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Karmic Justice? (Genesis 42:18-24)

July 21, 2021 | by: Gregg Hunter | 0 comments

Posted in: Genesis 42

Throughout history, people have always had some kind of belief in the phrase “what goes around, comes around.” Some call it Karma; some call it reaping what you sow. Some see it as the course of naturalistic events striving for cosmic balance; some believe it is God balancing His cosmic scales of justice.

For whatever the reason, people tend to believe that, when you commit bad actions, bad things will happen to you as retribution. It is this basic belief that has caused so many people to question God. Because they believe that bad things should only happen to bad people, they cannot fathom why God would allow bad things to happen to good people. But they are starting with a faulty assumption—the same faulty assumption that Joseph’s brothers have in today’s passage: “bad things are happening to me because I have done a bad thing.”

 

Please read Genesis 42:18-24.

Joseph’s brothers are guilty. Out of jealousy, they captured their brother, threw him into a pit, and sold him into slavery. They know that what they did was wrong, but they never admitted it—until now.

They cannot fathom why this Egyptian ruler would falsely accuse them of being spies, or why he would mistreat them so harshly, demanding the one thing their father would not be willing to give—their youngest brother, Benjamin. When faced with such cruelty and injustice, they begin to search for a cause. As they search their hearts, they remember how cruel and unjust they were to Joseph and surmise that this must be the reason they are being treated so cruelly now. What goes around, comes around.

But this is simply not true. God has placed this sense of justice within each and every human heart since the beginning of the world. Justice should be doled out, and God has sworn that He will execute justice on all the unrighteous. But that justice will not always take place in this life.

On this earth, God causes the sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. He gives another breath to an innocent child and to a serial killer. That’s called His common grace. As long as we are on this earth, God will continue to give grace, with the desire that all those to whom He shows grace will repent of their sins and surrender to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Both the doctor and the patient need this repentance and salvation; both the criminal and the victim. And so God continues to show common grace to both.

As a result, in this lifetime, God’s justice seems arbitrary. Floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes affect the morally good and the morally evil alike. Great windfalls seem to happen to bad people just as often as good people. On the surface, we cry out, “that’s not fair,” because what goes around doesn’t seem to be coming around.

But it will. God will execute justice. One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And every person who has surrendered their life to Jesus Christ and been forgiven of their sin will enter into eternal life. But every liar, every murderer, every adulterer, every idolater, every cruel and evil person will be cast into the lake of fire where they will suffer torment for all of eternity.

God will not be mocked. All those who do evil will be punished. But that doesn’t mean that every little bad thing that happens to you in this life is happening because you are being punished. That’s not how God works. He doesn’t practice Karmic Justice; His justice works on an eternal scale.

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