God Pays No Attention

Injustice has always "run rampant" through the world. Job's complaints about this are as relevant today as they were when first expressed.

"Why are times not kept by the Almighty,
and why do those who know him never see his days?
The wicked remove landmarks;
they seize flocks and pasture them.
They drive away the donkey of the orphan;
they take the widow's ox for a pledge.
They thrust the needy off the road;
the poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Like wild asses in the desert
they go out to their toil,
scavenging in the wasteland
food for their young.
They reap in a field not their own
and they glean in the vineyard of the wicked.
They lie all night naked, without clothing,
and have no covering in the cold.
They are wet with the rain of the mountains,
and cling to the rock for want of shelter.
There are those who snatch the orphan child from the breast,
and take as a pledge the infant of the poor.
They go about naked, without clothing;
though hungry, they carry the sheaves;
between their terraces they press out oil;
they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.
From the city the dying groan,
and the throat of the wounded cries for help;
YET GOD PAYS NO ATTENTION TO THEIR PRAYER" (Job 24:1-12).

Sensitive Christians empathize with the oppressed. Philosophers and theologians seek explanations for injustice on earth. Does God exist? Does not God have the power to do something about this? Is God unloving, and therefore does not care about those who suffer wrong?

There are no satisfactory intellectual answers to the tough questions of life. But still, the message of the Bible is to trust in God--his wisdom, his power, his love--in spite of "evidence" opposing such trust. Reason or Logic may not be the answer to life's most difficult dilemmas. Maybe we need to trust when there seem to be good reasons not to trust.