by Pastor Paul Wolff
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The Prodigal Son
returning to his father to beg forgiveness.
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I found myself
praying for justice recently. Actually I have been fervently praying
for justice since before last Christmas (See my 2019
Christmas article). But what if the gross injustice we see is part of
a higher justice? It is a matter of faith that God is in control of
all things as He tells us in His Word. However, God often uses evil to bring about His
greater good purpose, and it doesn’t always seem
like God is in control because for a time all we see is evil. The best example of this is the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus is the only human in the history of the world who never sinned against God nor man, but was convicted in an unjust trial and sentenced to die by crucifixion. God did not cause the evil, but He let sinful men do what sinners most want to do, which is to kill God. Yet God used that to accomplish forgiveness and salvation to all who believe in Him and who repent of their sins and trust in Him for forgiveness and rescue from sin and death.
If you find that
your beloved child has become spoiled and rotten, what do you do? A
loving parent will take away his toys and privileges until he cries. There
may be nothing wrong with toys and privileges, because they were
given out of love for the child, but if he begins to believe that he
deserves them and can do with them what he wants, then it is time to
teach him a lesson. If he has a temper tantrum and demands his way,
then you spank him and make him cry even harder. “Spare the rod and
spoil the child.” This is a paraphrase of Proverbs
13:24, “He
who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to
discipline him.”
Solomon also wrote in Proverbs
23:13-14 “Do
not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod,
he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from
death.”
What
I was intending in my prayer for Justice was to ask God to let us do
what is necessary to bring worldly justice to our nation and to the
world. The power of the United States of America does not reside in
the government, nor in its military, but in the citizens. We are
clearly in the midst of an American Bolshevik revolution. It is
relatively bloodless so far (though far
from completely bloodless), but this is
likely just
the set up for a far bloodier affair if
the past is a prologue
to the future. Corruption in
the United States is rampant, and it is
obvious for anyone with the eyes to see. Many, however,
have willfully blinded themselves to the obvious, but that is part of
the problem. If even
a fraction of the reports of voter fraud
are to be believed, the American people expressed their power in an
overwhelming desire for justice in reelecting President Trump.
However, the Bolshevik Marxists
could not let the will of the people get in their way and did what
they thought was
necessary to make it seem as if the Bolshevik party won even though
their Manchurian Candidate
seemingly won
without hardly campaigning, and without even being able to draw a
crowd on the rare occasions when he crawled out of his basement. The
word “unlikely” doesn’t even begin to describe the outcome that
we are being asked to accept without question.
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“What is Past is Prologue”
Inscription on this statue at the
National Archives in Washington D.C.
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The
corruption seems to be widespread and deep. It is
extremely likely that this is NOT the
first time this has happened. They tried this in 2016, but didn’t
fully anticipate the will of the good people of the United States. It
likely also happened
in 2012
when the worst President in the history of the USA was inexplicably
(seemingly) reelected to office. The
corruption is not just voter fraud. It is far deeper than that. We
have a justice system to combat injustice and fraud, but it has apparently been
thoroughly corrupted. We have a Federal
Bureau of Investigation (the
FBI) which
ought to investigate domestic corruption, lawlessness, and treason, but the
organization
has been
corrupted from within, and only
occasionally works
for justice. The FBI often
participates in corruption and
covers it up, rather than seeking to
prosecute it. Who do you call for justice when the investigators are
unjust and corrupt?
The
judicial system ought to be the final arbiters of justice, though we
have known for a long time that far too many judges do not rule
according to the law, but according to their own whims they give out
injustice in place of justice. We, the people of the United States of
America, elected President Trump to bring justice and peace and
prosperity back to our nation, and he has done what he could to work
toward that goal. In the past four years
over 300 federal judges and three
Supreme Court justices have been installed to rule according to the
law in order to bring justice back to our nation. It is not enough.
Despite
the clear evidence of massive voter
fraud in several states, unjust courts have turned a blind eye to the
evidence and, following the lead of the
lying mass media, pretended that the
clear evidence of fraud
doesn’t exist. For four years the Marxist
Democrats have been claiming without any
evidence that President Trump came to power fraudulently, and now
that we have real evidence that the other side is really trying to
steal power and take over the United States, they pretend that there
is nothing wrong. Where is the justice?
