Some thoughts on justice

You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 16:19-20

Justice matters to God because it is righteousness applied to the most difficult human circumstances. God is just. He treats humanity with grace and mercy. He does not let sin go unpunished, yet He forgives the truly repentant and extends mercy. He has pity on the needy and truly cares for them.

God also cares about human justice and those who are charged with dispensing it because it is a means that He has set up (that's what the last half of this chapter in Deuteronomy is all about) to answers the prayers and right the wrongs of people in need. It is not the only answer to their prayers, but righteous judges acting on biblical principles, practicing true justice are meant to be dispensers of God's mercy and help. In Israel, justice was not about human power to gain. It was about the human power to aid others and to give.

A rant about the absurdities of any one system of human justice corrupted by sin would be pointless. Biblical principles of justice must still frame the Christian worldview on society, even if much of our culture disdains biblical christianity and sees no need for it with stringent secular commitments. Secularism as a model, especially naturalism, cannot be fair or equitable because at its heart it has to be committed to survival of the fittest or strongest. Justice is thus impossible and the situation is warped into injustice by sinfully, selfishly warped human nature. God's truth, however, is still the corrective.


- Posted with my iPad. The Apple Kool-Aide tastes fine.

Authority, politics, and a reminder of Who controls it.

Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth, and to overthrow the throne of kingdoms.

Haggai 2:21-22

 

Just a short observation as I wrap up this look at Haggai’s prophecies: God has authority over all human politics. That is the assertion made here by God Himself. It is true. God was telling a government official through His prophet that He was in control of both of heaven and earth. And no throne or kingdom was beyond His grasp.

 

The warning was meant to encourage the returned exiles that foreign nations would bring them national prosperity again. But this would be God’s doing and not strictly the result of human endeavor. God even says that military outcomes will result in Israel’s enemies destroying themselves. This would clearly leave God in control and worthy of worship. So don’t get any more wrapped up in politics than God is. It exists to exalt God as He gets the glory! Human power is nothing to Him.

 

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How to deal with a corrupt government.

But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." And they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's." Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they marveled at him.

Mark 12:15-17

The question that Jesus was dealing with was a politically loaded one for all the Jews: “Should we pay taxes to the pagan king of Rome?” Resistance to Roman rule was starting to swell up in Judea. And Jesus knew this. But he refused to seek or to be just a political solution. Within a generation after Jesus’ crucifixion administered by a Roman death squad, Jerusalem would be totally sacked by Caesar’s legions. Why? Because Jewish revolt did not listen to these words.

Jesus made it clear that there are indeed degrees of allegiance. As far as He was concerned, no one deserved God’s level of allegiance. But when it came to paying a tax to Rome, He saw it as legitimate to hand Roman coins over to Roman authorities when required… as long as God was getting His correct allegiance and worship. I am quite sure that Jesus would have had nothing to do with emperor worship, since that was God’s domain. But He would donate a denarius when called upon by the tax man.

Today’s evangelicals should take a lesson from Jesus regarding the current administration and rising secularism in culture and government worldwide. I am worried for all those who have now gone totally “Glenn Beck” in their approach. I am not necessarily happy with the increase in socialistic practice in America. And our debt will effectively bankrupt generations at this point. But I do not believe that government is the answer. I’ll give to Caesar everything but my ultimate trust! That is God’s domain. He is the God who led Christians into the arena in Rome and was faithful to the martyr. And Christianity flowered and flourished under such a government. God is greater than government.

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