If the effort we put in will not end in the desired result, would you still make the effort? If being good will not result in a good ending, would you still be good?

– Many cheat through school and get good jobs afterwards. (“Cheaters never win!” Really? Have we identified all the cheaters and found that they never won?)

– Many evade taxes and die old and rich.

– Many get away with murder (literally!) because of celebrity lawyer.

– Many abandon their wife and children and live happily with the new and younger wife.

– Many war criminals will live to old and ripe age and die happy.

You may say, “Well, in GENERAL, you get out what you put in.” That’s true. But some are obviously smart enough and savvy enough to get away with it. And they never face the consequences we all know they deserve.

So the obvious question: Why then be good? Why then be honest? Why then follow the rules? The writer of Ecclesiates ponders this very question.

It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. Ecc. 9:2

His conclusion? UNDER the sun, there is no meaning. If this world is all there is to it, then live anyway you like. If you know you can get away with murder, why not? But what’s under the sun is not all there is. There is One above the sun. He is the Judge of all things and a day of reckoning will come and He will do what is right.

This world makes no sense. The longer you live, the more confounding this world becomes. But there is a God who is sovereign over all. And He will make every wrong right. Look to Him.

PH