Chapter
20– Thinking about Justice and God
“I
walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice.”
(Psa 9:16)
This
is the second chapter working towards the subject of God,
Israel
& Canaan.
In the previous chapter we briefly laid out our stall and went on
to consider what the Bible teaches about God and justice.
Our
primary concern is to see if the teaching about God being a God of
justice matches His activities with Israel
in cleansing the land
of Canaan
of its inhabitants. That we
will go on to consider in detail in the next chapter. For now we will
simply think about the whole subject of justice.
Content
of Chapter 20
20.1
The Concept of Justice in Old Testament Usage
20.2
Justice in common usage today
20.3
Recap: The God of Justice
20.4
God as Lawmaker: His initial role
20.5
God as Law Upholder: His subsequent role
20.6
God as Bringer of Justice?
20.7
Review of the Chapter
We
need to move on and consider just what justice is. We have seen it
referred to many times in the Bible, but what exactly is justice and
can all of God's activities be considered just?
You
may be tempted to skip the chapter and move directly on to exactly
what happened in respect of the inhabitants of Canaan,
but I would urge you to persevere with this chapter because it helps
clarify our thinking when we come to that last chapter.
20.1
The Concept of Justice in Old Testament Usage
Let
us first of all consider the words for justice and what they
mean, that we find in the Old Testament, and then afterwards
we will consider more generally what society or the law thinks
about justice. |
What
does justice mean? |
The
words used for justice are, in older versions of the Bible, rendered
‘right judgment' and the sense is always of a fair judicial decision.
In
Old Testament teaching there is often the use of parallelism, where
a word or phrase is repeated or explained using different words so,
we've see in the previous chapter:
Absence
of justice is described
in Ex 23:2,3 as showing favouritism
- In
Ex 23:6,7 it was seen as bringing false charges and bringing wrong
judgments.
- In
Lev 19:15
it is seen as showing partiality or bias.
- In
Deut 16:19,20 it included accepting bribes and twisting words and
the truth.
But
justice seems intricately connected with the word ‘righteousness'
and so justice takes on a sense of rightness, correctness,
straightness, faultless, completeness, wholeness.
The
negative side of justice, we might say, is correcting
a fault or holding someone accountable for a fault or failure or sin.
The
positive side is declaring rightness
or bringing about rightness and balance.
Perhaps
we'll understand this more when we see in a moment, the cries for
justice. Justice is about what
we deserve or what transgressors deserve. In a day when ethics is
in confusion we need to return to basics here.
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20.2
Justice in common usage today
A
dictionary includes the following:
Justice
– just conduct, fairness, reward of virtue and punishment of vice.
Justice
is at the core of our being. We believe that wrongs need righting,
that wrongs deserve punishment.
Modern
relativistic thought undermines justice and waters it down so
that nothing is right and nothing is wrong – it depends on the
time and circumstances. But
none of us believe that deep down! |
None
of us actually believe things are neither right nor wrong |
If
my car is stolen, I want it back. No, it is not right that what belongs
to me has been taken.
If
my wife is raped, no, it is not right and the rapist cannot be excused
by psychological backchat.
If
my children were bullied, in whatever way, I would never say it is
all right – and neither would you.
In
modern life we get very frustrated and upset at the apparent inability
of the police to protect people – vulnerable families from hooligans
on ‘sink estates'. We become very upset when, in the first decade
of the twenty first century politicians appeared corrupt and bankers
appeared utterly selfish and foolish so that we had a ‘credit crunch'
and everyone suffered. We feel deep down that ‘it is not fair' and
someone should pay!
It
is the same cry that we hear from a small child: “Mummy, he's taken
my sweets” or “It's not fair, you've given him more sweets than me!”
These are the cries for justice, for a wrong to be put right. Oh yes,
even from the cradle we believed in justice.
When
we hear of nations, capitalist or communist or simply junta, where
those in power make capital and oppress the poor, something rises
within us that cries for justice.
A
common criticism of God is that he appears powerless to stop the injustices
of the world (we'll deal with that elsewhere), but when He does, the
same voices are raised in opposition.
It
is always a common cry in the modern media, whether it is a family
grieving for the loss of their child run down or gunned down, or the
call of religious or political leaders it is the same thing.
