Doing Justice

Last Sunday, at our church, we explored some of the writings of the Old Testament prophets.

There are seventeen books of the prophets (from Isaiah to Malachi in the Christian Bible), and they fill about a fifth of the Bible’s pages. Yet they tend to go unread.

Philip Yancey writes about this in his book, The Bible Jesus Read. He talks about the day he asked his class of Bible students why these books are rarely read and studied by most people. Their answer: “The prophets are weird and confusing.”

And as we noticed Sunday, one might like to add the word “angry” to that answer.

AMOS 4:1 – “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy….The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.”

ISAIAH 1:13 – “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies.”

Habakkuk 2:15-17 –
“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you!.”

MICAH 3:1-3 –
“Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?"

Not only do they use angry words, but the prophets do some weird things to make a point.

• Hosea marries a prostitute to show people how unfaithful God thinks they are.
• Ezekiel eats food cooked over excrement to show people how defiled they are.
• Jeremiah digs up a filthy undergarment to show people how bad their behavior is.
• Isaiah walked around stripped and barefoot for three years to make a political statement.

The books of the prophets are filled with stuff like this.

And the appropriate question to ask in response is: “Why?”

Why do the prophets seem so angry?

And as we learned Sunday, the reason is this: To the prophets has been given this privilege, this burden of looking at the world and seeing what God sees.

People with plenty looking the other way while poor people suffer.

• Business people shading the truth for personal gain.
• Suburban, middle class families getting so busy that they don’t have time to serve and love those who are different from them.
• People getting careless about remembering those who are hurting, or those with disease, or those without access to clean, safe food, water, shelter and clothing.

The prophets see what God sees. They hear what God hears. They feel what God feels.

And so they long for justice and mercy and peace in the world. And they long for people who can be agents of justice and mercy and peace to take action. And so they call us to action with some pretty attention-grabbing words and deeds.

So how should we respond to the prophets in February of 2008?

First, we do not need to feel unjust guilt or to get paralyzed by the enormous needs in our family, in our neighborhood, in our church, in our city and in our world. Further, we should not believe that God’s love for us hinges on our response to these things. God’s love for us is always unconditional.

The prophet Micah sums up how God would like us to respond in one of the greatest verses of the Old Testament.

Micah 6:6 – “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Every day we have the opportunity to act justly and to stand up for those who are treated unjustly. Every day we have the opportunity to show mercy. Every day we have the opportunity to walk humbly.

We can do these three things.

I've also had the privilege to be part of two ongoing things in my life that reflect my desire to respond to the words of the prophets in a more specific way. The first thing is tutoring six incredible kids each week at a local elementary school. They are a great blessing to me as I help them learn to read and write and add and subtract. The second thing is the Trivia Night for Water charity events that my church regularly hosts. On these nights, people from all walks of life and from all over Atlanta come together to have a ton of fun and in the process raise money to dig a freshwater well in Africa.

In addition I've read two books recently that get me even more excited about living a life of justice, mercy and humility. The first is "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. The second is "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey Sachs. Two amazing and very challenging books. Read them at your own risk.