God's Vision of Justice

August 8, 2021

Micah 6:6–8 ESV

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

This is the call of God on our lives. Throughout the Bible God demonstrates his love for this idea of justice. He calls us to pursue justice.

You know, in our culture we talk a lot about the rights that men and women and people in general have. We value our rights especially as Americans. But you know this idea end language of rights is really rooted in an old biblical understanding. The very idea that you and I have a right to life and liberty and freedom and etc is grounded in our Christian faith. The idea that the poor the widow and the orphan and the immigrant don't have to worry about their safety or that someone is going to take advantage of them... This is a Christian concept of a just society.

The word for justice actually occurs hundreds and hundreds of times throughout the Bible. And this word for justice is actually strongly related to the word for righteousness.

But to start off let's think about how we think about justice in our world today.

We start off very young with a deeply ingrained sense of fairness. I mean my children have a very clear understanding that it's important that they are treated fairly. That's justice.

You know the word for justice actually comes from the Latin word Eustis meaning fair or something Upright.

For humans justice means valuing the rights of each individual. Well we don't see this in the animal world. You don't go from watching how the animals act to our human sense of justice. We are moral creatures living in this world and not animals.

The biblical story is actually pointing us towards justice as humans. Gods work throughout the world his bending the universe back towards straightness or justice.

Interestingly we agree as a world that we want justice but we disagree about what exactly justice is.

In America we're passionate about liberty and justice but we disagreeing more and more all the time about deeply held values and therefore about what liberty and justice really is.

Think about it, culturally there are three different views of justice.

Maximize Welfare

First, one view of justice is to maximize welfare of all people and hurt the fewest people. It's kind of a socially equal view.

Respect Individual Freedoms

Second, this view of justice is about respecting individual freedoms. It's about liberty and the idea that each individual should be given the liberty to live how they want to live. It's the don't tread on me idea.

Promoting Moral Virtue

Third, this view of justice is promoting moral virtue. It's the idea that justice means protecting what is right.

interestingly these three views of justice often line up with three views of politics don't they? The idea of maximizing welfare for all people equally it's more of a socialism worldview. The second view of justice that is respecting individual freedoms is connected to political libertarianism. And finally the view of justice that's all about moral virtue and protecting certain ideas is conservatism.

And these three views on justice lead to very charged conversations in our culture with many hot topic issues like what we've discussed in the last couple months. in the Bible But today I want to take a look at a few passages because I want to understand what the Bible teaches about justice.

To start let me re read the passage I started with

Micah 6:6–8 ESV

6 “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah uses the biblical word for justice here mishpat. And in the whole of the book of Micah he is accusing the leaders of Israel of serving themselves. Micah calls them to do what’s just. He calls them to righteous justice.

There are two types of justice or two ways that justice is understood throughout the scripture.

Retributive Justice

First of all justice is understood in the retributive sense.

When the Bible talks about the penalty for our sins that Jesus paid it's talking about the punishment we deserve for our sins. That is retributive justice.

Restorative Justice

The second way that justice is understood throughout the Bible is restorative justice.

This is the idea of working too guard the poor and the widows and the orphans. It is when someone asks in defence of someone who is vulnerable. This is for example when David shows mercy and protects the children of Jonathan after he became king. He showed justice because of the promise he had made he showed restorative protective justice.

The vast majority of times this word for justice is used throughout the Bible it's used in this sense of restorative justice. And when you look at the laws that defined how the nation of Israel should live they were built around this idea of creating a society that protected the vulnerable.

Were attributed justice is punishing people who do wrong. Restorative justice is making sure the community is such a place where everyone can thrive and is treated fairly.

Let's take another example from the Bible. OK when the 12 tribes of Israel were given their land which tribe didn't receive any land?

The Levites

If they didn't have any land how do they take care of themselves as a tribe? All the rest of the tribes were told to donate 1/10 oh their produce and animals to the levite's. And what's interesting is when you look at deuteronomy chapter 18 God takes time to describe how the levers are to be taken care of and let's look at the language he uses.

Deuteronomy 18:1–2 ESV

1 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance. 2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.

This is called their mishpat. This temple tax that the levite were due is called their justice. Now think about it it would be very easy for the rest of the tribes to say the Levi's didn't do any work why should they receive this food. The leaves don't have land and they don't own my land therefore they don't have a right to what I produce.

and yet when God set an order for society in the israelite nation he made it long that the levite's had a right to be cared for. So the rest of the nation had to understand that doing justice meant looking out for this tribe that couldn't lookout for itself.

Let's look at another passage

Zechariah 7:9 ESV

9 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another,

Again what God is calling the people to is justice and mercy.

Let’s look at one more passage. Many of us read parts of this passage in our Our Daily Brea devotional this morning.

Amos 5:4–24 ESV

4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: “Seek me and live; 5 but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing.” 6 Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel, 7 O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth! 8 He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name; 9 who makes destruction flash forth against the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress. 10 They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. 11 Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. 12 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. 13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. 14 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 15 Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph. 16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: “In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation, 17 and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord. 18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, 19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. 20 Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it? 21 “I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. 22 Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. 23 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. 24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

The Bible certainly talks about retributive justice. Where people go to battle to defend the nation of Israel. Where God judges sin. And where God will return to judge the world. But the vast majority of times when justice is mentioned it's in this restorative sense.

Throughout the Bible the idea of a just society is a society where the week don't have to be worried. The vulnerable don't have to fear..

When you read through the psalms as we are doing in the Our Daily Bread series look at all the times when justice is mentioned. Usually it describes the character of God and not just something he's doing.

But also we have psalms like this one:

Psalm 146 ESV

1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

This is what justice looks like in God's sight and how he is doing justice. It's radical.

The Story of Israel is a Story of Restoration

Think about the story of the Israelite nation. It was all about how God rescued them out of Egypt. This idea of God saving them carried through to the New Testament and Jesus.

And then when God saved the Israelites out of Egypt he gave them laws that created this society that looked out for the weak.

The year of Jubilee.

Every 49 years land had to be returned and debts forgiven.

Gleaning

Farmers were required to not pick every possible bit they could fund their fields. They were required to leave something for the poor to work and pick up to provide for themselves.

Throughout the laws of the Old Testament God was pushing his people towards creating a culture and a society where the weak were taking care of and restorative justice happened.

Conclusion

the biblical vision of justice is both retributive and restorative. From the beginning of the Bible to the end God is a God who judges the wicked and punishes sin. He is fierce in his justice in his time.

And yet God is also the God who sent Jesus to save us from our sins. the vast majority of times justice is actually mentioned in the Bible as it is about this idea of restoration. And protection. Perhaps one of the most refreshing characteristics of God is his love for restoring broken people who don't deserve his restorative love. And isn't this what God calls us to?

James 1:27 ESV

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Amos 5:24 ESV

24 But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.