Opportunity with God
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
Actions have consequences. Seeds that are sown bear their fruit. Broken laws bring punishments. This is axiomatic to all rational thinking. But what happens when the effect doesn’t seem to follow the cause in human experience?
In particular, what happens when wrongdoing (in ourselves or in others) isn’t followed immediately by punishment falling from the hand of God? If “sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily” what effect does this have on human thinking? The answer is that the human heart loves to entertain the notion that you can sin and get away with it, and so people are easily encouraged in that thinking. When God warned Adam that by sinning he would surely die, the Serpent told him the opposite, that he would not surely die. He accepted Satan’s statement and disobeyed God. The belief that the pleasures of sin can be experienced and the punishment not follow inclines hearts to full capitulation to evildoing. Another example of this concerns the message that Christ is coming back. The Second Coming is a major theme of the Bible, foretelling a time in which judgment will fall on a sin-mad world. But it hasn’t happened yet. As a consequence scoffers say, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (II Peter 3:4). Many people mock the warnings of prophecy simply because they have not happened yet. This thinking is accompanied by a worldwide downward spiral into evil.
But the patience God shows toward sinning people is an absolute necessity if anyone is to have an opportunity to escape God’s judgment. If He punished every sin committed instantaneously we would all be destroyed before we ever had an opportunity to find the way to heaven. So the salvation plan of God makes possible a way of salvation to sinners and at the same time is an occasion for the world to grow even worse. Everything depends upon how human hearts respond to God’s grace. If this great salvation opportunity is reacted to by repentance from sin and faith in the Saviour sins are forgiven, and God’s wrath is escaped. This salvation includes a new heart and a new life. For those who despise God’s grace, however, there is no salvation from promised judgment and instead of godliness the heart is fully set to do evil.
The Bible does not say that God does not pass sentence speedily but that sentence is not always executed instantly. It will be surely executed in the next world. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Every human being owes their continuing life to God’s longsuffering toward sinners. It is the wise who use the opportunity to avail themselves of Salvation in Jesus Christ.