Mercy & Justice (3)

I will sing of mercy and justice: unto you, O LORD, will I sing. (Psalms 101:1 KJ2000)

Mercy and justice compose the twin themes of Scripture. We may call them by a few other names according to various translations and parallel verses. Thus mercy and justice may be known as mercy and truth, righteousness and justice, steadfast love and justice, steadfast love and faithfulness, righteousness and truth, mercy and law, and other combinations of these ideas.  The same Hebrew words are not always used when we see these English words, but the words do convey this idea.  Use your Strong’s Concordance or a good Bible program like SwordSearcher to study this out.

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever: with my mouth will I make known your faithfulness to all generations. (Psalms 89:1 KJ2000)

Justice also will I make the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. (Isaiah 28:17 KJ2000)

Isaiah reveals a profound thought here. A plumb line shows us perfect vertical straightness. It allows the builder to make his home perfectly square. We think of God as being “up in heaven” or in a vertical relationship to us. Isaiah tells us that this relationship is one of righteousness. Another verse tells us that this righteousness may be referred to as “light.”

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5 KJ2000)

Righteousness, or light, therefore describes the character of God. By looking at parallel verses we expand this idea to say that the concepts of mercy and steadfast love also describe that character. As John says, “God is love.” (1 John 4:8, 16) And so righteousness (mercy, love, lovingkindness, steadfast love) is the plumb line, the rule, of our existence.  This establishes and defines our relationship to God. At present this is a vertical relationship.

On the other hand, justice, being the “measuring line,” defines our horizontal relationship with other men. Isaiah teaches above that this justice is informed by, i.e. defined by, righteousness. God gave us his Law so that we would know how justice looks in this world. But, God did not end his teaching regarding justice with his Law. Throughout his word he continues to modify our conceptions of justice with his idea of mercy.

But the world today, and especially Christians and Jews, still do not understand Jesus when he said, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” The Law required sacrifice and yet Jesus said he did not desire it. He wanted mercy instead. The Law required stoning of an adulteress, but Joseph was considered “righteous” when he refused to condemn pregnant Mary to public disgrace. How could God call Joseph righteous when he refused to implement the Law with respect to his espoused bride?

Joseph’s understanding of the Law (justice and truth) had been tempered by his knowledge of God’s mercy (righteousness and steadfast love). In Joseph, as even more perfectly in Jesus, mercy and truth met together, yea even kissed one another! And so, I believe, that if a man who had been gathering sticks on the Sabbath had been brought to either of them, they would not have condemned him to stoning either. They would have said, “Go and sin no more.” Does this, then, mean that Moses got it wrong when he and Israel stoned the man gathering sticks on the Sabbath? No, but that is another lesson….

 

This entry was posted in Elohim, God's Rest, Gospel, mercy, mercy & truth, The Law, The Teaching About Righteousness, truth, two witnesses and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

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