Inherit the earth

Inherit the earth

9 For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

10 For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. - Psalm 37

It saddens me to consider that “evildoers shall be cut off.” It seems so sad, such a waste of life and opportunity. I don’t know about you, but my gut response to a biblical statement like this is usually, “Define evildoer.” It’s funny to me, because I’ve recently been chatting back and forth with a friend of mine where this subject has come up. His position: there’s definitely both evil and evildoers in the world. Not only does evil exist, but evildoers are actively partaking in sinister schemes of global implications. Additionally, the onus falls squarely on our shoulders to be wise to their schemes, denounce them and do everything in our power to stop them! In his mind there is very much a right and wrong, a good and evil, good guys and very bad guys.

My stance is different. And maybe I’m wrong, but I believe that people who set out to do evil are a negligible minority. I believe most people are looking to do right by their God and their fellow woman by doing the things they do.

Simply put, they do and say the things they do because they believe they’re in the right by doing so, and not because they’ve deliberately set out to cause harm to themselves or anyone else. Don’t get me wrong, I understand there are people who willingly inflict pain on others in physical, financial, emotional and spiritual ways. That said, I know these people weren’t born evil. They were sweet, tender babies at their mother’s breast just as you and I were. But somewhere along the way something broke. They had the wrong examples growing up, or no good examples. They could have been abused, mistreated, miseducated. Maybe they were exposed to the wrong mentality by a powerful negative influence. They may have been victimized and responded by becoming the victimizer as a defense mechanism. I don’t excuse their actions, attitudes or behavior. But I do believe these can be explained.

So to my friend’s point, is it then my responsibility to set such people aright? Is it my duty to alleviate the pain and suffering in the world? That’s quite the heavy burden! One that I’m often happy to point out, not even God seems to be too worried about addressing at the moment. Why do I say that? Because God could wipe all the evil from the world by the snap of the fingers or twitch of the nose, but chooses not to. So is God cruel? Why isn’t something done? The popular argument is that God is either not all powerful, or not all good. I maintain God is both. But there’s other elements God created and loves too much to take away from us, and that is autonomy, self-mastery and free will. As long as we’re free to choose, many of us will continue to choose wrong. And most if not all of those wrong choices culminate in the needless suffering of the environment, nature itself and all kinds of life, human, animal and otherwise.

So getting back to my friend’s point. I think the best thing we can do to alleviate pain and suffering is to set the best example we can by our own words, actions and way of life. Are we antagonistic towards others, constantly looking to magnify every last mistake and deficiency? Are we ‘holier than thou?’ Am I and my group completely in the right, and you and your group completely in the wrong? Are you the problem and I the solution? I believe that type of thinking is dangerous, detrimental to peace, love and relationships and what is ultimately dividing the world. So you think you have a better way? Model that way without denouncing the opposition. Prove you’re in the right by your actions, and leave the bickering and verbal jousting out. Learn to see the humanity in even the “greatest evil,” because they too might have ended up like you, had they grown up in your town and in your household with your generation.

But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Moving on to the sunny part of the verse, we say that those of us who wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth. Two questions naturally spring up: what does it mean to ‘wait upon the Lord,’ and what does ‘inheriting the earth’ entail? Here’s how I see it. Tying in the first part of this chapter, I believe that to endure evil is a type of waiting upon the Lord. How so? Well, elsewhere in scripture we have the following admonition, Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give no place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:19-21).

It’s refreshing, isn’t it? To consider that the best way to face evil, the biblical prescription, is to counter evil with good, and not to become embattled and engage evil with evil, seeking to make out of two wrongs a right.

This is my definition of waiting upon the Lord. Have patience. Stay strong. Do not waiver. Wait upon God who is the righteous Judge that will balance all things out in their own good time. Avenge not yourself. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You see we have to resist the all too human notion to retaliate and deal like for like. Equality! We think, justice! Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, tit for tat and this for that! Oh how desperately we hate Jesus’ injunction to turn the other cheek! Yes, there is a place for self-defense, and God does not mean to turn us into punching bags with this commandment. But we are to learn from it, instruct our hearts and minds. We can be better. We should be better and set the example. You can burn me, but I won’t burn you back. Rather I will pray that the Lord heals your heart and mends all wounds, so that you stop hurting yourself by inflicting pain on others. This needs to be the response of the believer. And God promises that if we do this, if we think, act and speak thus, then we shall inherit the earth because by our actions and very real example we’ll be overcoming evil with good.

To me, inheriting the earth sounds like winning the war. Aren’t the spoils of war usually a greater, expanded territory and larger, more prosperous population? What’s greater spoil than the entire world? It’s baked right into the language, overcome evil with good. We’ll be victors. But not in the traditional sense that we’ll gloat over the lifeless bodies of our enemy. But in the sense that there won’t be an enemy because we’ll have won them over with good!

There are two ways to conquer an enemy. You can either annihilate them (Hitler modeled this approach), or you can simply win them over to join ranks with your side and expand ‘the good army,’ (this is Jesus’ battle strategy).

So come along with me, let’s inherit the earth together! What’s more, the next verse, I believe, only helps drive this point further home. Let’s analyze it now.

For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. So question, where will “the wicked” be? Rotting in the eternal flames of hell? No! They will have repented and be enjoying the presence of God in the eternal paradise of heaven. Therefore “they shall be no more,” and “their place shall not be.” Remember? We just discussed this. All the world will be overcome by love, peace, health, prosperity. In a word, we’ll be overcome by good. Therefore, if all the world has been awarded to the righteous, and the righteous had beforehand overcome evil with love and their good example, where will the wicked be? They shall be no more, neither will you find their place. Why? Because all the world is healed now, there will be no such thing as evil, injustice, pain, suffering or inequality.

To quote the immortal John Lennon, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”

I know some people are going to disagree with me. I’m too lenient, too liberal, too forgiving, too bleeding-heart. That I support clemency at the expense of justice. The wicked must pay! Someone has to suffer! The broken dishes must get paid for! The dirty laundry must be dealt with! There’s been too many tears, too many lives cut short. Too much injustice and irreparable damage done to the innocent and undeserving. My friend, God promises to “wipe away every tear.” That includes the tears cried by the wicked when they were still young, impressionable and innocent themselves. Sure, their crimes, brutalities and injustices must be dealt with. But let’s get real for a moment. Do you want God to ‘justly’ deal with you for all of your indiscretions, infractions and wrongs? Should you pay for all your sins? I know that in my case, I’m begging for mercy, not justice. Therefore I pray the same for others. In my mind, this is just good policy. So why not let God be God and deal with sin as only God can? Why not let yourself and those around you be simple, fallible mortals seeking clemency over justice? Because at the end of the day, that’s the most we can ever hope to be in this life.

- Luis Herrera

November 2021