Relevant Verses: Malachi 3, Exodus 23, Genesis 18, Numbers 35, Joshua 7
Theme: “God’s Love of Justice”
Leading Question: Is the understanding of “justice” the same among all human beings?
When it comes to matters of diversity, an Ellen White quotation is a good place to start:
Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the conduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experience is alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.
So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each should be careful in the estimate he places upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended the most important results for good or for evil. (MH 483)
Starting where we can all agree. Malachi 3:5-6 lists a string of sins that go a long way toward defining “justice” from a biblical perspective:
Malachi 3:5-6: “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty. 6 “I the Lord do not change.
The only place in this list where we might differ in our perspectives would be the sorcerers. But let’s list out the rest of the list and take a closer at each one:
- Adulterers
- Perjurers
- Those who defraud laborers of their wages
- Those who oppress the widows and the fatherless
- Those who deprive the foreigners of justice
In Exodus 23:1-9 another list appears with which we could all likely to agree.
- Do not spread false reports. Do not help a guilty person by being a malicious witness.
- Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.
- Do not show favoritism to a poor person in a lawsuit.
- If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to return it.
- If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it.
- Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.
- Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.
- Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the innocent.
- Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.
Let’s tuck in a Genesis narrative, the one between God and Abraham over the fate of Sodom: That will give us further insight to the biblical perspective on “justice”:
Genesis 18:23-25: Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
We could add another famous text to our list:
Micah 6:8: He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
In short, God expects his children to follow his example and to do justice!
A God who repents? Some passages in Scripture declare that God will repent or relent when people make the necessary changes. A quote from the official study guide addresses the issue:
“These passages explicitly declare that God ‘is not a man, that He should repent. Has
He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” (Num. 23:19). Read in light of the other passages, these texts cannot be taken to mean that God does not “relent” at all, but instead they convey the truth that He does not “relent” or “repent” in the ways that humans do. Rather, God always keeps His promises, and while He will change course in response to human repentance, He does so always in accordince with His goodness and His Word.”
On the fringes: Accommodation. Our lesson does not address the question of “accommodation” at all. But if one is going to grapple with all of Scripture, the concept is important.
Accommodation refers to passages that “accommodate” to the people’s cultural perspective. One good example is the concept of blood vengeance, the idea that if a male member of a tribe is killed by someone, it is the obligation of the tribe to see that the offender be put to death. In that view, justice can only be done by following through with vengeance. Numbers 35 spells out the various aspects that need explaining. The reason why I have chose this example is that it is the only place I know of where Ellen White begins to address the question of accommodation. She has no relevant comments in her earlier writings. But this is what she says in Patriarchs and Prophets with reference to the appointments of the six cities of refuge, providing a kind of half-way house to take the rough edges off an ancient custom:
The appointment of these cities had been commanded by Moses, “that the slayer may flee thither, which killeth any person at unawares. And they shall be unto you cities for refuge,” he said, “that the manslayer die not, until he stand before the congregation in judgment.” [Num. 35:11-12] This merciful provision was rendered necessary by the ancient custom of private vengeance, by which the punishment of the murderer devolved on the nearest relative or the next heir of the deceased. In cases where guilt was clearly evident, it was not necessary to wait for a trial by the magistrates. The avenger might pursue the criminal anywhere, and put him to death wherever he should be found. The Lord did not see fit to abolish this custom at that time; but he made provision to insure the safety of those who should take life unintentionally. (Patriarchs and Prophets, 515)
Another narrative which requires a strong doctrine of accommodation is the story of Achan and the treatment of the “devoted things” that Achan too. The Hebrew word which refers to this custom is cherem. And it is not unique to Israel. There is a record of a Moabite king who dedicated an Israelite city to destruction.
But these customs are deeply rooted and must be taken into account if we want a biblical understanding of “justice.” Because Israel had failed to live within the parameters of known justice, Achan and his family had to pay the price. Here is Joshua 7:20-26, describing the fate of Achan and his family:
Joshua 7:20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 21 When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”
22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. 23 They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the Lord.
24 Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had, to the Valley of Achor. 25 Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.”Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them.
26 Over Achan they heaped up a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger. Therefore that place has been called the Valley of Achor ever since.
Some have attempted to neutralize the story of Achan by referring to Deuteronomy 24:16, which is much more compatible with modern views of justice:
Deuteronomy 24:16: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor shall the children be put to death for the fathers; every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
But the Deuteronomy passage does not take into account the radical note of accommodation represented in the story of Achan.
Israel’s God was a God who valued justice. He expected his people to live up to what they believed to be right. Achan did not and paid the price for his failure.
