Shall not the Judge of the earth do
right? We tend to think that He won’t. We especially think this when something
terrible happens to us, or to those whom we love. Like when your friend
suddenly dies. We get angry. He didn’t deserve to die. Why did he die now, and
so many other, more terrible people, go on living? People like Nicolas Maduro,
dictator of Venezuela, who starves and murders his own people, while his
military drives armored vehicles into crowds of protesters,[1]
for instance. He seems pretty bad, and he is still alive. Or, there are those
two people from Crystal Lake, IL who murdered their 7-year-old son and tried to
cover it up by making it look like the child was kidnapped.[2]
That was definitely evil. Even if they are convicted of murder, they will live
out their days in prison. I’m sure you have your own list of evil people
forming in your own mind. Our impulse is to get angry and think these, and any
number of other people, should be farther up the queue than a man like Ray
Bickel, retired Chicago Cop, who was a loving father and grandfather, a Cubs fan, a loyal friend, a faithful volunteer and tenor in the choir at St.
John’s Mayfair, and a general, all-around good guy. What’s going on here? Shall
not the Judge of the earth do right?
This verse comes from the second half
of Genesis 18:25, which is the middle of the passage where Abraham intercedes
to God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. God tells Abraham that He is going to
destroy the cities because of their great wickedness; Abraham begins his famous
negotiation: Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would you also
destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were within it?[3] We
know what happens. God says no, and Abraham keeps bringing the number lower,
and lower. He ultimately tells Abraham that, for the sake of 10 righteous
people, He would spare the city. The angels go to Sodom, they remove Abraham’s nephew
Lot and his family, and God destroys the city by raining fire and brimstone
from heaven.[4]
So, we are to understand that every man, woman, and child in Sodom was
deserving of death? The answer is yes. Either that, or God is not righteous.
The point God is making to Abraham is that there isn’t even one righteous person in Sodom. This includes Lot. He isn’t innocent either. Don’t forget, Lot is the man who chose to separate himself from Abraham, through whom God’s promised Redeemer was to come; he is the man whose moral sense was warped in such a way that, rather than distance himself from the wretched hive of scum and villainy that was Sodom, Lot embraced it. This warping manifests itself when righteous Lot offers his daughters up to gang rape by the mob of Sodomites who were seeking to molest Lot’s angelic visitors.[5] In fact,
he
had become so attached to what Sodom had to offer that he was reluctant to make
a clean break. The angels had to take him and his wife and daughters as one
takes little children by the hand and lead them outside the doomed city. They actually
had to force rescue on Lot and his family.[6]
Even then, Lot’s wife rejects this
rescue; she turns back to look at the city as they flee, and becomes a pillar
of salt.
In times of pain, suffering, and loss,
we are tempted to blame God for our evil. We lament that an evil dictator is
alive, and our friend is dead, and God is unjust. But He isn’t unjust. We
deserve the wages we are paid, for we are all sinners, and the wages of sin is
death. This is because we are a lot like Lot. We are corrupted by sin; we love this
corrupt world, and gratifying the desires of our sinful flesh. We have to be
dragged out of our fallen state as reluctantly as Lot was brought out of Sodom.
Everyone in Sodom deserved to die, because they were fallen, sinful people. It
isn’t injustice on God’s part when men die; we all are fallen, sinful creatures
who are subject to death through the one man, Adam.[7]
Conversely, Lot did not deserve God’s redemption from the coming destruction,
but he was given it as a gift. He didn’t do anything to earn it; he certainly
didn’t deserve to be rescued because of how good a person he was. God came to
Lot when he was a filthy sinner, and Lot submitted to Him; that is why Peter
can call Lot a righteous man.[8]
The point is, that no one is
righteous, no, not one.[9]
Because of our sin, we all deserve death and damnation; God, the righteous
Judge, would’ve been justified in destroying His entire creation and starting
over after the Fall, if He wanted. No man, no matter how good, upright, or
righteous he is in the eyes of the world, or how loved he is by his family and
friends, deserves to be spared death and hell on those grounds. Not you, not
me, not Ray, not Nicholas Maduro; Not anyone.
