The table seating at the eternity banquet will be a function of the justice of God. We all have been taught that God is Love and a Holy God. This dualistic understanding of God is difficult to put our heads around. It need not be so. The justice of God is exercised in eternity to compensate for the injustice experienced in this world.
We have all
mouthed the words, “it just isn’t fair!”
Nothing about life is fair, we all live in a world that is random and
temporary, very little seems to have a rhyme or reason. Eternity and the justice of God is about bringing
eternal justice to compensate all of us in varying degrees for the injustices
of this world. God knows who has
suffered the greatest earthly offense and will seat us at the banquet
accordingly.
Who will be
celebrating up closest to the head table?
Certainly not me nor you, we will not be so blessed. To pick and choose is impossible for us but
as has oft been voiced, nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37; Matt.
19:26). I am not God nor are you so I guess we’ll just have to guess. Any
takers, how would you arrange the seating at the banquet?
Please allow
me to guess. If God’s standard of judgement
has been reflected correctly in the words of Jesus, relative selfish actions in
this world will be how God decides. Choose
any word you like, sin or selfishness. We
all have a lifetime of choosing; shall I be selfish today or not? This
was the focus of the Sermon on the Mount; the question of ethics is how we unselfishly
treat others.
Killing of
another human being is the ultimate act of selfishness. Moses gave us the Ten
Commandments, one of which is “thou Shalt not Kill”. For four thousand years we seemingly
spiritual peoples have been making exceptions.
Killing in the name of religion or politics, under certain circumstances,
is unavoidable. Really?
Jesus put it
this way when asked about the greatest commandment, “He replied, thou shalt
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind. This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt.
37,38,39). I believe that Jesus was
misquoted, what he must have said was “your neighbor before yourself” because
that is how he lived and died. Instead
of silence, he could have defended himself.
Killing is
playing God in the life of another human being, robbing them of their God given
spiritual potential. Maybe, in this
world, the evil of killing is a seemingly necessary evil but killing is always
an evil. We shall be judged and seated
at the banquet accordingly. Returning to my guess, two killing circumstances
appear to be the most egregious. One is killing in the name of God and the other is killing of another human being in the womb before it has any spiritual
opportunities. These folk, these babes, will be
closest to the rejoicing table in eternity.
G. Goslaw
Landers, Ca
