On Tuesday, as I was trying to concentrate on my studies, I found myself on YouTube watching riveting videos and news clips of the election protests in Iran. While I don’t claim to be any sort of expert on Iranian politics, from what I’ve heard, it sure seems to me the protesters are completely justified in their angry outrage. You’re not supposed to be able to steal an election. And you’re not supposed to be allowed to randomly shoot some pretty college girl and leave her bleeding out on the ground in the wailing arms of her father. That isn’t right or fair! Stay with us, Neda!Last week a couple of American journalists got sentenced to twelve years at hard labor because the lunatic North Koreans didn’t like their journalism somehow. Again, I don’t know all the details, but I sure know enough to say this isn’t right. This isn’t fair. This isn’t justice.
And for months now, I haven’t been able to get images from Zimbabwe out of my mind. Because of gross mismanagement, government corruption and other factors, the real value of Zimbabwe’s currency has fallen to virtually nothing. Children are panning for gold dust because this is the only way they can eat. This isn’t fair. This isn’t how things are supposed to be.
This isn’t justice! And justice is a very important word in my vocabulary. Justice is a downright inflammatory word in my vocabulary! I am passionate about justice, righteousness and true fairness. Justice is one of those feisty words that almost inevitably causes my blood pressure to rise and my very patient, gracious Monica to roll her eyes, tug my arm and say, “Oh Kevin, calm down now, that’s just the way things are. You can’t fix everything. Calm down!”
But I don’t want to calm down; I don’t want things to be this way! I want justice!
But what is justice? When I cry out for justice, I suspect I might well be crying out very differently than others around me. I am certain my definition of justice is wildly different than that of others. As Bruce Cockburn sang in his song many years ago, “Everybody wants to see justice done on somebody else!” What is justice? What does the Bible say about justice?
The Old Testament prophets spent an awful lot of time talking about justice. One of my favorite passages, and one of the most famous, is found in Micah 6 (page 850). God was angry with His people and He brought His case against them to court. Following a very ancient court case format, God called the entire universe to witness as He sought justice. Listen carefully.
Listen to what the Lord says: "Stand up, plead your case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say. Hear, O mountains, the Lord's accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the Lord has a case against his people; he is lodging a charge against Israel. My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened [wearied] you? [NLT: What have I done to make you tired of me?] Answer me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. [Balak wanted Balaam to prophesy evil against you and I made him say nothing but good stuff! It was hilarious! Do you remember that?] Remember your journey from Shittim [where you blew it!] to Gilgal [where I forgave you yet again!], that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord. [The prophet steps in to speak for the people.] With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you people what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly [to do justice] and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
I’ve treated you well! I’ve treated you lavishly and graciously! I have loved you and I have led you through some very deep waters! Why are you behaving as you do? Why are you treating me as you do? Why are you treating each other as you do? You already know the gist of what I want from you and for you! Act justly! Do justice! Love mercy and walk humbly!
We could talk for hours about all the Bible has to say about justice, but there are three very simple, very foundational biblical facts more important than all the rest.
Justice Is About Action
The first justice fact the Bible, and this passage especially, make abundantly clear is that justice is about action. Justice is about embracing lots and lots of verbs. Justice is something we do. Justice is not simply something we talk, argue or emote together about. Justice is not something we’re supposed to sit back passively and wait for somebody else to do. Even a very cursory glance through Scripture tells us justice is about truly and practically caring for the least of these my brethren. Justice actively cares for the orphan and the widow. Justice refuses to accept the bribes and payoffs the world inevitably offers. Justice ensures the scales of justice favor neither the rich nor the poor. Exodus 23:1-3 says justice doesn’t “spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness. Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.” Justice refuses to follow the crowd or any of the politically correct advice of the day. Justice actively rejects any form of partiality.
Justice Is About Relationships
The second biblical fact about justice is also enormous. This one is smeared all over God’s Word. Not only is justice all about taking righteous and just actions, justice is all about relationships. Almost everything the Bible has to say about justice and injustice comes to us couched in the language of relationships. Justice is about doing what is godly, right and fair in our relationship with God, with our leaders, bosses and coworkers, our relationships with our spouses, children, families, friends and neighbors. Almost everything the Bible has to say about justice is taught from within the context of relationship. Justice is about fairness in relationship.
