There
is a catch-all word in the Bible that describes the heart of God. Here is one
of the 200 times it is used in the Hebrew Old Testament: “And what does
the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly
with your God[1]” (Micah 6:8b.)
The
word is “justice.” In the Old Testament, justice means giving people their
rights.
Consider these passages:
“…
defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Prov.
31:9b.)
“8 And the word
of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 “This is what the Lord
Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one
another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the
foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other’” (Zech. 7:8-10.)
In
the time of Zechariah, four groups had no social power: widows, orphans,
foreigners, or poor people. They lived from day to day. Today that would
include the refugee, the migrant worker, the homeless, the single parent, and
elderly people.
So
the justice of the society from the scriptural point of view is evaluated by
how the society treats these groups. Indeed, neglect is not only called a lack
of mercy but a violation of justice.
Listen
for to the words of Psalm 146:7–9:
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and
gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
8 the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those
who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains
the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
Do
these words evoke memories of proclamations of Jesus? I think about Jesus and
the book of Luke when I hear them.
As
God plans out his government in Israel in the book of Deuteronomy, he offers his
wisdom. Let me present them to you in bullet form:
*
God is the defender of the poor.
In
Deuteronomy 10:17–18 we read, “The LORD your God…
defends the calls of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the immigrant,
giving them food and clothing” (Deut. 10:17-18.) NIV
While
we have passages showing the objectivity of God (such as Deuteronomy 1:16–17, “16 And I charged
your judges at that time, “Hear the disputes between your people and judge
fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and
a foreigner residing among you. 17 Do not show partiality in
judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be afraid of anyone, for
judgment belongs to God. Bring me any case too hard for you, and I will hear it”) we never see the Bible describe
God as the defender of the rich. Yet,
many times he is called the defender of the poor.
While
there are texts in Scripture calling for justice for members of the well-off
classes, the number of passages calling for justice for the poor outnumber these
100 to 1.
Of
course, rich people can be treated unjustly. Still, think about history; think
about human nature. It is easier to act unjustly toward people without money or
social status, who have no means to defend themselves, than it is to act in
such a way toward those who can.
Do
you remember (or have you read about) the O.J. Simpson trial? There was a great
deal of debated and nervous energy during that time period. Obviously, there
were racial overtones. People of all races weighed in with opinions. But now
that we have almost 20 years perspective, notice, no one of any race
embraces O.J. Simpson. He quickly became an outcast to all of society—the
object of derision.
So
what was the fuss all about? The fuss was about money and justice.
A
number of people at last felt vindicated because O.J. Simpson had the means to
pay for the best legal counsel costing millions of dollars. Millions felt that
O.J. Simpson was guilty, but his legal counsel got him off the hook. And many,
who had been frustrated by the perceived “injustice” of the judicial system,
felt vindicated. You could almost hear millions of people say, “See! We told
you money gets its way in the judicial system.”
Now,
out of the courtroom and back to everyday life in Deuteronomy. Here is another pointed
expression of what God thinks in Deut. 27:17 “Cursed is anyone
who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
18 “Cursed is anyone who leads the blind
astray on the road.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice
from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!””
* God hates bribes.
Ever
been asked to pay a bribe? If so, you will appreciate the words of Deuteronomy
16:19, “Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do
not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the
words of the righteous.”
I
can't tell you how much it undermines the morale of people when you're
traveling in countries where bribes are prevalent. It makes God even more
angry. Incidentally, who can afford the bribes that offer the illegal
incentives to government officials, lawmakers, and judges? Of course, it is the
rich and the powerful.
* God’s good life
emphasizes the pursuit of justice.
What
you see in the Old Testament over and over and over again is God's concern
about what is happening to the poor. Israel is told that they should keep God's
commands so that all the nations of the world will look at the justice and
peace of their society based on God's laws, and, consequently, be motivated to
give their God glory (Deut. 4:6-8.)
I
find it notable that when Job seeks to justify his life before God, he offers
his recollection of how he lived up to these teachings later expressed in
Deuteronomy and the rest of the Old Testament. For example, Job 29:11–17:
“11 Whoever heard
me spoke well of me,
and those who saw me commended me,
12 because I rescued the poor who cried
for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
13 The one who was dying blessed me; I
made the widow’s heart sing.
14 I put on righteousness as my clothing;
justice
was my robe and my turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the
lame.
16 I was a father to the needy;
I took up the case of the
stranger.
17 I broke the fangs of the wicked
and
snatched the victims from their teeth.
(Contemplate
also Job 31:13–28.) Job knew this was how you were supposed to live.
That
was then. What is now?
Today
living a life that honors justice means that you assist battered women. You
reach out to them.
You
work with those coming out of prison.
It
could also mean respectfully supporting and encouraging the local police
department to respond just as rapidly to calls and crime scenes in parts of
town that are poorer as those that are rich and prosperous.
It
is a public spirit that watches out for businesses, who are not only cheat and
are unethical, but also prey on the poor and exploit them.
Frankly,
justice is one of the reasons I am against the lottery. It is exploitive of the
poor. Now, I am not saying that in a free society it should be outlawed; what I
am saying is the government—whether it is local, state or federal—should not
arouse false hopes and dreams in a person who cannot afford to purchase a
ticket (or tickets!) that is statistically worthless.
In
various locales I have seen retired teachers offer educational tutoring
opportunities to children from poor families and broken families—families with
limited resources that typically generate troubled and uneducated adults.
* Justice is rooted in the
character of God.
Want
to know what God takes delight in? “23 This is what
the Lord says:
‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their
strength
or the rich boast of their riches, 24 but let the one who
boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am
the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth, for in
these I delight,’
declares the Lord” (Jer. 9:23-24.) NIV
The
character of God never changes.
