Series: Youth for Jesus
Number: Vol. 8, No.13
“When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.” (Eccl 8:11NIV)
After Amnon had raped his half-sister, Tamar, many or some of those who were privileged to know about the matter must have been waiting for a sentence to be passed by King David and his officials on the young man. But for some reasons not mentioned in the account, no sentence was immediately passed on him. In fact, judging from the account, it did not look like any sentence was ever going to be passed on him, for two years after, when he was assassinated, the sentence was yet to be carried out. (Cf. 2Sam 13)
Now why was no sentenced passed by King David on Amnon for raping his own sister? As I already pointed out, we are not told in clear terms in the account. It may be because he was the crown prince and sentencing him to death or to exile may not look politically okay. We wouldn’t know the reason for sure.However, because the sentence for his crime was not quickly carried out, Absalom, the elder brother of the rape victim, decided to take the law into his own hand.
Two years later, when everybody thought the matter had been forgotten, he arranged for Amnon to be assassinated. Then he fled.Now was Absalom also punished for murdering his own elder brother? No! Did David send anybody after him to arrest him and make him face justice? No! Then when he came back from the self-exile he had imposed on himself, was he punished by the king? No! Why was he not punished? Again, we are not told in clear terms in the account.
But then, because he was not punished, he had the opportunity he needed to stage a coup to get rid of his father from the throne. And he would have succeeded and destroyed his father, David, if God had not stepped into the situation to deal with him and rescue the nation from his hand. But many lives were needlessly lost in the process. They were needlessly lost because the man that was in a position to judge wickedness failed to do so when he had the chance to do so. (Cf. 2Sam 14-20)
Well, I personally believe that it is because of all this that Solomon, who witnessed it all, says to us in our opening bible text that when the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do evil.
What that means, first, is that when we are in a position to judge wickedness and will not judge it immediately or at all, somebody else that is not in a position to judge it may be filled with enough anger to judge it. And because the person is not motivated by justice but by anger or bitterness, they will most likely go beyond what is appropriate and adequate in judging the matter. Then they will have made a bad situation worse and be exposed to judgment themselves.
Second, when we fail to judge a crime in time, the person involved and other evil doers like them may be encouraged to do more evil. Why do many, for instance, keep on violating traffic rules in our country? The reason is that people are hardly judged for doing so.
So, most people drive their vehicles with the mindset that nothing will happen to them, even if they break all the traffic rules of the land. And think about the number of lives that have been needlessly lost as a result of that. It is unspeakable.In any case, Solomon wants us to know that if we want our society to be sane and healthy for us all to live in, we cannot afford to ignore crimes.
Instead, we must be quick to judge it in accordance with the laws of the land or of wherever we are, especially when we already have enough evidence to do so. Otherwise, before we know it, evil will so multiply against us that we will need divine intervention to judge it. And where that is the case, we ourselves cannot boldly say that we will be safe when all has been said and done.
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