“We
have a voice, whether we work in aspects of the legal profession,
diplomatic service, the church or wherever we are. In what we
do and how we do it, in what we say and how we say it, we have
the opportunity to describe an inspiring vision which will call
this society forward from the depression of recession to a compassionate
society. The way to achieve that was to begin with hearing the
cries of the oppressed, hungry, homeless, poor and anyone bound
by injustice and hopelessness”
Rev
Trevor Williams, Bishop of Limerick
and
Kildare
Cries
for justice are heard:
- for
a parent to love, care, and step in for their child being abused
by the other partner,
- for
action to be taken to care for the oppressed poor,
- for
release from prison of those incarcerated because they disagree
with the politicians in power,
- for
the stop of genocide between tribal groupings,
- for
the stop of persecution again minority religious groups in Communist
countries,
- for
an end to corruption among politicians.
Yes,
in all of these cases we hear cries to right wrongs, cries for justice.
But
there is another aspect to all this; where there is ongoing
injustice, whether it be the injustice of a stronger person
abusing or oppressing a weaker person, or it be a strong group
or tribe oppressing a weaker opponent group or tribe, it is
important to take note of what we think about the oppressor.
|
We
don't believe in Oppressors |
For
instance where a young couple molest, injure and generally abuse their
young child (as has been reported more than once by the media in the
West in the early years of the twenty-first century), the last thing
on earth we would say is that they are being loving.
In
fact, part of our upset is that they are not being loving – and we
expect them to be so! We might say, “If they loved that child they
wouldn't do that!” and when it comes to negligent watchers of abuse,
those who stand by and do nothing when abuse occurs, we might say,
“If they were loving, they would step in and stop it happening.”
That
is a component of anticipated justice: we expect, in a civilised
nation, someone to step in and intervene to stop the
injustice that is occurring, whether that be parents,
social services or the police.
|
We
expect someone to stop injustices |
But
taking that a little further, if someone makes a claim to be a loving,
caring person, then we expect them to step in and stop things that
are wrong under their own roof.
Discussions
about justice often include talk about:
- retribution
– punishment that is deserved,
- restoration
– action taken to restore the victim and maybe rehabilitate the
offender,
- deterrent
– punishment imposed in order to put off further offences.
What
each of these things do is demand ACTION. Nowhere is there the attitude
that “justice means we do nothing”. No, justice demands something
is done.
The
basic justice of the Old Testament, in a primitive society, was “an
eye for an eye” which shows us the ‘balancing out' of offence by a
retaliatory act. This was in fact a limiting law – ONLY an eye, and
nothing more, in order to stop an ever increasing spiral of vengeance
coming about.
Justice,
perhaps somewhat obviously, is all about the law. The law lays down
how life shall be lived in a community. Someone disregards the law
and breaks it. Society calls for justice – some form of action to
be taken against the offender.
Mostly
in our societies in the West, in the early part of the twenty-first
century, justice is applied using the police (to apprehend the law-breaker),
and the courts (to ascertain the truth about the alleged offence).
Thereafter there may be a variety of other institutions to then carry
out the penalty decided by the court.
In
most cases, where there is a guilty decision in a criminal case, the
guilty part will suffer either:
- a
fine, or
- community
service, or
- imprisonment.
We
have deemed the death penalty inappropriate mostly, I suspect, because
of fears of injustice through miscarriages of justice. Thus we have
more and more prisons and more and more prisoners. The one thing prison
seems not to do is act as a deterrent.
It
is interesting to note that in Israel
in Old Testament times, prison
was not an option laid down by the Law. The Law laid down a whole
range of corrective actions, which enabled the community to continue
without the need for prisons. The death penalty was the ultimate penalty
for the taking of a life or causing the breakdown of the godly society,
and it was carried out by those closest to the incident or the individual.
Thus it became a rarity because once you had been involved in a stoning,
thereafter you would do everything in your power to ensure the need
for it never occurred again.
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20.3
Recap: The God of Justice
Now
before we move on much further, we need to reiterate some of the things
we have noted so far.
i)
Old Testament teaching and example
- God's
law required justice in everyday life of Israel.
- Justice
was something very significant in God's design for Israel.
ii)
Everyday thoughts about justice
- justice
is about righting wrongs,
- justice
involves putting people or society back on the right tracks,
- justice
follows on from stated laws that have been broken,
- we
all expect loving, responsible people to step in bring justice
and restore order.
In
what follows, we will see God as law-maker and as
law-upholder and also as the one who administers
justice.
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20.4
God as Lawmaker
- The
Bible affirms again and again that God is the Creator-Designer of
all of ‘Creation'.
- The
design/Creation that we observe is rational and orderly (where it
goes wrong it is caused by the outworking of sin through mankind).
