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The
highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity,
choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over
popularity.
Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for THERE IS
NEVER A WRONG TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
-
Bishop Soc Villegas
25 July 2007
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LESSONS
OF JOB
(Part 7)
GOOD AND EVIL, JUST AND WICKED, HUMBLE AND PROUD
In our
past lessons, we have confronted the question, why do the good
suffer? Why do bad things happen to good people? Today we add
another question: why do evildoers prosper, while the just seemingly
do not? Today's reading in Malachi gives us a lot for reflection.
When people see evildoers prosper while they in doing good struggle
on and are even afflicted, they are tempted to reverse course.
"Rather must we call the proud blessed; for indeed evildoers
prosper, and even tempt God with impunity." (Mal 3:15). They
begin to question their own chosen path of righteousness and
obedience and service to God. "It is vain to serve God, and
what do we profit by keeping his command, and going about in
penitential dress in awe of the Lord of hosts?" (Mal 3:14).
They begin to think their suffering and reverential fear of God are
for naught. Why are the bad fulfilled while the good are afflicted?
When we begin to accept that, even when we do not say it, we are
already defying God. "You have defied me in word, says the
Lord, yet you ask, 'What have we spoken against you?'" (Mal
3:13). When we think and accept that, we are failing in humbly
showing God reverential fear.
We cannot fully understand why the bad prosper while the good
suffer, why those who tempt God with impunity are fulfilled while
those who fear the Lord are afflicted. But here are the realities:
(1) God certainly knows what is going on. "And a record book
was written before him of those who fear the Lord and trust in his
name." (Mal 3:16b). (2) Those who fear the Lord and trust in
Him are favored by Him as His "own special possession"
(Mal 3:17a). (3) God will act, and treat the good with compassion.
"And they shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my own special
possession, on the day I take action. And I will have compassion on
them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him." (Mal
3:17).
God is just and righteous. He will not be mocked by evildoers. He
will not forsake those who are faithful to Him. The day will come
when the proud and all evildoers will burn in fire, while those who
fear God will experience the sun of justice with its healing rays
(Mal 3:19-20). "Then you will again see the distinction between
the just and the wicked; between him who serves God, and him who
does not serve him." (Mal 3:18). When will that happen? When
will we see the bad punished and the good vindicated? "On the
day I take action" (Mal 3:17). That time is entirely up to God.
He is the Almighty. In the meantime, we persevere through affliction
and suffering, and we trust in the God who is just and righteous.
"The Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the
wicked leads to ruin." (Ps 1:6).
God humbles our hearts through hardship (Ps 107:12a), and keeps us
from becoming proud. When we realize what God is about, when we see
how the end will be, then we must rejoice in God's discipline and
divine wisdom. "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart." (Ps 32:11). For us, we simply
maintain our reverential fear of God, our awe of His divine majesty,
our humility, our trust in Jesus, and keep on doing good, while
rejoicing in redemptive suffering.
God bless you all.
frank
(October 08, 2009)
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