“You are to appoint judges and officers for all your gates [in the cities] Adonai your God is giving you, tribe by tribe; and they are to judge the people with righteous judgment. You are not to distort justice or show favoritism, and you are not to accept a bribe, for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of even the upright. Justice, only justice, you must pursue; so that you will live and inherit the land Adonai your God is giving you.”-Deuteronomy 16:18-20
At the end of verse Deuteronomy 16:18, we are presented with arguably the indisputable number one and overridingTorah principle woven throughout the whole Scripture from Genesis to Revelations.
We are told that the appointed judges and officials are to judge in…
…RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT.
The original Hebrew is…
MISHPAT TZADEK.
In verse 19, we are given specific examples of what exactly comprises “righteous judgment” from the perspective of the Lord.
FIRST, all judgments must be fair meaning one must NOT show favoritism to one party over another.
SECOND, a judge should not in any way accept bribes from one party or the other because that would cause him to make a judgment unfairly in favor of the briber.
Let’s take a look at the first half of verse 20.
“Justice, only justice, you must pursue;”
That’s the Complete Jewish Bible translation.
The King James Version says…
“That which is altogether just shalt thou follow…”
And the NIV says…
“Follow justice and justice alone…”
I have a problem with each and every one of those translations.
Because the actually Hebrew words used are…
“TZEDEK and only TZEDEK you must pursue”.
Here’s the thing.
It might seem like I’m peeling onion layers here (or whatever the expression is), but…
TZEDEK does NOT mean “justice”.
It means “righteousness”.
The reason why making this distinction is important is because RIGHTEOUSNESS is to be the foundation upon which God’s justice system is to stand.
Or to put it another way, minus God’s righteousness, there can never be true justice.
See what I mean?
My whole point is that verse 20 isn’t some ambiguous or emotionally driven statement that the judges are to simply judge fairly.
No, we’ve got to get more specific than that.
This verse is specifically making it clear that God’s justice system is NOT to be based on manmade philosophies that are always in constant flux and that change with the trends of the times or the subjectivity and/or opinions of the one doing the judging.
Instead, God’s justice system is to be based on God’s Holy Law (this Torah) AND…
…it is the Law which is to be adhered to when making judgment on matters of conflict etcetera.
We are told if this is done, Israel will be greatly blessed and they will thrive in the land God is giving to them.
Here’s another interesting point and then I’m going to close for today.
Can you also see how Moses is educating the people that God’s commands and instructions have a purpose that go far beyond just mere mechanical obedience?
The Torah is to be the indispensable guide that is to be applied even to those sticky areas when things are not black-and-white and there doesn’t seem to be a clear solution to a conflict between two parties (King Solomon was a master at this by the way).
If Israel will make the Torah the very foundation of their righteous system, God promises that the land they are about to enter into will produce in abundance for them.
I’m done.
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