Journey to Justice Part 1: Justice at the heart of God

Justice and righteousness are the same concept in the Bible- there isn't the kind of division between public justice and private righteousness that we have in western culture today.

If we want to become holy as God is holy, we have to have a passion for justice. We can't just be focused on our own personal holiness without a wider vision for the poor, needy and the voiceless in our society. Here's just a selection of some key Scriptures that focus on this issue:

The Law of Moses

'Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.' (Exodus 23:6)

'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favouritism to the great, but judge your neighbour fairly.' (Leviticus 19:15)

“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” (Deuteronomy 27:19)

Wisdom literature

'Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?' (Job 8:3)

'The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.' (Job 37:23)

'The Lord is known by His acts of justice; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands.' (Psalm 9:16)

'For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see his face.' (Psalm 11:7)

'The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.' (Psalm 33:5)

'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a sceptre of justice will be the sceptre of your kingdom.' (Psalm 45:6)

'And the heavens proclaim his righteousness, for he is a God of justice.' (Psalm 50:6)

'Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you.' (Psalm 89:14)

'I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.' (Psalm 140:12)

'The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.' (Proverbs 29:7)

The Prophets

'Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.' (Isaiah 1:17)

'But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.' (Isaiah 5:16)

'Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.' (Isaiah 9:7)

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations... A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.” (Isaiah 42:1-4)

The Gospels

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." (Matthew 23:23)

"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)

New Testament Writings

"For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”(Acts 17:31)

'I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.' (Revelation 19:11)

That God is a God of justice is absolutely foundational to His character and the whole testimony of Scripture. But that doesn't mean His justice is always clear or easy to understand. One thing I'm sure of: as humans we find it easy to cast ourselves as victims. Whenever anything hard happens, we feel it is undeserved. When we encounter sudden loss or grief, we question why God thought it best to take that person away who we loved so much. When we see news reports of war, conflict and disaster, starving children, trafficked women and children, our sense of justice feels outraged and we just can't comprehend how God is just and yet He doesn't intervene to bring all these things to an end... Yet. It's a matter of trusting the Bible's promises, that God is more just than we can imagine or handle. In fact, if His justice was turned on us, there is no way we could stand. (Ps 130:3) The portrayal in the Bible of the coming of God's justice in final judgement are earth shattering and terrifying (eg. Joel 2).

Whenever I'm tempted to think that I care more about justice than God, I remember the cross. The fact is that my concern for justice is all too often self centred and localized. I don't care anywhere near enough about my Christian brothers and sisters in labour camps in North Korea, or refugee families from Syria, or even the poor and needy in my own community. My prayer needs to be: "Lord make me care more about justice", rather than feeling I'm in any position to demand it on my terms.

His thoughts towards us... Looking at Jeremiah 29

It's probably one of the most popular Old Testament passages of Scripture. You see it on posters, cards, notebooks, bookmarks, plaques... But as I've been reading through Jeremiah, it's really made me rethink what God's promises in chapter 29 actually mean and signify.

Firstly, in the run-up to chapter 29, there are a number of chapters which document Jeremiah's struggle to be heard as a true prophet, and the prominence of false prophets amongst God's people at that time. It was a turbulent political time; Nebuchadnezzar had already carried off certain articles from the temple and members of the royal family along with others to be exiles. The false prophets were giving the people left in Judah false assurances, like Hananiah, who breaks the yoke Jeremiah had made as a visual image and declares that God says he will 'break the yoke of the king of Babylon' (28.4). But God tells Jeremiah that He has 'put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon' (28.14). The impossible unthinkable circumstances that God's people were in - where their land and their identity were under threat - was actually being engineered by God Himself to punish them for their unfaithfulness to Him. Jeremiah's message, that they should submit to exile and not rebel, and seek the peace of the pagan land of Babylon (29.7), was not what the people wanted to hear. They wanted deliverance from Babylon, not a deliverance that featured 70 years of captivity.

And yet, even the fact that they were going into captivity with a promise of deliverance was incredible grace from God to them. As Jeremiah writes in Lamentations, 'Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.' (3:22-23). All God's people deserved was annihilation by foreign powers; they didn't deserve even to be exiled. In this light, the letter which God tells Jeremiah to write to the captives in chapter 29 is full of hope and promise: 'Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.' (29.5) Exile was not meant to crush them but to give them an opportunity to seek the Lord again.

'For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me, and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.' (29.10-13)

Although there was little positive reception to Jeremiah's words at the time (see verses 27-32, which show Shemaiah's objection to the letter and God's judgement upon him), godly men like Daniel would take Jeremiah's words very seriously and use them as a spur to seek the Lord as the seventy years drew to a close (see Daniel 9). This is such an encouragement, that the Word of the Lord has power and truth. Even if the majority don't see or accept it, there will be a godly remnant who do.

