Administering Justice and Righteouness

Day 59: 2 Samuel 6–10; Jeremiah 31–36; Ephesians 1–3

It's all the news now for a full week, the slaying of America's "Public Enemy No. 1."  When Osama bin Laden, leader of Al Qaeda an Islamic terrorist organization, was slain by US soldiers Americans poured into the streets and celebrated with cheers, shouts and flag waving.  All the rhetoric from our nation's leaders was that "justice" was done.

I bear the grief my country carries because of my generation's "Pearl Harbor."  It will be a day of infamy for the people who saw that day, especially for those who lost loved ones that day.  We all watched in horror and disbelief when jet airliners crashed into the two towers and they came crashing down.  Since then our sense of ourselves has changed.  Our sense of safety is threatened. Our sense of national pride is threatened.  Our economy is shaken.  I understand what it meant to us...the news about the man behind that terrible day shot and killed by American forces.  It was relief from some of the grief. It was a sense of an evil being eliminated.  It gave hope that America can and will gain victory in this war on terror.

But is that all justice means?  Is killing an enemy truly justice?  What is justice?  Can we say our fear is gone and our security restored?  Can we say the grief we carry over 9/11/01 is gone?  Can we see the market rejoice and our eroding wealth return? What has really changed?  An enemy is dead, but I don't feel safer.  A criminal mind has had 10 years to spread his doctrines of hatred at a global scale.  Our media has made him into an icon.  He will live on in our psyches for generations like Adolf Hitler does.  And he lives on in the hearts and minds of terrorists and Muslims who hope in jihad against the west.

King David reaches a peace from all his enemies, peace on every side.  The Lord establishes this peace by giving him victory upon victory. David is at peace from enemies within and outside Judah and all Israel.  And he goes about administering justice and righteousness (2 Sam. 8:15).

If I am reading the scriptures correctly, justice includes the carrying out the penalty for crimes committed.  But justice has a greater prize to offer than simple retribution.  The fullest expression of justice is the restoration of right relationships.  

David subdues his enemies all around and they become servants to Israel.  An ironic twist to the grand narrative of Israel's story occurs.  The once enslaved people become a people who enslave others. 

Slavery of a foreign people is more acceptable than slavery of fellow Israelites.  The law of Moses says that Israelites who cannot pay their debts may serve as slaves to pay off their debt.  On the seventh year, their debts, no matter how great, are canceled and they are to return to their homes and families and begin again fresh (Lev. 25:39-46).  Jeremiah confronts the people of Judah for not keeping this part of the law (Jer. 34:12-15).  It seems that justice within Israel carries a reverence for the fellow participants of the covenant.  There is also within the covenant a reverence for  foreigners who live among the Israelites.  Isaiah shared a vision of Gentiles bringing acceptable offerings to Yahweh at the temple in the Jerusalem.  When a Gentile gives himself to Yahweh, he and his household come under the rights and responsibilities of the covenant. 

Justice defined here is restoration. The slave goes free.  The debt is cancelled. The foreigner is now treated as a family member, welcomed and blessed with Israel for God has no shortage of love or mercy. 

David shows us what justice and righteousness looks like when he brings the crippled son of Jonathan, son of Saul to his table.  As an infant Mephibosheth was dropped by his nurse when she heard the news that Saul and Jonathan had been slain by the Philistines.  All Jerusalem fled the city for fear of an attack.  The baby's feet were permanently damaged in the fall.  He is the only survivor from Jonathan's family.  David had promised Jonathan to honor his family when he came to power.  He is making good on a promise to a fallen friend.  The crippled Mephibosheth enjoys the restoration of his grandfather's property, his grandfather's servants to work the lands and the favor of the king as if he himself were a prince within Israel, instead of the crippled grandson of a deposed and despised king.  It is a beautiful story.  It speaks of all goodness and peace.

God promised to restore Israel after their time in exile.

