Unfair! Unfair! PART ONE

Read: Job 39:13-18; Exodus 4:10-12; Genesis 30:1-2; John 21:18-22

Let's start with a fill in the blank quiz. No worries, there aren't right or wrong answers. Ready?  I wish I had _____ or I wish I could _____.

If there is something that we wish we had, it is generally because having it would help life to be more exciting, easier or even the playing field for us..., and sometimes we wonder why things seem upside down? Why can't we make sense concerning what we see all around us?  Shouldn't good people experience more good here than ruthless or unkind people do? Why begin a devotion with a question like that? There was a phrase I heard this week that caused me to think along this line. Here's the story.

I sent someone a Creation Moments devotion that concerned an amazing fish. Another wondrous piece in God's creation that demonstrates His amazing attention to detail. I like sending these short articles to people whom I think might enjoy, as I do, reading about God's handiwork that surrounds us. Even if they do not yet belong to Jesus. The response I received surprised me. The gist of it was that it wasn't fair that one fish should have the special hunting skill that it had while all the others have received no such ability. Not fair! I have been thinking about those two words that I had never heretofore heard applied to an animal and what various skills that it doesn't possess.

Of course, everyone has spoken those three little words. From the time we could talk until the present, we have uttered that phrase. Either the chocolate chip cookie that we were given wasn't as big as our sibling's or our lot in life isn't as easy as the person who received the undeserved promotion that we "should have received." Surely, inequities large and small are everywhere. Let's look into some scripture verses to see what we can learn from the Bible concerning unfairness.

Let's start with the animals. No, we can't talk to the animals and have them speak back. However, there are fascinating verses in Job where God admits right up front that there is unfairness within the animal kingdom, and He takes responsibility for that. In Job 39:13-18, God speaks to Job about the ostrich. She proudly struts her stuff, but her plumage doesn't match the stork's. Mrs. Ostrich lays her eggs in the sand where it is warm but she isn't careful or mindful of them. Her unhatched babies are in peril, and she has no concern for their welfare. Why? Because God made her that way. Even so, she can run like the wind even outdoing the horse with its rider. God's creativity! He takes responsibility for both strengths and weaknesses, but this truth isn't only concerning animals. Amazingly, it concerns people too.

In Exodus 4:10-12, Moses was in the middle of a one-on-one talk with the Lord. He was telling the LORD why he was not able to lead the people out of Egypt. One excuse after another. In verse 10, he told God that he wasn't eloquent. God then tells Moses what might be considered an amazing truth about Himself. It was He Who took responsibility for the blind and deaf as well as the seeing and hearing folks. There it is. The unfairness doesn't end with the animals; God also oversees it concerning people.

Surely that means that God's care reaches into both the lives of what we call typical people and those with challenges. Some people struggle with that truth, and it is a hard thing to totally understand. Especially when those we love so much have lives that are very difficult. Our arms go around them as we don't shy away from the truth of scripture.

Tucked into these verses in Exodus 4, there is a promise from God. The unfairness of the challenges people endure comes with the promise that God is with those Who belong to Him. There to strengthen and lift up and there, if it is His will to someday heal them.

God never denied Moses' weaknesses. He didn't try to buoy His man up by lauding his abilities and strengths. Instead, God promised His presence. He would be with Moses whom He had reminded that He was concerned about His people. He had heard their cries, and weaknesses and all, Moses was to be the human instrument through which deliverance would come. God's plan wouldn't be deterred because of Moses weaknesses. Perceived or real. God was well able to do a great work, which He did!

In John 9, we learn a bit of additional information concerning another man with an "unfair" weakness. The man born blind. The disciples wondered what people sometimes even ponder today. What caused this man's blindness. Surely, it was thought, someone had sinned and was responsible for this "unfairness." Jesus' words were stunning. It was so that God would be glorified.

Did the Savior mean that this man's life prior to his healing or afterwards brought honor to the LORD? We aren't told specifically, but could Jesus have meant yes to both parts? After all, the man was sustained by God until the day he was healed. Surely that truth is praiseworthy as well as his miraculous healing was. Surely, the Bible is telling us that God is at work in what we would never choose for ourselves or for those we love.

Next week, Lord Willing, more truth about unfairness from the scriptures and how we should and should not react when we encounter it. With God's enabling and with the knowledge that He sees and is at work. We have a God Who can do more than we can ask or imagine, Ephesians 3:20. In spite of unfairnesses.