Fairness in the Scriptures

If this life were our only consideration, it would be very unfair the way that some of the righteous are treated compared to others.  There are many instances where prophets or others who are righteous in the scriptures face very similar challenges but with very different outcomes.  In some of those outcomes the Lord miraculously saves them, but in others with similar circumstances we see them face great tribulations that they are not delivered from, at least not in this life.  The comparisons cause us to wonder why it is that the Lord sees fit to intervene in some times of great challenge but not others. 

                One such example comes from the book of Acts when Peter, James, and John were leading the Church.  We read this about Herod: “Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.  And he killed James the brother of John with the sword” (Acts 12:1-2).  After he was able to get rid of James, Herod tried to take out Peter as well.  But in this case the Lord intervened in a dramatic way.  He was in prison, likely awaiting his execution, and an angel came and delivered him out of bonds in a miraculous way.  So why did the Lord save Peter and yet let James suffer death under the hand of Herod?  Certainly it couldn’t have been any kind of punishment for James for he was a righteous man like Peter.  We might ask a similar question about Abinadi who after serving the Lord faithfully was taken and bound and “suffered death by fire” (Mosiah 17:20).  Why did the Lord let him suffer death in that manner?  We compare that to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego who though they “fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace” they received “no hurt” and were visited by the Savior (Daniel 3:23, 25).  So why were they miraculously preserved from burning when Abinadi—who surely was just as devoted a servant of the Lord as these three—was not saved but suffered death?  We could wonder the same thing about the people of Ammonihah who were righteous and believed the words of Alma and Amulek.  What was their reward?  “They brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be cast into the fire… that they might be burned and destroyed by fire” (Alma 14:6).  Why did the Lord let them die when He would soon thereafter bring Alma and Amulek miraculously out of prison such that “the walls thereof had fallen to the earth” (Alma 14:29)?  Why didn’t these believers also get that same kind of deliverance? 

                I’m sure we could pose this same question using many different examples.  I think that it can only be understood knowing that this life is not the end and that the rewards of heaven do not always come now.  As President Packer taught in his famous analogy of the three act play, “Remember this! The line ‘And they all lived happily ever after’ is never written into the second act. That line belongs in the third act, when the mysteries are solved and everything is put right” (see here).  If we look at examples like the ones above only with eyes on the second act, it certainly seems unfair why some would have to suffer so much more.  But with a “broad perspective of the eternal nature of this great drama” we understand that God’s plan does not require that all be made right in our mortal existence.  When Amulek wondered about the death of those innocent believers, suggesting that they too would be killed, Alma replied, “But, behold, our work is not finished; therefore they burn us not” (Alma 14:13).  The Lord knows what we need to accomplish in life, and for those who choose to follow the Lord, “our days will not be numbered less” (D&C 122:9).