"I will certainly bring health  and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of peace and truth. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times. I will purify them from all the wrongs they have committed against Me, and I will forgive all the wrongs they have committed against Me, rebelling against Me. This city will bear on My behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory  before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I will do for them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them (Jer. 33:6-9)."

Trembling with awe over God's goodness and the life giving peace He brings gets after what justice feels like.  These promises of restoration answer deep needs within us to be at home and at peace within and without.

The holy God dwells among us.  It is a terrible thing to Israel His chosen, a great burden to bear to be the people who live with the Holy One.  The ark was stolen by the Philistines and God plagued them.  The Israelites who have been given law and procedure on how to regard God and His holy presence meted through holy things, pay an even greater penalty when they fail.  David's men die instantly when trying to steady the ark of the covenant on a wobbling cart.  Only a certain clan of consecrated Levites may touch the ark.  It seems like God's dealing with Israel is at times harsher than toward the ignorant pagans.  Did not Jesus teach those who know their master's will and don't do it will be beaten severely, but lighter punishment will be for the one who is ignorant of his master's will (Lk. 12:47-48)?

Those who bear the Name of God, bear the burden of maintaining holiness, righteousness and justice.  In David's blood and violent revolution we see that he tries to keep a certain level of respect for his fellow Israelites who are against him (Abner, Saul, etc.).  And he subdues the foreign enemies by making them vassal states, servants who pay tribute to him.  The prophets foretell a time when all shall worship the God of Israel, Jew and Gentile alike.  The ultimate expression of justice is all people of the earth in harmony and of one heart in worship and service of God as revealed through Israel and His Messiah Jesus.  Then and only then will justice (community lived in right relationships) and righteousness (doing as God directs in His word and the guidance of the Spirit) will justice be done.

Israel will go through losing peace to regaining each time as a result of their failure to maintain a just society.  When God has had enough of waiting on His people to repent and respond to the messengers He sends to turn them back to righteousness, He acts to correct their course through war, famine and plague.  He maintains a remnant ans begins again.  When a sour dough batch becomes too sour, you pitch the batch keeping only a small amount to start a fresh batch.  But each time Israel is punished, God promises restoration.  It was remarkable to me to see the peaceful days of King David encapsulated in the phrase "administering justice and righteousness" echoes in God's promise of restoration through Jeremiah.

"In those days and at that time I will cause a Branch of righteousness to sprout up for David, and He will administer justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is what she will be named: The LORD Is Our Righteousness (Jer. 33:15-16)."

Paul tells the churches in Ephesus and surrounding areas that the hostility between Jew and Gentile has come to an end in Jesus Christ.  The old divisions between the holy people of God and those who lived "as foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world" are finally demolished (Eph. 2:12-14).   Just as the walls that separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles was torn down with the temple's destruction by the Romans, the alienation between Jew and Gentile is demolished and a new temple is being built by believers in Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile alike.  The Holy God dwells in the hearts of all who trust in Christ Jesus for salvation.  through the Son of God Jew and Gentile alike have access by the Holy Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18).

The church is the new temple where the Holy One of Israel dwells, in the the community to reveres the Name of Jesus, and through the death conquering power of God among them through the Spirit, a justice that prevails.  Heaven and earth converge in harmonious unity in Messiah Jesus (Eph. 1:9-10). 

We will soon see how quickly David's short lived peace lasts, for within his own house and his own heart lurks the deadliest enemy, sin.  Sin's power is vanquished in Christ and the power of God at work in Him is at work in His church when we live by the power of the Spirit and not on our own fleshly resources. 

Justice looks like this:

Every knee bows, every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.  For when every heart (Western, Eastern, Slavic, Arab, African, Oriental and Aboriginal) humbles itself before the true God in joyful obedience, there will be peace on earth everlasting.  This will only happen when all the lawless rebels and causes of sin are separated from the holy community (Mat. 13:41).

Until then enemies that hate each other will kill each other and victims will continue to cry out for justice, even if retribution is all they can get...an eye for an eye, limb for a limb and a life for a life. 

I pray for the day when we all can accept the Life of Jesus as justice for all.