Articles
Why?
There is a question that is addressed in the Old Testament many times and in many different ways. The question in, “Why do the wicked prosper?” In Job 21:7 – 15 this ancient man of God asked:
Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gender-eth, and faileth not; their cow calveth, and casteth not her calf. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment, go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto him?
Job’s friends had come to him in his suffering and afflictions and spoke of the difficulties of the wicked. Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad all spoke to Job of the hardship and early demise of the wicked and of the security and prosperity of the righteous. Their obvious implication was, if Job would simply come clean with whatever wickedness was in his life that had caused all of his problems, everything would be just fine. However, Job responded by showing that the same blessings of a material nature come upon the upright and the wicked. Frankly, he wanted to know why.
The 12th chapter of Jeremiah begins with the words, “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? Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.” It is essentially the same question, “Why do the wick-ed seem to prosper?”
In a little different approach, the prophet Habakkuk just could not understand why God delayed His judgment against the wick-ed. Consider Habakkuk 1:2-4:
O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoil-ing and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
Truthfully, I have wondered the same thing myself. Why is it that some of the most ungodly people appear to be so prosperous from a material standpoint? Why does God permit them to carry on, for they bring nothing of truly lasting value to the world and
oftentimes cause great harm? It is hard sometimes not to ask that question. I think of the Lord’s statement in Matthew 5:45, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.” I want to know “Why?” Why do the wicked get the same material blessings as those who are try-ing their best to serve God?
The answer is found in God’s word. If we had continued on in Jere-miah 12, we would have found God informing His great prophet that he was guilty of failing to see the end. God would take care of it in His own time. Jeremiah 12 ends with the statement, “But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.” God told the prophet Habakkuk to hang on; He would take care of it in His own time and in His own way. Habak-kuk 2:2-3 shows us this, “And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry; wait for it; be-cause it will surely come, it will not tarry.”
So what do we do? Live by faith and let God handle it; that is what we do. If we move just one verse forward in Habakkuk 2 we find, “Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” It calls to mind Micah 6:8: “He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord re-quire of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” That is the answer. Humbly walk in obedi-ence to God and completely trust Him. He is in control, and He is infinitely just and righteous.