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There are a lot smarter people out there with theology degrees that have spent years in school that probably know a lot more about any Biblical references I will make, so understand that these are just my thoughts based on how I view the world, and my own relationship with God.

This year, I’m reading through the One Year Chronological Bible. I’ve had it for a few years, and finally made the commitment to get to it this year. So far, so good.

Right now, I’m in Job. Full disclosure, I’ve never read all of Job before. I’ve read a few chapters here and there before, and I know the premiss of the story, but I’ve never read through it. I’m glad I am right now though, it’s super legit, you should check it out sometime.

Well anyway, last night I’m cruising easy through chapters 32-34, and I’m really getting into it. I kind of like this Elihu guy. I was talking to my friend Jonathon Wright about it earlier today, and he said that he sees the guy as kind of a punk kid who wants to give his two cents. He makes it a point to say, basically, “I’m young, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have some wisdom right? So now you guys have all had your say, so let me have mine!” I imagine Job, Bildad, Eliphaz, and Zophar just letting the kid say what he feels like he has to say and not really considering him of any consequence.

So here’s Elihu chugging along in his discourse about how if Job really is so righteous and sinless, then how come God is jackin’ with all of his bidness?! Hmmm Job…hmmmmm? And he says this in 34:12:

It is unthinkable that God would do wrong,

That the Almighty would pervert justice.

So here’s this young guy saying, “If you’re really so good Job, then why is God doing all of this to you? He cannot do wrong. Because of who He is, and His very nature, He can’t do anything bad!” Now, he is 100% correct there. But in the context of the situation, he (and Job and his friends) didn’t understand that it wasn’t God doing any of this, but He was allowing it to happen to prove a point to Satan.

So, the first thing that came to my mind when I read that verse though, was Haiti. The second was Katrina hitting New Orleans in 2005. After both events, we have people (finite creatures created by an Infinite God) claiming that God did it to pass judgement on the sins of both places (And it’s not just “famous”…or maybe infamous…people like Pat Robertson, it’s our friends and neighbors as well). In 2005, Tony Campolo made the point that if that WAS the case, then how come the French Quarter (widely considered to be the center of debauchery in New Orleans) was left virtually untouched. It was a great point. To my knowledge, there have been no such defenses like that made for Haiti…so maybe Robertson was right.

Kidding. I’m kidding. Give me a few more minutes, and I’ll make my real point.

In the Old Testament, when we see judgement passed by God on a nation, or people, or person, or whatever the case may be, it was to give them an opportunity to turn back to him. I’m not going to list all of the instances here, but go look into it, if I’m wrong come back and let me know. I will concede.

So here’s the thing. Or…my opinion of “the thing”. What happened in New Orleans in 2005, and in Haiti a few days ago (and the tsunami a few years back, and other catastrophic natural disasters) was tragic. It’s not our place though to decide whether or not they are judgement by God upon those people . I look at it this way. The sins of the poverty stricken people of Haiti, are no worse than my middle class sins here in America. If the earthquake there really was judgement for a “pact made with the Devil” (I’d seriously like to see some historically documented proof of that), why not instead afflict the descendants of the people who made the pact, instead of causing catastrophic damage to one of the most poverty stricken countries in the world? The God of Love who I know, is not in the business of settling petty centuries old “wrongs” done to Him.

Now, that being said, I’m not the Omnipotent Creator Of All. If I was, we’d all be in a lot of trouble. Because, by nature I am in the business of settling the score for petty wrongs done to me. I think we have a perverted sense of the way God does justice. Like I said before, in the O.T., He used it as a means to bring people (usually His people, Israel) back to Him. Was it usually the last resort for Him? I think so. I think He gave chance after chance, and finally had to bring them almost to their end, and then allow them to embrace Him again. I don’t think God made the earthquake in Haiti happen (though He could have)…I think it is more likely that He would take a hand of protection off of them and allow something like that to happen.

So. I don’t think it’s my place, or your place, or the place of Pat Robertson, or anyone else to say, “Yep, just got a phone call from The Almighty, He said to make sure everyone knows that He totally wasted that place because He was super pissed at them”. It is our place to love that country, and those people through their situation regardless of how we feel about what happened. We gave up any other choice when we accepted the gift of grace on the cross. And it is our place to know that it is unthinkable that God would do wrong, or that the Almighty would pervert justice. Everything that happens, He does ordain, but it is all for the glory of His name. Doesn’t matter whether or not we see that.

-David