Is God Fair?

Jeremiah 12:1 “Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?”

Is life fair? Kids have an innate sense about fairness (ever heard “that’s not fair!”?), but it is amazing that we adults do, too. Jeremiah understood the feeling of “that’s not fair!” in Jeremiah 12. He was the one guy in Israel who was doing right, yet he was the one guy suffering the most!

Let me ask another question: Is God fair? Is it fair that Christ died on the cross when you were the one who sinned? God is not fair, in that we get what we deserve; God is righteous, and that means He must demand a payment. God’s grace made provision for us through Christ. So, no, God is not fair. God is righteous.

That is exactly where Jeremiah starts in chapter 12: “Righteous are thou, O LORD. . . .” But then he says to God, “Let me talk with thee of thy judgments. . . .” Have you ever been “buttered up” with praise from someone before they cut to the chase? The answer to Jeremiah’s “talk” with God about His judgments was answered the sentence before-“Righteous art thou, O LORD.”

What we can learn from this is if you know this to be true (that God is righteous), you don’t have to understand everything else. There is no way we could see the “big picture” as God sees it. The Lord knows us (verse 3) even if we do not fully understand or know God’s way. That is encouraging because God is the One who is powerful enough to do something about my situation!

Have your kids ever asked, “Are we there yet? How long ’til we are there?” That is what Jeremiah asked God in verse 4: “How long shall the land mourn . . . for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? . . .” You may get annoyed by your kids’ asking, “Are we there yet?”, but God is not annoyed by our asking. If my son Weston asks, “How long?” and I answer, “Three hours,” do you think he understands and is satisfied? No, of course not! Three hours might as well be three days to him! But Weston can trust his daddy and does not have to know all the details. Don’t you think God is a better “Parent” than you or I? How much more does He know and care about us!