Who...is the king of the earth?

If this is the kingdom of heaven...then it God really is a mess.

I went to workout this morning at Portland Adventist Academy with some men of God and good buddies of mine. When we walked into the dungeon of a weight room in the basement of the school we noticed an interesting dichotomy. Glancing in the guys locker room we discovered a mess. All kinds of stuff on the floor; shoes, trash, dress shirts and ties, dirty socks and the odor went right along with it. So just out of curiosity we knocked and looked in the girls locker room. The floor was clean everything was in order, the dirty jersey's were in a laundry hamper the trash in the trash can and there was even a nice smell permeating the room. When I look at those two rooms it would be silly to blame the principal of the school for the mess or lack of mess in those rooms. The responsibility falls on the teams for their own space.

I think this is true of the planet we call home as well. There are parts of this world where things are well maintained and cared for. There are parts of this world where chaos reigns. Is it really fair to blame the God of the universe for the mess or lack of mess in this world he has given us? Even more so we are the ones who chose to give dominion to the enemy of God, so why are we surprised when suffering and godlessness reign.

In Job chap 34, Elihu continues is tirade against Job. He accuses Job of speaking as the wicked do, saying there is no benefit to serving God, which isn't true at all, Job never said he wasn't going to keep serving God. Elihu goes on to speak of the justice of God, God reigns over the earth so everything taking place is for his divine justice. Therefore once again Job needs to be schooled in what he has done wrong and accept his punishment, coming back to God so he can be blessed once more.

God is sovereign, he could wipe out all of humanity if he wanted to as Elihu suggested and and as the flood basically did, but he chooses not to. This world is under the reign of an adversary and the mess he and we make of this locker room has little to do with God. It was our responsibility to care for this place and each other, we gave the rule over to someone else. So now we are left with caring for each other in the middle of the mess.

May we take responsibility for our lives today and the care we can bring to other people. And when uncontrollable suffering strikes I pray we would give credit where credit is due...to the guy we put in charge.

There is a time coming as Job himself cried out for, when we will see our savior in the flesh and God's justice will once again reign when this kingdom of earth is restored to the kingdom of heaven. Oh how sweet the smell will be on that day!