“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights.  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” Isaiah 42:1  NASB

Justice – I sincerely hope that you do not pray for this prophecy to come true.  There is no doubt that one day it will come true, but I hope you are praying that this isn’t that day.  Today we need mercy, not justice.  Justice brings the divine wrath of a holy God who has been blasphemed, ignored, disgraced and disobeyed.  When justice comes to the goyim, the cosmos may be set aright, but the bloodbath will be as nothing ever imagined.  For more than a century, we have lived under the false assumption that God is filled to overflowing with grace, compassion and forgiveness.  We have ignored the undeniable fact that justice, a constantly recurring theme of the Bible, means judgment.  We think that somehow we are exempt, immune, excused.  But when His servant brings forth mishpat to the goyim, the mouth of Sheol will open wide and swallow all those who pretended to be serious about God.  Yeshua calls it the day of wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Until we recognize that the God of Scripture is both Father and Judge, we live in dire peril of treating His justice with contempt.  There are good reasons why the rabbis constantly prayed, “May Your mercy outweigh Your justice.”  We act as though there is no longer a balance scale.

Justice (mishpat) is a deep and wide concept.  It covers the full range of the legal process, of forensic decision-making.  Even God’s punishments imply positive mishpat because this means the removal of enemies.  For our purposes, we must recognize that mishpat is upholding the righteous claim of the innocent.  There are dozens of verses that support the idea that God upholds the cause of the oppressed, the innocent and those who have no advocate.  And this is our problem.  We are not innocent.  Under these circumstances, mishpat means facing God’s wrath.  When the Servant brings forth justice to the goyim, this is not a joyful announcement.  This is a proclamation of doom for those who are not part of His household.  May that day be delayed as long as possible – and then some.

We have the tendency to cite Amos 5:24 (“But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”) without considering the unspeakable consequences of such an event.  For them – and for us.  It is only because we have lost our sense of God’s holiness that we are so ignorant and arrogant to believe such an event brings comfort and prosperity.  We are hardly the oppressed.  We are not strangers.  We are not without advocates.  How then do we presume to escape such terrible power?  And if by His grace we are rescued, if we are spared because He has chosen to suffer for us, what will we experience when we see so many consigned to the execution of justice?  Will we not weep over Jerusalem?

Topical Index: justice, mishpat, mercy, wrath, Isaiah 42:1, Amos 5:24

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