Last week, as we were discussing what the Bible has to say about generosity, I told you about a sticker one pastor came up with. His sticker was intended to remind us that “it doesn’t belong to me.” All things belong to God and we must not be overly possessive. But today, as we study what the Bible has to say about justice, I believe we need reverse last week’s sticker. When we study what the Bible has to say about justice, we quickly discover God’s desire for us is to take ownership and responsibility for almost everything in the world around us. In effect, God wants us to behave as though “it all belongs to me.” God wants me to protect this world as though I created it and held the deed to it. God wants me to guard your property as if it were my own, your spouse and children as though they were my own, your church family, your company, your home, your school, your friends; a biblical perspective on justice demands a fairness completely driven by a sense of relationship to the entire world around me. Biblical justice is soaked in relationship and community. We cannot understand justice apart from that.
Justice Is About God
Justice is about action. Justice is about relationships. But exponentially more important than either of those, we must understand justice is first and foremost about God. Justice is completely derived from the nature and fundamental character of God Himself. Justice is what God says it is. Justice is what God models it to be. Whatever we know about what is right, fair and just in our relationships with the world around us comes to us as a direct result of our understanding of God’s perspective on those things. Proverbs 29:26 tells us “many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that people get justice.” Psalm 9:16 says,“The Lord is known by his justice.” Psalm 97:2 teaches us “righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.” And when Isaiah prophesied about the coming Messiah, as Matthew repeated for us in Matthew 12:18-21, do you recall the foundations and focus of that prophecy? “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he leads justice to victory. In his name the nations will put their hope.”
It is God alone who defines justice, righteousness and fairness. It is justice that Jesus came to proclaim to the nations. It is justice leading us to victory. It is in his name, and only in his name, the nations will put their hope. Only the character of God properly defines justice.
And this is why the increasingly unbiblical, moral relativism of our age is such a slippery and dangerous thing. This is why even the slightest diversions from God’s standards become such enormous issues. The more we divorce ourselves from the God of the Bible, the more little justice and righteousness compromises we begin to accept, the more we begin to distance ourselves from Almighty God and His nature, the less we will understand about justice and the less justice we will enjoy as a people. Justice is about God. The less we know God, the less we listen to God’s Word, the less justice we will enjoy in the world around us. The Hebrew word often translated “justice” in the Bible is the same word often translated “righteousness.” Do you see? The two words are inseparable. Justice is nothing but the outward demonstration, the obvious fruit, of a holy, righteous God. Only God gets to determine what justice looks like.
As I was writing these very words, my Liberian friend Tony Weedor called to inform me of his next trip to Liberia in August. But one of the additional issues he called on me to pray about was a recent article written by a prominent Liberian politician. The article espoused policies and behaviors wildly outside righteous, biblical standards of justice. And my friend Tony is pushing and hoping for a chance to publically weigh in on the issues, because Tony believes the justice and righteousness of a struggling nation are at stake. Tony doesn’t believe in compromises where true justice and righteousness are obviously concerned. And as he was passionately sharing his righteous concerns with me, he said, “Pastor, think about it, how many sins did it take for even the great Moses to be disqualified from experiencing the Promised Land?” Just one, pastor, just one! And Tony’s point was that if we want to experience the full, wonderful glory of our promised land, we must allow Almighty God alone to define justice and righteousness. And when He does so, we must adhere to those definitions; we must do justice.
We swim constantly in a sea of injustice and unrighteousness. We can’t hardly get out of bed in the morning without coming face to face with something that isn’t quite right or fair.
It is my prayer this morning that we would be a people absolutely ravenous for the pure and holy justice of God. I pray we would all fall so deeply in love with our righteous, holy and Almighty God; we would slowly but surely become more righteous and sweetly just ourselves as a byproduct. He has shown you people [over and over again!] what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God
May we proclaim justice to the nations! May God’s justice lead us to victory!
Amen.
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