I admit it: I like predictable movies.

I like feeling confident from the first flicker of the screen to when the last credit rolls by that the good guy will be victorious, the bad guy will get caught, the right guy will win the girl, and everyone will be alive and well and live happily ever after. I feel tremendously betrayed when a movie does not go the way I want it to go.

A few years ago we borrowed the movie Ladder 49 from some friends of ours. This isn’t my typical choice of a movie, but my husband wanted to see it and our friends said it was great.

I HATED IT! {spoiler alert: if you’ve been dying to see this movie but haven’t gotten around to it since 2004, I’m going to tell you what happens. You might want to skip ahead.}

A firefighter gets trapped in a horrible, raging fire while his fellow firefighters try desperately to save him. Throughout the movie, we are shown flashbacks of his life, family, wife and kids… I fully expected him to get out alive. (I mean, what kind of wretched movie would this be if he died after all of that??) But he didn’t get out! I have to say – I felt angry. Why did the filmmakers purposely make me get all emotionally attached to this character and his family members, and then kill him in a cruel way? That is not a fun movie experience for me – that is torture!

In our broken, cursed, and sin-filled world, life is tremendously unfair. We are wounded by the unexpected twists in the “script” of life in a much deeper way than after watching a movie. The dreadful reality of the good guy dying while the bad guy prospers can feel overwhelming. Solomon laments sin and injustice in Ecclesiastes in a way that seems quite appropriate for our world today.

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them.
Ecclesiastes 4:1

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which goes forth from the ruler- folly is set in many exalted places while rich men sit in humble places.
Ecclesiastes 10:5-6

There is futility which is done on the earth, that is, there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked. On the other hand, there are evil men to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I say that this too is futility.
Ecclesiastes 8:14

Life doesn’t always turn out the way we think it should. The helpless are oppressed by the strong. Fools are exalted while the truly wise are disregarded. The righteous seem to suffer while the wicked seem to prosper. [Psalm 73 is a powerful look at the issue of the wicked seemingly prospering and how to deal with this from a Godly perspective. You can download a free guided Bible study of this chapter here.]

How are we to understand the goodness and justness of God in this messed up world?

Back in Genesis 2, we find that God created mankind in His image and gave them the responsibility of ruling the earth under His authority. He gave Adam and Eve real responsibility, real power to influence the world. At the fall, we rebelled against His authority and, in Barbara Mouser’s words, became pirates flying our rebel flag and taking over the “ship” that was rightfully His. We were no longer loyal subjects – we were flying our own flag.

Even though mankind rebelled, God did not strip them of free will, responsibility, or power. In most instances, God does not directly intervene to stop us from hurting, oppressing, and abusing one another. He has given us the power and ability to choose to act for good or for evil, to benefit others or to destroy them.

One day that will change. One day God will break His silence. One day righteousness will receive true reward and wickedness will receive unfathomable judgment. We still have responsibility for our actions before God – nothing will be forgotten or overlooked.

I have been studying the book of Revelation during my quiet times. I was struck by this passage in John MacArthur’s commentary this morning -

“All the pain, sorrow, suffering, and evil in the world cause the godly to long for God to intervene. A day is coming when He will break His silence, a day when all the purposes of God concerning men and the world will be consummated. At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ will return and establish His earthly kingdom. He will rule righteously, with ‘a rod of iron’ (Ps. 2:9), and ‘the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea’ (Isa. 11:9). All the atheists, agnostics, and scoffers who mocked the thought that Christ would return (2 Pet 3:3-4) will be silenced. The millennia of sin, lies, murders, thefts, wars, and the persecution and martyrdom of God’s people will be over… The ravages of sin – broken hearts, broken relationships, broken marriages, broken families, broken dreams, broken people – will be healed. Sorrow, sadness, mourning, and pain will vanish like the morning mists before the noonday sun (Rev. 7:17; 21:4).”

Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! Take back what is rightfully yours! What about in the meantime?

Yesterday the sermon at our church was about the life of Joseph, and our pastor mentioned one of the aspects of this story that I love so very much. Even though Joseph is hated and betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, imprisoned under false accusations, and forgotten… the text insists that the Lord was with him.

• The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. Genesis 39:2
• When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did…Genesis 39:3
• the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Genesis 39:21
• The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39:23

Nothing has escaped God’s notice. One day all will be made right. And in the meantime, we can rest in the fact that if we are His, God is with us. He is not a cruel filmmaker delighting in unexpected and painful plot twists which cause us angst. He is the hero – the one who truly will win in the end. In this story, the good WILL triumph – eventually.

Lord, teach us to rest in Your justice.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Romans 8:31

All the posts in this series are indexed here.

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