“Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers.” Proverbs 21:15 NLT
Justice, like truth, seems to be a matter of opinion, a perspective. The wisdom writers didn’t have an “open source,” public opinion, social media slant on justice. Wrong was wrong, right was right. Cheating the poor – wrong. Lying for gain – wrong. Bullying and beating the oppressed – wrong. Murder, theft, rape – wrong, wrong, wrong.
The only reason that justice and truth have been blurred or distorted are because some in our culture refuse to acknowledge the God behind such realities. No God – anything goes. No God – no one is right and no one is wrong. There’s only noise, violence and protests. Loud and proud do not equate to justice or truth.
Justice is joy to the godly because there is a judge, an arbitrator who is perfect – always, right, true and yes, JUST. It is terrifying to evil because it strips away the thin veneer of selfishness and ill-gotten gain. Of course, every human wants what we want and do not want anyone or anything to tell us NO, or cross us with the reality that we are wrong!
There is that one creepy story in 1 Kings 3, where Solomon has to judge a difficult decision. Two women, one living child and one dead child. Two stories, both claiming the living child is theirs. No other witnesses, no DNA test – just two plausible stories of what happened on the night in question. Truth seemed to favor BOTH stories, both women. How can that be? Both women are yelling – the living child is mine! Are both telling the truth? The woman whose child died in the night certainly is in pain and now her truth becomes a boldfaced lie. If the living child is going to be raised by one or the other, should it be the real mother or the liar? You know the story. Solomon asks for a sword and tells both women, he will equally give them half a dead child! Done, settled. Both lose a life, but it’s fair, right? Of course the real mother wants her child to live over the other mother’s perceived truth. The real mother speaks first, “please don’t kill my son, give him to her!” The other mother then speaks, “go ahead cut the child in half, that way we both lose.” Solomon gives the child to the real mother and justice is served. Along with it, the godly, those who do right, want to live right rejoice at the decision. Evil would probably rather have seen the child divided to satisfy the “fairness” of the situation. Life is cheap and worthless to evil! If I want to see who believes in justice all I have to do is see who is loud about ideals not caring about the loss of life. True justice should terrify evildoers, because it exposes their lies.
Prayer
Dad,
It is difficult to discuss right and wrong and justice in a world where people have decided that truth is an opinion, a perspective. I ache for your final judgment only for the sake of seeing absolute justice and for all our lies to be exposed. There will be joy and terror in those days. Help us O’ Lord, pour out your Spirit of Truth and give us the chance to make things right with you before that day comes.