Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters

Before I jump into these two blogs, I want to explain that work kept me especially busy the past few weeks and I neglected to blog. Further, given the recent buzz of activity, the inability to discuss the details of my work is more frustrating than ever. I feel handicapped and deceptive towards my supporters, family, and friends back home. It is a difficult task to explain your experience without the opportunity to discuss the facts of what you came to do- what you spend the brunt of your time doing. Instead, I must ask for and depend on your trust.

Recently, I've seen and heard of deeper pits than I want to imagine. In the past, when “counting my blessings,” I almost exclusively thought about wealth and the opportunities that stem from it, and vice versa. However, being fortunate or being unfortunate continues to grow more distinct and more diverse than being rich or being poor. The reality is, men frequently carry out cruelties far worse than depriving a person of all his possessions. Nevertheless, it remains easier for me to believe in the prevalence of evils that tempt me, like pursuing wealth above all else. On the other hand, I find it difficult to relate to, or believe in the prevalence of, the dark acts of drugging, kidnapping, and imprisoning young girls for the perverse fancies of men drowned by lust. My point is, it isn't always the poorest that fall into this pattern. There is something in addition to money driving this- something else, something evil, something unfortunate.

Fortunately, we serve a God that is bigger than our problems- a God capable of forgiving all of our iniquities... even those I don't want Him to, and a God capable of unimaginable rescue. Still, what bothers me in Scripture is that God consistently calls us to “wait on Him.” It seems fair to someone like me, someone who knows God, capable of exercising faith in Him to overcome trials, but why should a child, who has never been introduced to my God, see so much damage and despair before God acts? I don't want to answer the problem of evil... the truth is, I'm not sure- but I do believe God calls us to act in a different way, and that he calls us to act now. For example, Amos prophesies about imminent judgment on the nation of Israel for their wrongs, in spite of the fact that they are still offering feasts, songs, solemn assemblies, and sacrifices to God. Instead, God finds their religious compliance empty and expresses what He really wants: justice and righteousness in abundance:

I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
Take away from me the noise of your songs
to the melody of your hearts I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters
and righteousness like an everflowing stream. (Amos 5:21-24)

Or, like Jeremiah pleading with God for help in a time of complete despair, and finding that God calls him not to fear and takes up his cause.

I have been hunted like a bird by those who were my enemies
by those without cause;
they flung me alive into the pit and cast stones on me;
water closed over my head;
I said, I am lost.

I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit;
You heard my plea,
Do not close your ear to my cry for help!
You came near when I called on you;
you said, Do not fear!
You have taken up my cause, Oh Lord;
you have redeemed my life. (Lamentations 3:52-58)

My question is, when God “takes up causes” in the Old Testament, he frequently mobilizes Israeli militia, angels, or judges filled with the spirit; who then sweep across and slaughter the whole of the oppressor. It doesn't feel like God exercises that kind of judgment anymore. As much as I feel like it would satisfy me, we don't march through with assault rifles and demolish these evil men. How does God use us to take up His causes now? I believe God still desires justice and righteousness from us, rather than our equivalent of religious sacrifices and obedience in procedure. God calls us to first practice justice, mercy, and faithfulness. In his rebuke of the Pharisees, Jesus said:

For you tithe and mint and dill and cumin,
and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:
justice and mercy and faithfulness.
These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23)

If it is not sweeping, slaughtering judgment, what does this 'justice and mercy and faithfulness' or 'justice and righteousness' look like practically? I believe I am fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to see it in action- in the missions, faces, and words of my coworkers. They make sacrifices, they take risks, they bring justice, all while seeking God's guidance. In short, they reach for righteousness and they bring about justice. In short, they show love. John describes them:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God,
and whoever loves is born of God and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God,
for God is love. (I John 4: 7-8)
. . .

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. (I John 4:18)

So, God is love, and God showed love by casting down his son; by making sacrifices for others, by humility through mercy and justice. This love, this active, complete, perfect love; this love casts out fear. To me, that is the kind of love that is simultaneously justice and mercy, and I have now seen it in other men and women.