we put our trust when it makes sense."
God is working his purposes out as year goes into year. Such a doctrine
has given believers enormous confidence, even when things don't seem to
be working out fairly.
Mark Twain defined confidence as "A Presbyterian holding four aces."
God is God, and God is not simply a spectator of life's ebbs and flows
but an active participant.
The Protestant Reformers believed the Church of their time made too much
of the ability of humans to effect their own salvation and too little
of the power and grace of God. Instead, they said it is all God, God's
grace received by faith. What is grace but unmerited favor. That is, we
don't deserve it. In a way, it is "unfairness" working for us.
Christ died for us even while we were yet sinners, the righteous for the
unrighteous. That's about as unfair as you can get.
The gospel is not about a God who is nicely weighing who deserves what
and seeing that all is done fairly, but rather about a God who out of
fatherly love bends all the rules and spreads his grace around to any
who will receive it, it is about his Son who cared not a whit for appearances
and broke bread with outcasts and sinners. We do not deserve God's grace
and we cannot earn it. The totally fair thing would be for God to discard
us. But instead he loves us so much that he sends his only Son, who is
sinless, to die for us, the godly for the ungodly.
Today we celebrate the Reformation. No Reformer exhibited this childlike
trust in God, even when events seemed to be moving against him, more than
Martin Luther. He had to hide in castles more than once. A Cardinal of
the Church yelled at him in an open assembly: "Do you expect your
princes to protect you, a wretched worm like you. Where will you be?"
And Luther replied, "Then, as now, in the hands of the Almighty God."
That is trust. He refused to give himself any credit. "While I was
drinking beer," he said, "God reformed the Church."
It's not just for when things are going smoothly, but when they are going
rough, that we are called to put our confidence in "A mighty fortress
is our God, a bulwark never failing. Our helper he amid the flood of mortal
ills, prevailing…"
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