Alien Justice

You shall not show favoritism in judgment; you shall adjudicate exactly alike for the small and the great.  You shall not be afraid of man, because judgment belongs to God Deuteronomy 1:17

Judgment – In Hebrew thought,  no principle of justice is more important than this one.  This verse removes judgment from the realm of men.  All judgment belongs to God.  He sets the standard.  He holds men accountable to it.  He administers it.  Even though He may appoint human agents and even though He may specify particular consequences, in the end all justice rests on His shoulders.

Why does this matter to us?  The answer is startling.  In our contemporary society, we no longer act as though God retains justice as His own.  We live in a Greek-based culture where the rule of law is the final arbiter.  The problem is that in the Greek system, law expresses the will of the people.  That means that the law is subject to change – and we have clearly seen that occur over and over as we move further away from the Commandments and their application.  Under the Greek system, the people exert pressure on legislators to alter the law to fit their desires.  Under the Hebrew system, men were not to cower to such pressure because God owns judgment.  When I succumb to the will of men rather than uphold the law of God, I act as though God is no longer Lord of all.  I insult the Lord of the universe.  He does not forget it.

Mishpat is translated almost 300 times in Scripture as “judgment.”  This might make us think that God exercises the court functions of government, but that would be misleading.  In ancient tribal cultures, the figurehead of the tribe (the tribal chief) was not simply the final arbiter.  He had oversight of all aspects of governance.  All branches of civil authority were his.  This is the context of shapat, the verbal root of “judgment.”  God is the chief, the elder of His people.  His word rules every aspect of governance.  He speaks the law, administers the law and executes justice under the law.  He is the ultimate and final patriarch.  To violate His law is tantamount to committing treason.

Because we live under a Greek legal system, we can hardly imagine the God would not be “democratic.”  What a fatal mistake that is!  God is King, not President.  His subjects do not have the right to ignore, question or excuse His governance.  Yet we routinely act as though God’s revealed truth in the torah (the Law) no longer has relevance for us.  Who are we kidding?  Are you going to stand before the One Who owns justice and say, “But I didn’t think it mattered anymore?”