13 Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages. 14 For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. – Proverbs 5:13-14
Forever is a long time. I mean, there are work days that seem like they drag forever, but are nowhere in the same space as eternity. Often I have thought about what it would be like to live for that long. Like Dracula, I could spend my days in deliberate self-gratifying movement knowing that tomorrow is assured to me. Deep down, I know these countless days would be lost in a haze of naps and Netflix. Our time, no matter how long, will always be lived with a measure of futility. Yet one thing we can never seem to outrun is regret. Whether it was last week or last decade, there are things in our lives we wish were different. We long to go back in hopes of choosing differently.
God sees eternity differently.
His promises He recalls with crystal clear precision, while our misdeeds and offenses He looks past with barely a whisper. He outlives our regret. He surpasses our shame. This is His eternity. This is an everlasting compassion which He bestows upon His children. And not only compassion in regret, but righteousness in injustice.
When the forever Lord promises vindication, He promises us two paths. One is that of rich compassion. He will fight for you, slaying the ghosts of a fallen world. The second, is much more difficult for us to handle with integrity. If He is the one who vindicates, then what right do we have to seek our own self-serving justice? As He fights, we forgive. As He punishes, we serve.
He lives past our circumstances.
While He vindicates, He expects us to be the arm of vindication for others. In a post Genesis 3 world, injustice runs rampant. Instead of turning an all too normal blind eye to it, we are to fight for His Kingdom, His justice. There are things that should not be in this life. Racism, persecution, misogyny, corruption, all scream of a broken life. As image bearers, we fight to protect that same image in others.
This is a forever compassion.
Matt simon blog 