- It
should almost go without saying that God therefore knows best how
the world that He has brought into being should work – including human
beings.
- The
Law of Moses, given by God showed Israel
how their society would best
work.
- It
also included laws on how to deal with those who broke the law and
the main emphasis was on them being restored to a right relationship
with God and within their society.
- A
question might arise in our minds about those people who were not
part of Israel
and who therefore had not been given or heard of God's design guidelines
(the Law).
- In
the New Testament the apostle Paul, when writing to the church in
Rome
dealt with this difficulty.
- A
summary of his teaching in chapter 2 is as follows:
God
"will give to each person according to what he has done."
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality,
he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and
who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does
evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and
peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the
Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.”
(Rom 2:6-11)
i.e.
God deals with every person according to the light which they have.
The Jews, he went on to explain, had the Law and would be judged according
to how they kept it. Those from other nations who did not have that
Law would be judged on the basis of the inner light which they had.
He implies that deep down we all know the truth.
He
contrasts two positions or two sets of behaviour:
- doing
good, seeking glory, honor and immortality
- self-seeking
and who reject the truth and follow evil
Let's
expand those:
- those
who do what they naturally know is good and right, who look to win
at least self-acceptance and self-praise in so doing, and possibly
public acclaim for it, and who look for the eternal existence that
they sense is there,
- those
who are utterly self-centred and God-rejecting, contrary to the
very obvious truth that we live in a ‘designed world' made by a
master-designer with clear ways of doing what is right according
to His design for us, rejecting these and doing the opposite, living
a harmful life that is described as evil (opposite to ‘good' which
is the God's design way)
Now
this isn't rocket science; it is pretty obvious stuff once you
stand still and think about it. Think about the sort
of world you would like to live in.
|
What
sort of world would you like? |
Here
are some suggestions:
- all
human beings exhibiting the characteristics of being loving, caring,
compassionate, accepting of one another, and being there for one
other,
- there
is no stealing, no abuse, no violence, no rapes, no murders,
- when
we cause an accident we take responsibility for our actions and
seek to remedy and put right any hurt or harm caused,
- where
we have been hurt or harmed we forgive,
- parents
care for their children and are there for them,
- employees
are honest and respectful of their employers,
- employers
are caring and respectful of their employees,
- etc.
etc. etc.
Most
of us would subscribe to this sort of society if it were possible.
This is the sort of society that is envisaged in the Law of Moses.
This is the sort of society that the apostle Paul implies in his writing
in Romans, chapter 2. In such a society we are enabled to develop
into the fullness of the people God has designed us to be and to joy
in a sense of self-worth and self-fulfilment. Strangely, in such a
society, when we don't put ‘self' first, we find that eventually,
in ourselves, we are more fulfilled and we thus feel better about
ourselves. It is the way God has designed us.
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20.5
God as Law Upholder
The
Bible is quite clear that God does NOT do two things:
•
He does not sit back and let us
wallow in our failures.
•
He does not bring instant judgement
on our failures.
What
He does do is intervene in our activities in order to bring
us to our senses and to help us come back (or come to) a place
where we are living according to His design-rules, i.e. He seeks
to bring correction |
God's
activity is always corrective |
The
book of Job is all about suffering and right and wrong. Listen to
what Job had learnt:
Job
33:14 For
God does speak--now one way, now another-- though man may not perceive
it.
- i.e.
God doesn't just let us get on with it; He speaks to us through
a variety of means, even though we may not hear it because our ears
are shut to Him – nevertheless He speaks so we'll never be able
to say He didn't warn us.
Job
33:17,18 “to
turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his
soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword”
- God
speaks through a variety of means, including sickness and suffering,
so that we will come to our senses and be saved from destroying
ourselves, both now today and in eternity.
Job
33:29,30 "God
does all these things to a man-- twice, even three times-- to turn
back his soul from the pit, that the light of life may shine on him.”
- God
comes again and again to try to bring us to our senses.
We
may worry and not understand about this matter of God using suffering
as a corrective means, but the apostle Paul, again in his letter to
the church at Rome,
explains in outline how God does this. He first of all explains that
the truth is there to be seen by anyone who has eyes to see, but when
we refuse to ‘see' the truth' God acts:
Rom
1:24,26-31 Therefore
(1) God
gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to
sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another…..Because
of this, (2) God
gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged
natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also
abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust
for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received
in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since
they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God,
(3) he gave them
over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed
and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.
