Never again
'I've worked so hard for this business and now it's been taken over and I'm redundant.' 'We did our very best for our son, and now he's dropped out of college, gone off with his girlfriend and doesn't even phone us any more.' Working very hard at something and having it snatched away happens to lots of people - to farmers whose crops fail, to refugees leaving everything behind, to those with flooded and ruined homes.
Because we live in a fallen and unfair world these things happen. They happen to the good and the bad, to the just and the unjust, to the hard working and the lazy. How should we read these promises when we know that, however passionately we may claim them for ourselves, and maybe especially for others, they are not in any way guaranteed?
Built into the human psyche is a desire for justice, for fairness and for reasonable reward. God tells us that he will put it right. 'Your Saviour will come and he brings reward and recompense' (62:11). So in Christ we are new creations and the new Kingdom of true justice has begun. But the final and total fulfilment of these promises will not happen until he comes again on the day of judgement. (If we think about it, any direct and automatic correlation between being good and hardworking, and being wealthy and successful, would lead to a world with few choices and little challenge.)
We should not be, as many are, defeated, fatalistic and without hope. We pray, 'Your Kingdom come on earth!' and we intend to work with the king to make his justice happen, as far as we are able. This isn't easy - employers working out pay settlements; Amnesty International wondering whether a certain prisoner is a genuine prisoner of conscience; parents who feel they have to support financially one child more than the others; voters and politicians looking at issues of tax and benefits. There is compromise and sometimes bad errors of judgement, but because we serve a Lord of justice - and love - we do our best. And one day He will come and never again...
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