Many people find that God is not just that he allows the innocent to be tormented by the wicked, that he permits his most precious creation to suffer. Many live their lives questioning God with regards to their constant condition “Why am I going through this?”. The unfairness of the kingdom is in constant question. People have committed countless of wrongs and yet when they turned to God they were forgiven and erased their transgressions, while a righteous person commit a foully and dies; the exchange of life and death seems unfair. The distribution of riches seems to be directed away from the poor and given to the rich is deemed as unfair. Too often we clash with how God runs everything and such ways makes us run away from God, because the way we think things should go is not the way God does it.
Ezekiel 33:12-17
12 “Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’ 13 If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. 14 And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right— 15 if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die. 16 None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live.
17 “Yet your people say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ But it is their way that is not just.
God was setting a standard for the way. He was establishing a rule by which he does things and we should not expect anything else; we should not assume that God will run things the way we think. Through the prophet Ezekiel God establishes that if the righteous fail and fall into sin they will die and all their deeds will not remembered, and Jesus brings this up with a parable on judgement day (Mt 25:31-36). The way that God wants us to follow is the Jesus way, He said I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me (Jh 14:6). But, because the way seems not fair, I mean the just if they fail their deeds will not be remembered anymore and the unjust when they come to Christ their evil ways will not be remembered anymore likewise, so many just chose to follow the way of life. And, Paul speaks to the church and says that the wages of sin is death (Ro. 6:23), meaning when we chose not what seems to us unfair way death waits for us. Solomon thought about this too when he said “There is a way that appears to be (right), but the end it leads to death”(prv. 16:25), life away from God appears right where we can repay the evil doers the way we deem right.
King Solomon mentioned an example of the unfair way and he said that to a man whom God gives riches but no power to enjoy his riches and for a stranger to enjoy the man’s riches is vanity (Ecc. 6:2). There was this almost 90 year old widow who when she died left her millions to her cat and not to her family; its unfair, right? One of the reasons we have trouble with God’s ways is because his mind set is higher then ours (Is. 55:7-9). His ways of thinking far exceed ours and the ways he has established are beyond comprehension. We do not understand why the widow and the helpless suffer more then many of us. The unfair way is not God’s way, but it is our way; we are unfair. In fact, most of us are self centered and selfish. In Ezekiel 33:17 God tells the people that their ways are unfair and not his.