God, thankfully, is a merciful judge,
as well as a righteous one. He saves mankind the same way that He saved righteous
Lot from the destruction of Sodom. He comes to us and rescues us. Jesus, The
Second Adam, came into the world to bear our sin and be our savior. He was
brought as a lamb to the slaughter. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet
He opened not His mouth. He was delivered up to death that He might quicken,
that is, make alive His people. Jesus was delivered for our offenses and raised
again for our justification. He comes to us, individually, through His Word,
and delivers to us this salvation He has purchased for us on the cross with His
holy, precious blood, and by His innocent suffering and death. He comes to save
us in the waters of Holy Baptism.[10]
He comes to forgive our sins in the eating and drinking of His body and blood
in the Lord’s Supper.[11]
He comes to us, to create repentance and faith in us,[12] through
the Word preached, read, and meditated upon. He comes to us in the words spoken
by our faithful pastor who, in the stead and by the command of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, pronounces forgives us our sins, and announces the grace of God to us.[13]
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.[14]
While we are sinners, Christ comes to us through His Word and Sacraments,
forgives our sins, cleanses us from all unrighteousness, and gives us eternal
life. The only way we do not get these things is if we refuse and reject them. In
the list of things that Ray “was”, the most important thing was omitted. He was
a Christian. These are the promises into which Ray was baptized; these are the
things that he confessed before men. And, since he was baptized into Christ’s
death, Ray has also been united together with Christ’s resurrection.
This is why, even at the death of a
loved one, we can have comfort and be joyful. This is something popular
American Christianity, of the Joel Osteen/Joyce Meyer
variety, cannot do: teach us, as St. Paul writes, to be content in whatever
state we may find ourselves, because of what we have in Christ. They point us
to health and wealth in this world. They teach us to live our best lives now.
It might work for a while, but eventually, we are confronted with sin, and no
amount of “thinking good thoughts” will help. Our faith that Jesus, the
God-man, has redeemed us, paid for our sins on the cross and declared us
righteous, doesn’t mean we will be free from pain and sorrow in this life. To
the contrary, Jesus promises us that in this life we will have trouble.[15] He
goes on to encourage us to be of good cheer, because He has overcome the world.
Satan thought he defeated God when Jesus died on the cross and was buried in
the tomb. God, however, raised Him from the dead.[16]
Christ conquered death, and because we are in Him by our baptism, death also
has no ultimate power over us. The death of our friend looks and feels like a
defeat. Be of good cheer, Christ has overcome the world; In Christ, we have
overcome it as well. Because God is righteous, merciful, and faithful, we can
have faith that He works all things together for good to those who love God, to
those who are called according to His purpose.[17]
So, in the midst of death and pain, we can joyfully confess with Job:
I
know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after
my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I
shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart
yearns within me![18]
A time is coming when all who are in
their graves will hear the voice of Christ and come out.[19]
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting
life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.[20]
Those sons of God through faith in Christ, who have put on Christ in their
baptism, have life everlasting because He is the resurrection and the life, and
whoever believes in Him, even though he may die, he shall live.[21]
And on that day,
the
trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed.[22]
For
God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together
with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also
are doing.[23]
Shall not the Judge of the earth do
right? I am profoundly thankful to God that He has given us His mercy, and His
unmerited favor in Christ, rather than His justice. Those who wish to have the
latter, however, will certainly receive it.
[1] Llanozap,
Fernando. “Video shows military vehicle running over protesters.” cnn.com. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/04/30/violent-uprising-in-venezuela-juan-guaido-nicolas-maduro-crn-vpx.cnn
(accessed May, 2019).
[2]
Associated Press. “The Latest: Illinois couple charged in young son’s death.”
foxnews.com. https://www.foxnews.com/us/the-latest-illinois-couple-charged-in-young-sons-death
(accessed May 6, 2019).
[3]
Genesis 18:24
[4]
Genesis 19:12-29
[5]
Genesis 19:1-11
[6]
Jeske, John C. People’s Bible Commentary:
Genesis. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1992.
[7]
Romans 5:12-21
[8] 2
Peter 2:7
[9]
Romans 3:10-12
[10] Matthew
28:19-20; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38-39; 22:16; Romans 6:3-5; 1 Corinthians 6:11;
Galatians 3:27; Colossians 1:13-14; 1 Peter 3:18-22;
[11]
Matthew 26:28
[12]
Romans 10:17; Acts 5:31; 11:18;
[13]
John 20:21-23;
At the beginning of each communion service, the people
confess their sins, and the pastor responds with the absolution: Upon this your
confession, I, by virtue of my office as a called and ordained servant of the
Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the
command of my Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
Evangelical Lutheran Synodical Conference of North
America. The Lutheran Hymnal. St.
Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1941.
[14] Romans
5:8
[15]
John 16:33
[16]
Acts 13:30, 30; Romans 10:9
[17]
Romans 8:28
[18]
Job 19:25-27
[19]
John 5:25-30
[20]
Daniel 12:2
[21] Galatians
3:26-28; John 11:12
[22] 1
Corinthians 15:52
[23] 1
Thessalonians 4:9-11
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