for the last number of months i have been studying justice in the old testment. i am currently and possibly for the foreseeable future involved in very thoughtful, hopefully prayerful, very intense study of what justice is and what is my part, if any, in it. this has resulted from my spirit repeatedly returning to the terse commands of isaiah 1:17.
they are WASH YOURSELVES...MAKE YOURSELVES CLEAN...REMOVE THE EVIL OF YOUR DEEDS FROM MY SIGHT...CEASE TO DO EVIL...LEARN TO DO GOOD...SEEK JUSTICE...REPROVE THE RUTHLESS...DEFEND THE ORPHAN...PLEAD FOR THE WIDOW.
several observations: 1. they are words, from God said by isaiah. all scripture, of which isaiah's words are a part, is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work II timothy 3:16-7 tells us. so although isaiah's words were not written to you and i they are in a real sense for us... they are to teach us what to do and what to refrain from doing. 2. isaiah 1:17 was written TO judah and jerusalem (v1) and more specifically to 'you RULERS of sodom' and 'you PEOPLE of gomorrah (v10). so they are to guide both us and those in government.
the first five commands i see as a commentary on the last four. the sense seems to be 'both you who govern and you who are governed are responsible to seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan and plead for the widow. by not doing these things you are sinning against me. as long as you don't do these you will be sinning against me. i command you to do these things. if you obey you will NEGATIVELY you will remove the evil of your deeds ( more accurately, the evil involved in your lack of these deeds) from God's sight and, in so doing, wash and cleanse away your guilt before Him. POSITIVELY by doing them you will learn to do what God calls good.
i did intensive word study on the last four and here is an expanded wording based on this study.
'seek with care, inquire, require what is needed in order to know, find out in detail and care for JUSTICE which in the ultimate sense is the RIGHTNESS which is rooted in the character of the God who reveals Himself in the Bible.
cause those who are cruel, pitiless, barberous and insensible to the miseries of others to turn away from this and walk in a path that will result in people enviously desiring to be like them.
drive from, thrust back from, repel from the orphan all those who would try to wrongly control, abuse, take advantage of and otherwise oppress him.combat, strive and contend with anyone who seeks to oppress the widow.
how does all this relate to babies murdered while in the womb of their mother. orphan is defined by webster as one bereaved of (to deprive/separate by death or violence) mother, father or both. is not such a murdered baby an ORPHAN SQUARED since he is not separated by the loss or death of his parent(s) by by his own death, as it were, by their hand and consent!
more questions? who is primarily responsible for abortion? in one sense it is the mother. then the father, family or others who may pressure them to abort.
do we have the right to keep them from murder? in a state of nature it would be the naturally right thing to do to try to keep one person from premeditatedly killing another. we are not in a state of nature. God tells us in romans 13 that we are to be 'in subjection to the governing authorities. for there is no authority except from God and those which exist are established by God. therefore he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves' (v1-2).
why is this true even in the case where there is evil going on? well, it seems that this is because authority is given by God primarily to make sure justice is done, they are God's instrument to bring justice, in this case, to those who murder their baby for God goes on to say 'but if you do what is evil, (in this case the ones complicit in murder of a baby) be afraid it (authority) does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil' (v4). so we can do nothing but appeal to authority ie. our government.
where does that leave us when our government is in favor of babies being murdered, not by their fathers or anyone else but, by their mothers at the hand of one sanctioned by our government. is not justice in this case that babies be kept from being killed? if judged by the standard of the God of the Bible the answer would be- JUSTICE DEMANDS THAT BABIES BE PROTECTED FROM MURDER AND THAT IF THEY ARE THEN THE ONE WHO MURDERS MUST BE PUT TO DEATH for He says 'whoever sheds blood, by man (authority) his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man' (genesis 9:6).
that brings us to this question. who are the ruthless who need to be made to walk in a good path in regard to the murder of babies? in a government of, by and for the people who we are told to submit to as the ones who will carry out justice...in our case, since we have no right being under an authority ordained by God to take matters into our own hands but must deal with authority alone, we are to reprove government.
how are we to do that? to answer look at definition of defend
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