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Writer's pictureMrsCookieD

God is for Justice

In setting Israel up to move into the promised land, he warned against idolatry. He reminded them of the Feast at their appropriate timing. He focuses on tithing and caring for the Levites. He told them he would choose the place of their worship and not to think they were able to copy the ways of the pagan Nations for whom they would take the land. He outlined clean and unclean food, separating the Sabbath year to grant release of loans, and taking care of the poor. Where I want to land is a topic that is very dear to God's heart and part of His character, Justice.


When God set Israel in the promised land, flowing with milk and honey, he cared to identify how His people would carry out the justice he demanded. In Deuteronomy 16:18-20, God told Israel to "appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you... they shall judge the people with righteous judgment."


What is righteous judgment?


  1. It is not perverted and doesn't show partiality - there should not be favoritism in the judgment between people, whether for reasons of rich against poor. Justice must be rightly distributed no matter who is against or for whom it is for.

Though this is a command to Israel, it is a truth for all Christians to hold to as we live and deal with others. James 2:1 gives a warning to The Church not to show favoritism as you hold to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. "Favoritism" in Greek in this passage means to "receive according to the face." This is to make decisions based on outward appearance.


God wanted the judges set up in Israel to represent His character as impartial. God does not judge based on what we look like, the color of our skin, or what is in our pockets. Over and over, God told Israel His bias is toward the obedient. He warned Israel they were a holy people who would be treated like the Nations. He was running off if they chose disobedience.


While our media propagandize us to make preferences, especially on the bases of skin color, if we were to do that, or when we do that, we are not harmonized with the character of God, Romans 2:11. Passages such as Ephesians 2:11; Acts 10:34 tells us God doesn't make distinctions between Jew and Gentile. Jeremiah 9:23 tells us that God delights in those who understand He is a God of Justice and Righteousness, and then they walk out those traits in their lives.


2. It does not accept bribes - "a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous." When we think about that reality, it brings to mind what Paul says to Timothy in his first epistle 6:10; "For the love of money is the root of all evil..." Greed and the love of money don't just distort the soul of the one inclined toward that sin, but it changes godly wisdom to that which is earthly, demonic, and unspiritual and impacts those who need an opportunity to be judged rightly.


God says to those appointed to judge Israel's people, "Justice, and only justice, you shall follow..." God would accept nothing less. Jesus condemned the Pharisees, teachers of the laws, hundreds of years later as hypocrites. He repined against them, "for you tithe mind and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law; justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done without neglecting the others." The Pharisees and teachers of the law were still under the Old Covenant and were supposed to tithe. That system had not yet been done away with. Jesus condemned them because they kept the ceremonial law to the letter but neglected morality. While the tithe would change, justice and mercy are part of God's character that He imposes on His children and demands they be lived out in our dealings with all who bear His image.


While God was setting up laws and commands to separate Israel from the Nations around them, all of the ceremonial laws and feasts would be fulfilled in Jesus. All the moral attributes of God, such as Justice, Righteousness, Mercy, and Faithfulness, cannot be done away with, for they are the character of God lived out in human beings.


When God told Israel to appoint judges and officers who shall judge the people with righteous judgment and without partiality and not accepting bribes, they would be an extension of God among their countrymen and seen by the nations still in the land. As individuals who love God and are called according to His purpose, justice must be a part of our character. God shares that part of His character with us. We are without excuse.


When we favor those who share our skin color, we are not just if that person happens to be wrong.

When we favor those who share in our politics over those who do, and the one who shares our views is wrong, we are not just.

When we prefer the rich, well-established, popular, etc., over those who are not, and the former is wrong, but we pick them any way we are not just.


I'm sure you get the point and can come up with your scenario. When we are the example of God among the world around us, we must be for justice no matter who it is for or for whom it is against. That is the only way to be a true extension of the God we worship to the world around us. It doesn't make you popular, but it keeps you right with our God, a God of Justice.


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