We
see in the Bible many times where there is injustice, violence and
bloodshed, the people of God have called out to Him for justice,
peace, and retribution against those who persecute good, honest
people. God is a just God. He wants justice, peace, and prosperity
for all people, but how He brings it about is often not what we
expect. God doesn’t do what we think is good and right, instead
God does what is truly good and right.
God’s way is always better, though it doesn’t always seem so at
the time.
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God called Moses to lead Israel to freedom,
but the people had to wait over 80 years
for the fulfillment of their prayers.
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When
the people of Israel were enslaved in Egypt they cried out to God to
send a deliverer who would rescue them from their bondage and lead
them to freedom in the promised land. God heard their prayer and sent
them Moses – as a baby. However, a
baby is not capable of freeing an enslaved nation and it
wasn’t until Moses was 80 years old (!) that God sent Moses to
Pharaoh with the message from God, “Let my people go,” and with
the authority to call down plagues on the Egyptians when Pharaoh did
not let God’s people go free. Eighty years, plus how many more
years had God’s people been oppressed before Moses was born? God’s
ways are not our ways, but God’s ways are always better.
In
the days of the judges when the Midianites were oppressing God’s
people they cried out to God to send them a deliverer. God gave them
Gideon. This time they didn’t have to wait 80-100 years. Gideon
sent the call to raise an army, and 30,000 soldiers answered the
call. In worldly terms it was a
sufficient army to defeat Midian, or at
least make life hard for the Midianites,
and free the oppressed people of Israel. However, God told Gideon
that the army was too large. He said, “You
have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order
that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved
her announce now to the people, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may
turn back and leave.’” (Judges
7:2-3) Twenty thousand of the soldiers left and went home. These were
good people who wanted justice, but really didn’t want to become
killers. They were willing to do what was necessary, including to
kill or be killed, but they really didn’t want to be there if
they didn’t have to,
so
they left with God’s blessing.
Ten thousand soldiers remained, but God said that was still too many.
He set up an arbitrary test at a brook, and those who were chosen
were only 300 men.
In
worldly terms, this was not enough to defeat the enemies and bring
peace, but that was the point. If a great army had arisen and
defeated the enemy then they would claim that they had triumphed, or
that Gideon was responsible for leading them to victory and freedom.
Then they would have taken pride in their own strength and power and
they would have proceeded to become oppressors themselves. This is
the trap of power politics: Use power to defeat the supposed
“oppressor” then become the oppressor yourself until someone else
comes along and defeats you. That way the bloodshed never ends. This
is why power politics is the trick of the devil who seeks to destroy
all that God loves, and all that is good.
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Gideon and his 300 men blew trumpets
just like Joshua did at Jericho
but God defeated the enemies and gave the victory.
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So
Gideon and 300 men attack the Midianites with pots and torches and
trumpets and a few swords, but it is God who fights against the
Midianites, and turns their own weapons against them so that they
mostly slay each other. The 300 Israelites do dispatch the few
stragglers who remain, but it is God who fights and wins the victory
and brings freedom to His people.
Likewise,
in the days of the Roman empire and occupation of the Holy Land, the
faithful remnant prayed to God for a deliverer who would rescue them
from the oppression of the evil pagan occupiers. They were looking
for a Moses or a Gideon or a David who would bring military victory
and worldly peace and prosperity. But God had a much better idea.
Jesus came amid reports that God was finally fulfilling the promise
He had made over 4,000 years earlier to Adam and Eve, to send a
Messiah who would undo the deadly effects of sin and death and bring
peace and prosperity to God’s people. But Jesus was again not what
the people expected.
As
God incarnate, Jesus is the King over all worldly kings, yet He said,
“My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus did not come to set up a
worldly kingdom in a sinful world. That would just perpetuate the
sinfulness and evil which is the cause of all of our suffering and
sadness and dysfunctional angst. Instead, Jesus came to set us free
from the bonds of slavery that is caused by sin. Jesus said, “I
tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave
has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it
forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
(John 8:34-36) Jesus came not just to set us free from evil people
like George Soros and his minions who seek to enslave us and destroy
all good in the world. Jesus came instead to set us free from all sin
which separates us from God who loves us as His children and wants us
to live with Him in holiness in His paradise in a new heaven and
earth.
