One of Life’s Riddles

One of Life’s Riddles

There are many riddles in life. Now and then some of them are solved, for God gives of His hidden wisdom to those who love Him, or if you will, to those who love righteousness and mercy.

Here is an unusually interesting riddle: Now and then, throughout the years, one can witness that a brother levels an extreme accusation against another brother with all of his heart, in the name of righteousness, truth, and wisdom, in the name of caring for the furtherance of the kingdom of God. He maintains that it is for the sake of God. He thinks that he cannot do anything else; it is impossible to remain quiet about it—it is far too bad.

It is unspeakably easy to believe that such fervent, caring, and truth-loving souls, as a reward for their godly fear—in accordance with the Scriptures—will be richly showered with everything that is good: with light and peace and love and progress in every way, whereas the accused—in the name of everything that is righteous and reasonable—will waste away because of his offense.

Yes, if it did turn out that way, it would not be a riddle. However, the riddle is that it is exactly the opposite! The accused continues his life in faith and love, in peace and joy, and continues to grow the growth of life, undisturbed, while the soul who showed that he was so fervently zealous for God’s cause, for the furtherance and the glory of His kingdom, ends up in darkness. He is the one who loses both peace and joy and rest, the very one who appeared to have such caring love. He is the one who loses his brotherly love not only for the accused but also for the others. He is the one who no longer wants to see the brother whom he embraced only a short time before, weeping and telling him that no one knew how thankful he was and how deeply he loved him. He is the one who draws back, whose power vanishes, who is ruined and suffers loss to a greater or lesser degree.

Isn’t this a riddle? If there was no solution to be found, then it would not be a riddle! Then it would be gross unrighteousness! Then there would not be a righteous God!

But now we know that He lives, as righteous as a consuming fire! God, His ways are perfect!

What is the answer to the riddle? The answer is that if the accused brother made a mistake, it is only like a drop in the ocean compared to the accusation itself. The accuser is so much more in the wrong than the accused as there is more water in the ocean than in a drop of water!

No wonder it turns out completely opposite to what one might think!