They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful;
they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are
senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
- Because
people refuse to take notice of the truth, God ‘gives them over'
to foolish destructive behaviour (see it 3 times above).
- This
simply means that He withdraws His hand of restraint that is usually
there, and lets us get on without any hindrance. There is thus a
downward moral spiral, for the effect of ‘sin' in us means we tend
to go down, rather than reach up for greatness.
- We
see so many of these things in modern Western society and we think
they are the signs of a free, modern progressive society, but God
says they are potentially destructive, disciplinary things.
- I
have inserted numbers in the verses above to clarify what I am referring
to.
- The
first two are a releasing of desire and emotions which results in
unrestrained sexual behaviour. In our society we see that these
things bring with them a harvest of STDs.
- The
third one is a releasing of thinking with no restraint, so we think
what we like and behaviour soon follows. As we said above, it is
a downward spiral. The list there is increasingly obvious in Western
societies.
For
the purpose or reasoning behind this we have to go elsewhere in the
apostle Paul's writing. In the church in Corinth,
he heard of sexual immorality occurring within the church, being blatantly
practiced by one man in the church there, and so he counsels the church,
“hand this man over to Satan, so
that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the
day of the Lord.” (1 Cor 5:5)
i.e.
put this man out of the church (see v.13), out of the protection of
the church so that he will be vulnerable to the enemy, until the enemy's
work pulls him down and he comes to repentance. It is the language
of restoration. That this clearly worked is obvious by what he writes
in his second letter to them (see 2 Cor 2:6-8) when he counsels them
to now restore this same man.
Thus
we find in both Old and New Testaments, this divine strategy
being revealed. It is always clear that God is seeking
to restore to Him whoever will respond.
Separation from God is our primary problem. |
God
is always aiming for restoration |
When
the early church questioned the apostle Peter about the Lord's apparent
slowness in dealing with sinners, he replied, “He
is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance.” (2 Pet 3:9). That doesn't mean everyone
will repent but that God wants them to, and therefore gives
them space to.
Likewise
in the Old Testament we find the prophet, Ezekiel declaring, as from
God, “Do I take any pleasure in the
death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not
pleased when they turn from their ways and live?” (Ezek
18:23) and if we didn't take that in, he repeats it again a few verses
later: “Rid yourselves of all the
offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit.
Why will you die, O house of Israel
?
For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign
LORD. Repent and live!”
(Ezek 18:31,32)
No,
contrary to public belief, God does NOT relish bringing death! So
why then does He apparently bring it sometimes? We need to see it
in action to understand it.
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20.6
God as Bringer of Justice?
There
is no doubt about it, and the Bible is quite clear about it, God DOES
sometimes bring death. Now in the light of all that we have seen we
need to ponder that carefully.
Remember,
so far in this book, we have considered the Bible's claim that:
- God
is loving and kind,
- God
is good,
- God
seeks justice,
- God
seeks to draw people back into a right way of living.
So
how does it fit that God instructed Israel
to wipe out the inhabitants
of Canaan?
To think this through carefully we need to take time and effort, so
we will make that the specific subject of the next chapter.
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20.7
Review of the Chapter
There
was quite a lot in this chapter that we need to hold on to as we move
into the next chapter focusing on just what happened in respect of
Canaan ,
and so a review would be useful:
20.1
The Concept of Justice in Old Testament Usage
- We
saw that justice is all about ‘right judgment' and is closely
linked with righteousness. Negatively it is about correcting
faults or wrong behaviour; positively it is about bringing
rightness and balance.
20.2
Justice in common usage today
- Justice,
we saw, is about bringing fairness into human affairs, and
is inextricably linked with love and care.
20.3
Recap: The God of Justice
- We
reviewed the biblical teaching and our demands for justice
as we set the scene to review God's activities.
20.4
God as Lawmaker
- Here
we saw God's right, as Creator-Designer of this world, to
decree what is right, how things work best, including in
respect of human behaviour.
20.5
God as Law Upholder
- Here
we went on to see that God, in His love and as a means of
upholding or restoring the law into the lives of mankind,
constantly seeks to restore people to Himself and to His
design pattern.
20.6
God as Bringer of Justice?
- This
brought us to face the big questions about God as a bringer
of justice and bringer of love, as we look at the specific
instance involving Canaan.
|
Very
well, if we have absorbed these things, we are now ready to proceed
to consider in detail exactly what happened in respect of God,
Israel
and Canaan.
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