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by Kevin Pauley
"Appoint judges and officials for your tribes in all your towns the LORD your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment. Do not deny justice or show partiality to anyone. Do not accept a bribe, for it blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Pursue justice and justice alone, so that you will live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.” - Deuteronomy 16:18-20 HCSB
“Tsedek, tsedek radaph…” “Justice, justice you shall follow…” this passage reads. Why use the word ‘justice’ twice in a row? In order to teach us to pursue the goal of justice through just means.
Yahweh is deeply concerned about justice. Look at how much of the Bible is concerned with establishing ground rules by which human society should be governed.
If only the people of Germany had obeyed Hashem’s injunction, "You must not follow a crowd in wrongdoing. Do not testify in a lawsuit and go along with a crowd to pervert justice”![1]
What if the CEO of Enron had taken “You must not deny justice to the poor among you in his lawsuit”[2] to heart?
Hashem described Himself in the following terms: “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreign resident, giving him food and clothing.”[3] He takes justice so seriously that He even named Himself Yahweh Mishpat, “God of Justice”.[4]
“But,” you may protest, “there is so much evil in the world! How can a God who loves justice so much allow so much injustice?” The answer lies in today’s passage. Hashem pursues justice but He does so by just means. He grants free-will to all humans, not just those who will imitate His love of justice. We may choose to do what is right. Joe down the street may choose to become a serial killer. As much as we’d like Him to, God cannot simply make Joe stop for if He overrides Joe’s “yetzer hara”, his negative impulse, then out of justice He must override ours too.
He apparently believes that to all free humans to love freely is worth the pain and suffering. It’s not like He’s letting us do all the paying of the pain bill either. Didn’t He take on a human form and share some of it with us?[5]
If there is to be justice, we much each take personal responsibility for our own free will. We must elect righteous judges and officials. We must neither deny justice nor show partiality. We must not be self-seeking but pursue justice for all.
When we rule ourselves with justice and in the fear of God, we will be “like the morning light when the sun rises on a cloudless morning, the glisten of rain on sprouting grass.”[6]
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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