Main news for 21 March 2022

Reflecting on the goodness of God, the psalmist exclaims: "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth..." Today it is hardest for us to accept this fact. In other psalms and in other places of the Old Testament we encounter God's wrath and His threats, but it appears that here the psalmist is right, because both God's wrath and His warnings are expressions of the truth of His love for us.

And one more consideration. Perhaps you have a different impression, but I have more than once met people who, having found in the Bible God's promise of something good for those who do something good, immediately ask: "And if one does not do this good thing, then what, God will not give it?" This desire is astonishing: first of all to try on unrighteousness, "badness," and thereby "test" what will come of it. It is not impossible that this is how the very temptation works by which the serpent tempted Eve (Gen. 3).

Or perhaps behind this question stands an unconquerable desire to get something "for free," without exertion. It would seem that if the reward suits you, why not work? But instead of doing the work, we look around at others to see whether they managed to get the same thing with less effort, and if they did, we take it as a terrible injustice toward us. The well-known parable of Jesus is about this same human phenomenon (Matt. 20:1-16), is it not?