11 He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves.
Many people follow Elihu’s theological thinking. “You reap what you sow.” This is true, but not necessarily true in the way people think. Evil people don’t always get their punishment in this life. Righteous people don’t always get their reward either. That is because our few years here on earth are just a blink in time. The balance of justice extends into eternity. But for Elihu and many of us, we want what seems fair now. Elihu is struggling with his own theology. He can’t figure out how God can be good and Job be good, and yet all these bad things happen. He knows God is good, so it must be that Job is bad. That is the only way he can make sense of the bad things happening. Job must have done some really terrible things for these really terrible things to be happening to him. But if we are honest with ourselves, we want this equation to be active in other people’s lives, but want it switched off in our own. We want other people to “get what they deserve,” but when we do bad things, we want some other rule to apply. We want mercy for ourselves and justice for them. So how do we handle the injustice that we experience? The first thing is to not point our fingers at the injustice happening in others until we have dealt with our own wrong-doings. We need to be willing to apply the same standard to others and to ourselves before we start pointing fingers. This had led me to extend much more mercy to other people, because I know I need mercy myself. Second, remember that justice often does not happen in this life, but in eternity all will balance. Justice will happen, but patience is required. Third, have conduct that deserves better than punishment. Do the right things. Do the things that deserve rewards, then you don’t have to worry about judgment coming your direction.
The Arnold Journey 