Justice

DEVOTION

EXODUS

JUSTICE

Ex 23:1-9

23:1 "Do not spread false reports. Do not help a wicked man by being a malicious witness. 2 "Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, 3 and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit. 4 "If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it. 6 "Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits. 7 Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty. 8 "Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous. 9 "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.

NIV

Here is a bunch of do not’s. This goes right along with all the lists some Christians make about do not’s. Maybe this is why is seems appropriate to make those lists after all, because God has made a list of what not to do. But the point or central theme in this list is about being our own person, not going along with everyone else. There is something called mob mentality which is easy enough to get dragged into. We remember being a child and having a parent asked if our friends jumped off the bridge would we jump too. Peer pressure has a great deal of influence on those who need to feel a part of some group, or to be accepted by the group. We have told our children the same thing about not allowing the group, or the mob to pressure them into something just to get accepted. Yet do we as adults do this same thing? Do we, as believers, allow wrongs to exist so not to rock the boat, so to speak? Wrongs in the misinterpretation of the word of God, that is. Do we just go along with the crowd’s idea of what the scripture says just because the crowd says so? Is that a false witness? Is that a false report? Yes, God is speaking about justice, about the law of the land, about court proceedings and how we should be true to who we are and to the truth rather than to anything that is accepted by the majority. The majority can be wrong. That is evident today in denominationalism. It is not that all of them are absolutely all wrong, for many of them believe and teach salvation through Jesus Christ. But then the rest is up for grabs, with all sorts of either add on’s or deletions. Some say we need to be born again, some do not. Some say the gifts of the Spirit are for today, some say they are not. Some say Jesus plus baptism is required, some say Jesus plus good deeds. Some say just good deeds are enough. Some say being that particular denomination is enough. We would have to write a book to explore all the differences of belief between the hundreds of different denominations, but the point is or the question is, are they all giving a false report? All of them cannot be right, cannot be giving a true testimony. We cannot just go along with the crowd in doing wrong, yet they all say they have the right way, and all the others are doing the wrong. What should we do? It is not that we should not attend some fellowship, for we are admonished not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together. Can we attend even though we do not agree one hundred percent with every doctrine of that group? It seems we have no choice in that matter, yet we may not be able to ascribe to every aspect of their statement of faith.  We should have nothing to do with a false charge. Yet can we be the only one who has the truth? The fact is we do need to investigate the word of God for the truth for ourselves rather than just accept what the crowd tells us to believe what the truth is. It is also true these words of God do deal with our interactions with our fellow man, and yes, in a court of law. But the whole of the idea is to not be influenced by the crowd, in the court of law, as well as in the Holy Scriptures. The world would want to influence our thinking as well. The world would want us to accept all behaviors as normal. It seems the main thrust here is to be the person of God as led by the Spirit for he will lead us into all truth. Listen not to men, but to God. God is the only one who have pure justice.