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Jesus came in humility
to drink the cup of God’s wrath
over our sin, in order to redeem us
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But
Jesus could not do this by force of power. Power is a function of the
law, and by God’s Law sin must be punished. If
God punished all of us sinners as we deserve, then
we would be destroyed. God
does not play power politics because the result of that is only
destruction. God must punish man for mankind’s sins, but God does
accept a substitute on behalf of sinful man. If only there were a
sinless man on earth who would be willing to accept God’s
punishment for the sins of the world. The only problem is that we are
all corrupted by sin. When Adam and Eve fell into sin all of their
descendants were condemned to inherit that sinful corruption, and
that is true to this day. “There is no one righteous, not even
one.” (Romans 3:10 and other verses as well as the rest of the
Bible) The only solution is if God, Himself, became incarnate as a
man and lived His whole life in perfect obedience to God the Father’s
Laws, and then offered His life in place of sinners.
What are the chances of that happening? Would God live and die as a
man in order to redeem liars, cheaters, thieves, adulterers,
murderers, and blasphemous idol worshipers? Such is the great love of
God that He would do exactly that.
Jesus
came in humility, not to conquer violent sinful men, but to take
their place before the face of the almighty righteous God who must
punish sinful men for their sins – or in the case of Jesus, punish
the one righteous man who is God incarnate, in place of all the rest
of sinful humanity. So
Jesus came not to conquer, but to be conquered, that He may free us
from the condemnation of sin and death. Jesus suffered the Father’s
wrath over our sin, so that we may be rescued from that wrath which
would destroy us. Jesus died to pay the price of sin, so that we may
be freed from the sting of death. Yes, there still is death all
around us, and we all may taste of death before Christ returns, but
all that remains for God’s people is just a taste of death. Jesus
drank the full cup of death
so
that the taste of death that we receive will not destroy us. Because
Christ’s innocent death for us fulfilled God’s wrath over our
sin, death no longer has a hold on us, as Jesus has conquered death
and rose to life victorious over death.
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Jesus suffered and died in our place
to rescue us from sin and death
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The
death that Jesus died, He died to sin, so that the life He now lives
He will share with all who trust in Him. For all who believe in Jesus
have been adopted as children of God through the miracle of Holy
Baptism. We have been redeemed by Jesus by His righteous life, and
His innocent suffering and death on our behalf, and we have been
washed clean of our guilt and sin by the shedding of His blood which
is brought to us personally through the sacraments of Holy Baptism
and the very Body and Blood of Jesus given to us in the Lord’s
supper.
“Trust
not in princes, in mortal men who cannot save.” (Psalm 146:3)
Whether or not there is a political or military solution to the
political corruption and attempted takeover of the United States, we
still have hope. Our God rules both heaven and earth. Whether we live
as free men or as slaves, we are God’s children. Christ has
redeemed us and set us free so that we will live forever with Him in
His paradise. The troubles of this world are only temporary, though
we may have to endure them for a hundred years (may God forbid this,
but even so give us the strength to endure what must come). We need
not fear tyrannical governors. We need not fear catching a bad cold
that only kills 5 people out of every 1,000 who are infected. We need
not fear worse diseases such as cancer, nor murder, nor violence, nor
any death.
As
Christ lives, so we shall live, even if we die. Christ has won the
victory over sin and death and all the consequences of death which
cause us so much sorrow and pain. Trust in Christ and live in hope.
Christ has won the victory not for Himself, but for you. Jesus lives
so that you may live with Him forever. Pray for peace and justice in
this world, but do not be surprised if it does not come right away.
God disciplines His children as a loving father disciplines his
unruly child. It is not a sign of God’s disfavor, but of His love –
that we may turn to Him and give Him the praise for our rescue, and
not some
worldly leader. We live by faith in the redemption won for us by
Christ Jesus. That is a sure thing. May Christ give you comfort and
peace, both now and forever.