I don't think we can take verse 11 out of chapter 29 and use it as some kind of promise to anyone that God has plans for their good, as a kind of lucky charm, because the rest of Jeremiah and indeed the letter itself in chapter 29 is about obedience to the Lord. Only if we have true respect for God and honour Him in our lives can promises like these ones of hope apply to us. It's also worth remembering that in the New Testament, the 'living hope' that writers such as Peter refer to (see 1 Peter 1:3) is first and foremost a hope of resurrection, a heavenly inheritance, rather than earthly prosperity. Jeremiah has a compelling message for us today, and if we relegate our study of this book to a few verses pulled out of context and put onto a kitchen wall plaque, we do this to our detriment. I am loving the freshness of this book, and I'm seeing more and more how the different chapters tie together, even though they are not always in chronological order and mix up oracles and messages with narrative story about Jeremiah's life. Praise God for the depth and breadth of His Word, and for its power.

'Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?' (Jer 23:29)

On 'just doing something' - risk-taking faith for the kingdom of God

Reading 'Nevertheless', John Kirkby's story of how he started CAP (Christians Against Poverty), an amazing charity that offers free debt counselling and has helped many many people get debt-free and also come to faith in Christ, has massively encouraged me with just its main message of perseverance despite circumstances. John had personal debt, he was in danger of his own home being repossessed, and the charity had few sources of income. He had several discouraging letters from Christians who said they wouldn't support CAP, that the fact the charity was struggling for money meant that they were doing something wrong, and John should seriously rethink what he was doing. Yet looking at the international work that CAP are doing now, and the huge numbers of those who have come to faith through their work, and it is clear that John was totally right to hold on to his belief that this was what God had called him to do.

There is undoubtedly scepticism regarding the notion of a 'call' in many Christian circles today. Instead of looking for specific guidance, many would advocate using the Bible to discern if something is sinful (in which case, don't do it), commanded (in which case, do it), and if it is neither, then use wisdom and try it, and if it's not right, the door will shut. I have to confess I am one of the first to get uncomfortable when people start talking about 'prophecies' and 'words' they have, which have directly impacted their decisions. And yet, when we were praying about moving to Garndiffaith, God did clearly confirm it was the right decision through Scripture for us. Since being here, nothing has really turned out as we expected -- in fact I'm not even sure what our expectations were to begin with anyway-- and yet we know this is the right place to be. If we were judging things on human results and circumstances, we'd have probably put our house on the market again and tried to jump ship!

The key illustration in the book for me is on p57:

'A seed which receives no water will only survive if it sends its root deep underground trying to find the water. The eventual tree that results is strong and fully able to use the rains when they come. God needs to ensure that we will be able to manage what he has for us.'

There are times when, from a human perspective, things don't make sense. They don't look good. It seems as if you are banging your head against a brick wall. But the fact is, God often brings His people to those kind of places in order to grow a deeper trust and faith in His power and provision. Just thinking through the heroes of faith in Scripture: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua... The list goes on! They all went through times of great testing, times where nothing was happening, times where they had nothing else to do except hold on to the promise God had made them. What would it have been like building the ark before the rains came? What about believing that God would give you a son when you were a hundred years old? And how about the burden of leading a people who were continually rebellious, ungrateful and critical of everything you did?

The way God works is not the way we work. He often allows things to happen that we would not, if we were the ones in control. He does let things get bad sometimes, from the uncomfortable to the heart-rending, grief stricken circumstances you just want to get out of as soon as you can. I worry sometimes that the rationalisation of the Christian life (to 'just do something') has eroded the very meaning of faith and what it means to live expecting God to speak and lead your life, even when He takes you into unexpected and not-very-nice places.

The danger is, that if we leave everything up to 'wisdom', then we will never take risks for the kingdom. We can all too easily find excuses why we shouldn't give up our job / move to that estate / give that money away / get more involved with that difficult person... I know my own propensity to kid myself that I am making a decision for the 'right' reasons when actually I'm just justifying staying in a more comfortable situation.

The stuff which inspires me in John Kirkby's story is the same which inspires me about the lives of the great pioneers, missionaries and preachers of the past (Muller, Whitefield, Taylor etc), and ultimately which I see in the men and women of faith in the Old and New Testament. They don't look at their circumstances and then draw their conclusions: this mission has failed, God is not with us, I should give up and go home. No! They look at their God, and they say, "we don't know exactly what's happening, we don't know when things will change, but we know You and we believe and trust that You are good and what You do is right. We will obey You in what You've called us to do." That's the kind of faith I want.