A Just God

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The book of Deuteronomy reads like an ancient Suzerain treaty between a king and his subjects,

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and most of it is a listing of the stipulations of that agreement.

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In this case, God's commandments.

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But the God of Israel was not just after perfect obedience, he was after love and allegiance.

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The God of the Bible is also a just God, and he wanted justice for his children, so he

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set up a whole judicial system to guide them.

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What an important lesson for today's generation that the God of the Bible is a just God.

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So welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional, and I seek to share a little inspiration

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and bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week.

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This week's Torah portion comes from Deuteronomy 16 verse 18 through 21 verse 9.

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It's called Shoftim, which means judges.

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Now let's review a little bit, okay?

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The book of Deuteronomy is made up of five major speeches of Moses and then an addendum.

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Now the speeches are made to resemble an ancient Suzerain treaty, or at least as they

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have been put together that way.

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So first there is a preamble or an introduction in the very first chapter of Deuteronomy,

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that these are the words of Moses spoken on the east side of the Jordan River.

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And then in chapter 1 verse 6, we begin a section called the prologue, which is how

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the king is faithful.

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In this case, it's God's perspective of their journey.

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It was a fulfillment of the promises he had made to their forefathers.

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It's an interesting perspective on the journey that Israel had been taking.

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But then by chapter 4 verse 44, we enter the third section, and that's the section of stipulations

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of the agreement.

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These are the conditions required by the king.

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And it begins first by reviewing the Ten Commandments, and then it goes on.

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There's many, many commandments that are covered here in the Book of Deuteronomy.

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After that we get into the section of penalties and rewards, or what we would call blessings

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and curses.

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And it ends with the succession rites, which we'll get into those two sections later.

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But this week, we are in the middle of the biggest section of Deuteronomy, which is the

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listing of God's commandments, the requirements in his covenant with the children of Israel,

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that they would be his people, and that he would be their God.

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So last week, we ended with the review of the feast.

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This week, we began talking about the importance of justice.

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So in chapter 16 verses 18 through 20, let me read,

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You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the Lord your God gives

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you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.

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You shall not pervert justice.

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You shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the

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wise and it twists the words of the righteous.

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You shall follow what is altogether just, that you may live and inherit the land which

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the Lord your God is giving you.

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The young people today love to talk about justice.

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Know that the God of the Bible, the God of Israel is a just God, and he also desires

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justice.

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Now, if there is a case that's too hard for the judges to determine, then the people are

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to go to the priests and the Levites, and it says they will judge and pronounce the

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sentence.

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Now, this is the verse that actually is the beginning of the whole idea that the priests

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and Levites sit in the seat of Moses.

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This is what later became known as the Sanhedrin.

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It was a governing body over the people of Israel made up of the priests.

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And in the New Testament, it was very active and very powerful.

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And we see this when Jesus even said that the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses'

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seat.

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So Moses' seat was a place of instruction, of giving of the law, and therefore also judging

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according to the law how the people were living.

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So here in Deuteronomy, we see that this authority is being expanded beyond Moses to the priests

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and the Levites.

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And do you know that by the time of Jesus, not only was the Sanhedrin fully considered

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a governing body based on this principle, but in every synagogue, they had a stone seat

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that was called the seat of Moses.

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And it was on that seat that the biblical scholar, the biblical teacher that week would sit

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as he taught the law of Moses.

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Now, next week, we're going to read about cities of refuge because this judicial system

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that God was setting up, he recognized that sometimes there was a local bias, and especially

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in times of innocent blood being spilled.

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So he said, if this happens, run to one of these cities, which are city of refuge, and

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the people there will come together, hear your case, and make an unbiased judgment.

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Isn't that neat?

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God thought of all these things.

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Another thing we read about this week is the requirements of the king of Israel.

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Now they were not to be a self-serving tyrant like what you saw in the neighboring countries.

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This king was to write himself out a copy of the law of Moses, and he was to read it every

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day.

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He was to rule the people according to God's law, not according to any selfish ambition

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or selfish pride, but according to God's gracious, beautiful law.

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Here we see that in King David, unfortunately, many kings over Israel and Judah did not stand

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up to these requirements.

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Now, a closing point about the law of God, it's beautiful in that this law is not impossible

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to obey.

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It wasn't impossible, but God still knew that they would disobey, that they would fall into

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sin, and so therefore the law had within it a means of repentance and atonement.

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It had a judicial system to judge between right and wrong so that there was justice for everyone.

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God was not after perfection.

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He was after allegiance and love.

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And with that, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.