Wisdom and Justice
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The Justice of God
The Justice of God
Justice means “right, as it should be”
God is a God of Justice.
Deut. 32:4 , “ The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. “
Job 37:23, “The Almighty—we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate. “
Psalm 89:14, “ Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.
What is Justice?
What is Justice?
We, as creatures created in the image of God, long for moral justice.
Justice is understood as FAIRNESS, CORRECT TREATMENT, or EQUITABLE DISTRIBUTION of resources.
Biblical Justice is MORE than a mathematical distribution of goods.
The Bible speaks of JUSTICE as tied to God’s mercy and grounded in his relationship to us.
Justice is what God DEMANDS of his followers. (Deut. 16:20).
The justice of a community is measured by their TREATMENT of the poor and oppressed.
Isaiah 1:16-17; 3:15
Micah 6:8
Do Justice
Love Kindness
Walk Humbly
In the United States, more than 550,000 people are homeless, and more than 200,000 people sleep outside or in places that are unfit for human habitation nightly, according to D’Alessandro. Globally, human trafficking is a $100-billion-a-year business, with approximately 1.2 million children trafficked every year. Of youth who have experienced trafficking, 68 percent have also had an experience of homelessness, according to research conducted by Loyola University
Human Trafficking is MODERN DAY SLAVERY.
The Hebrew word for “justice,” mishpat, occurs in its various forms more than 200 times in the Hebrew Old Testament. Its most basic meaning is to treat people equitably. It means acquitting or punishing every person on the merits of the case, regardless of race or social status. Anyone who does the same wrong should be given the same penalty.
But mishpat means more than just the punishment of wrongdoing. It also means giving people their rights. Deuteronomy 18 directs that the priests of the tabernacle should be supported by a certain percentage of the people’s income. This support is described as “the priests’ mishpat,” which means their due or their right. Mishpat, then, is giving people what they are due, whether punishment or protection or care.
But to understand the biblical idea of justice, Keller says, we must also consider tzadeqah:
We get more insight when we consider a second Hebrew word that can be translated as “being just,” though it usually translated as “being righteous.” The word is tzadeqah, and it refers to a life of right relationships.
When most modern people see the word “righteousness” in the Bible, they tend to think of it in terms of private morality, such as sexual chastity or diligence in prayer and Bible study. But in the Bible, tzadeqah refers to day-to-day living in which a person conducts all relationships in family and society with fairness, generosity and equity. It is not surprising, then, to discover that tzadeqah and mishpat are brought together scores of times in the Bible.