* Justice in Israel
included debt forgiveness.
One
of the most challenging places to look for what God’s society of justice is
supposed to look like is Deut. 15. There one finds two verses that seem to be
in tension with each other. Look first at verses 4-5, “4 However, there
need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving
you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if
only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these
commands I am giving you today.”
Compare
that with verse 11, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command
you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in
your land.”
Now,
look at 15:1–2, “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This
is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to
a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own
people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.”
All
of this addressed the Israelite who fell into debt. He was to be forgiven those
debts every seventh year. Not only were his creditors to no longer demand
payment, but they were to release the pledges of collateral taken on account of
the debts. Collateral often was using a portion of the land from which produce
could have been used to repay the loan. This law of release was a powerful
public policy aimed at removing one of the key factors causing
poverty–long-term, burdensome debt.
Now,
full disclosure here. I am not a communist. I am not even a socialist. I am not
telling you what to do. I realize a lot of variables involved in 21st
century United States public policy. I am just simply reporting, you decide.
What
we should seek to answer is this question: what is the character of God and how
does this character relate to government? And how do we live this out?
Look
at some of the following adverbs I have highlighted out chapter 15:
4 However, there
need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving
you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if
only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these
commands I am giving you today. 6 For
the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many
nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none
will rule over you.”
7 If anyone is poor among your
fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving
you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh
year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will
toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may
then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because
of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you
put your hand to. 11 There
will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be
openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.
This
policy is more than a handout. (For that matter, it was not even administered
per se by the national government—individuals administered it.) What you have
here is the call to relate with the poor, walk with the poor, and help the poor
until their need is eliminated.
Look
at 15:7–8, “7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the
towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or
tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them
whatever they need.”
Again,
in ancient
Israel, the idea was not to offer handouts; the idea was to offer a hand.
Credit was to be extended to the
poor to help him become self-sufficient. God's concern for the poor was so
strong that he gave Israel a bunch of laws that, in practice, would have
severely reduced the amount of people who were poor.
* Having said that, Israel
did have handouts!
Here
is another law to help those in need: the laws of gleaning. What that meant was
that the farmers and landowners were voluntarily limiting the amount of their profits
to help the public good:
19 When you are
harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it.
Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your
God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat
the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave
what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When
you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave
what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember
that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this Deut. 24:19-22.)
* Yet, the poor were not
to take advantage of the privilege of gleaning:
“24 If you enter
your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put
any in your basket. 25 If you enter your neighbor’s grainfield, you
may pick kernels with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to their
standing grain”
(Deut. 23:24-25.)
They
were only to take enough.
Interesting,
isn’t it? The rich were to care for the poor, but the poor were not to be
greedy, either. The rich were not to be “villains” and the poor were not to be “Robinhoods.”
* Every third year, one tenth
of what people made was put in to public storehouses so that the poor, the aliens,
the orphans, and the widows would receive them (Deut. 14:29.)
* Every seventh year servants
and slaves were to be freed (Deut. 15:12-18.)
* Every 49 years was a year
of jubilee.
In
that year, the debts were to be forgiven and the land reverted back to its original
tribe and family allotments. It was assumed that some families would
economically do better and acquire more land, while others would fare more
poorly and would have to sell their property. However, every 50 years the land was
to go back to his original owners (Lev. 25:8–55.)
It
is almost as if God was giving the people of Israel a Monopoly game. If you
struggled for a year or two, somebody would loan you money to keep you in the
game. After 49 years, you put everything back in the box and you would start all
over again with what you originally had: two $500s, two $100s, two $50s…
(If
you hate the concept of Jubilee, think about his. Play Monopoly with your kids,
beat them badly, and keep the same game going day after day. See how much they
like that!)
Regarding
these Old Testament practices, Greg Bloomberg writes, “Here… on average, each
person or family had at least once in a lifetime the chance to start fresh, no
matter how irresponsibly they could handle their finances or how far they have
fallen.”
Summing Up
Now,
again, I am not trying to get all “socialistic” on you. Still, I am saying let’s
let the Word of God work on our imaginations. How can we make this a better
world, and, in the process, bring more people to Jesus because we are reflecting
the character of God?
Undergirding
our view of justice is spiritually committed heart in a material world. “Relationship”
must interface with most of the aforementioned activities. That remains the biggest
obstacle to government programs. They typically lack relationship.
You
know what is doing more to destroy poverty and the discrepancy between classes
in India? It is not the United States handing over to India billions of dollars
saying, “Pass this out randomly to your people.” Rather, it is businesses and
corporations freely and relationally engaging with the people of India, hiring
them to perform important tasks.
We
can joke all we want about the operator in India taking our calls for the
consumer product we purchased in the U. S., but ponder this: India is ascending
from poverty. The major factor has been relationship and employment, not mindless
charity and associative distance.
The
Bible offers principles defining justice; we cannot necessarily enact laws
today like those of Israel. (Evidence indicates that Israel itself never
practiced the year of Jubilee.) Furthermore, one cannot tie what the Bible says
about social justice to any one political system or economic policy. Indeed,
there is always tension in trying to pursue justice. For example, balancing
between compassion and accountability is hard. Consequently, there is something
to be said for two political parties holding the American people in tension. I,
like most people, am often frustrated with politicians and government
officials. Nevertheless, if we can harness the energy of the political process,
allow the poles of politics to assist us in gauging what is a humane, balanced
public policy, I believe we can squeeze out of our democracy an effective
method of healing people economically sickened by a fallen world.
Still,
this will not be true, biblical justice, and that is where churches come in. No
government can address all economic ills just as no medical practice can
address all physical ailments. In both cases, you must address the spiritual
facet of humanity as well. Any effective governmental policy should recognize
the role of religion in the pursuit of justice; that is another blog for
another day.
