Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because the 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.”
God always intended that for every evil work there should ultimately be two judgements incurred. The first judgement should be incurred in this life because as we have already seen, God has placed authorities in the earth to wield the sword of judgement against all evildoers in the earth. The second judgement is the eternal punishment that God will pronounce on those individuals on their day of Judgement. And so while the second judgement is guaranteed to take place because God Himself effects that judgement, the first judgement in this life is not always guaranteed however, because God has given that judgement into the hands of those whom He places in positions of authority in the earth. In the above quoted passages of scripture God explains to us why mankind is inclined to do more and more evil. The reason is because mankind does not always incur punishment in this life for the evil works that he does, and so he foolishly believes that he will never be held to account. We saw in an earlier quoted passage of scripture that the apostle Paul warns those who do evil to be afraid because governments are able to wield the sword (Romans 13:4). This implies that citizens should expect swift justice against those who practice evil, because in a normal society their governments would function as God had always intended. Sadly, in many societies today the wicked are not afraid to do evil. So why is that? It is simply because the governments concerned choose either not to use the sword or they choose to use the sword selectively, i.e. against certain segments of society only. Clearly it is in that type of environment that the wicked become emboldened to practice more and more lawlessness. And so governments that are negligent in the impartial wielding of the sword can expect to eventually be judged by God Himself, for in failing to act in this area they have in effect become complicit with those who resist His ordinances. Eventually those nations reach a stage where God says enough is enough and He steps in and judges the whole nation, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:6).
Michael E.B. Maher
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