Ezekiel 18:25 - Homiletics.

God accused of man's injustice.

The Jews were asserting that the ways of God were not equal, when the fact was that their ways, not his, were unequal.

I. GOD IS ACCUSED OF INJUSTICE . "Ye say, The way of the Lord is not equal." It is felt that the rule of the supreme God should be very different from that of earthly judges, some of whom take bribes, and all of whom are fallible. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" exclaims Abraham, when venturing to expostulate with God on what appears to him a threatened injustice ( Genesis 18:25 ). Yet the facts of life are often discouraging, and suggest to doubting, impatient souls a notion that God is not acting justly. The wicked prosper, and the good meet with misfortune. Children suffer from the misdeeds of their parents. Persons equal in character are unequal in fortune. To one the way of life is far more smooth than to another, although we can detect no good reason for the distinction. At one time a wild and mindless Chance seems to play with the world, at another a blind, stern Fate appears to hold it in an iron grip. We cannot discover the hand of justice behind the drifting cloud of circumstances. But:

1 . Justice does not involve equality, but treatment according to desert.

2 . We only see a small part of God ' s ways, and therefore cannot judge of the whole. The fly on the wheel cannot understand the machine. He might think the action of the "eccentric" deranged because it was unequal, and yet it is essential to the right working of the whole engine.

3 . We are too limited in nature to judge, even if we saw all the facts.

II. THIS ACCUSATION RESULTS FROM MAN 'S INJUSTICE . We impute to God what is in ourselves. We judge him by our own hearts and conduct. We know what would be our motives if we did certain things which we discover in the Divine action, and therefore we ascribe those same motives to God. We colour what we see with the hues that are in our own eyes. To the railway traveller the hedgerows and trees appear to be turning about invisible pivots, now flying to him and then swiftly whirling away; yet the motion is with the observer.

1 . We are unjust in attempting to judge God. Here on the threshold the fault is seen to be ours. Even if God were unjust, since we are not capable of understanding his actions, we should be unjust also in venturing to give a verdict on his deeds.

2 . We are unjust in our general conduct. There is a lack of integrity of heart in us even when our external behaviour is straight. We walk in crooked paths, and our conscience itself is perverted, so that the very rule by which we measure is warped. It is not surprising that God seems to be unjust when our standard of measurement does not agree with his action; but then the fault is with the standard. Until our own hearts and lives are right, it is not possible for us to form right views of God.

3 . We are unjust in ascribing our own injustice to God. The inequalities of society are charged against God. They come from "man's inhumanity to man."