The Relationship Between Justice and Mercy

What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God? ~Micah 6:8

SUMMARY OF THE BOOK OF MICAH

  This scripture verse is from the book of Micah. Micah was a prophet from a poor region, called Shephelah, that sat between the mountains and the valley, in a place referred to as the lowlands, in south central Israel. He was a country man, who was living  an ordinary life, when the Word of the Lord came to him about how God was coming to visit the corrupt cities in Samaria and Jerusalem. God’s word came to Micah in pictures and visions. Micah saw a stable society disintegrate in front of his eyes, under the reign of three kings. He saw every kind of evil filling up the two cities of Samaria and Jerusalem, that gradually trickled down to his own region and people, and it broke his heart. Micah recognized that when the Word of the Lord came to Him that God was going to come and bring justice and set things right, and nothing could stop it. It was said that the Lord revealed to Micah how God was coming down out of His place to tread upon the high places of the earth, and how the mountains would melt under His feet and into the valleys would flow wax like in a fire, as water pouring down a hill. God came to completely destroy all their idols along with the city of Samaria by causing her stones to roll into the valleys and expose its foundation. It says that Micah tore at his clothes until he was stripped naked and it says, "he wailed like a jackal and lamented like an ostrich", because he knew the evil in Samaria had reached his own people and they would never be the same again. Imagine his grief at all he saw, but then also imagine carrying the word of the Lord that He was called to deliver to a people who were found participating with all kinds of evil, and the level of resistance He faced. There was a lot of idolatry, immorality and injustice happening between God’s people, and it grieved and affected Micah very deeply. Prophets weren't unaffected by the things they saw. While every prophet of God had a dynamic encounter that led them to speak and be a mouthpiece for God, their human spirits still felt pain and sorrow. They weren't exempt from their own humanness. I think we can clearly see the level of grief Micah endured in chapter one. 

THE LEADERS WERE ALL CORRUPT

Israel's leaders were supposed to know and uphold what was right, but in chapter three Micah tells them they hated what was good and loved evil, and they hated justice and twisted everything that was right. They were exploiting the powerless, landlords were stealing from the poor, evicting widows and orphans and putting them out on the streets. Crime began to infiltrate their society with many murdering one another. Leaders were only teaching God's laws, and prophesying (divination) for money, using bribery and promising people peace to those who gave them food, but declaring war on those that refused them food. As these diviners continued with their false prophecies and bribes, they  made false claims that they were dependent upon the Lord and that the Lord was with them, when He wasn’t, and they weren't really being dependent upon the Lord, but doing their own corrupt things. Family relationships were disintegrating, businesses were becoming dishonest and corruption began to infiltrate every aspect of society. Micah didn’t hold back and was bold in His declaration for social justice. He was horrified by the things that were happening among God's people, who were called to be a light to the nation. While, he was burdened by all the corruption, Micah seemed more particularly burdened by the injustices taking place between God's people, and how they were injuring each other. We still see this today between people who claim to be followers of Christ. It grieves the Spirit of God. They devour each other, especially on social media, through theological debates, instead of uniting under a Spirit of love and grace. If you disagree with some of these they will become argumentative and seek to antagonize you, so you will engage in a back and forth battle with them. While there can be healthy room created for debates with those you know more personally, many of these debates on social media only end up becoming battles of the will and the flesh, riddled with self righteous and judge mental attitudes.

In the first three chapters of Micah we see all this evil, crime, and the things that God was going to come and deal with, in order to bring justice and set things right, and we see the cities being left in ruins. Then in the fourth and fifth chapter we begin to see God showing Micah about the future exile of the people of Israel and how the ruins of their cities was not going to be the end of the story. We all long for a world where there is peace, and we see Micah here in the next two chapters talk about peace and security, and the promise of the coming Messiah (Jesus) who will one day rule and reign and set up his own kingdom, where He will settle all the disputes among the nations, and bring peace. Micah is  looking ahead here and making reference to the second coming of Jesus. Then in the sixth and seventh chapter we see justice and mercy, and how the two intertwine, which is a point I wanted to look at more in depth, through the story and book of Micah.

THE COURT SCENE

In the last two chapters you see a court scene where God is the counsel for the prosecution and He makes and states His case against Israel. In verse two, He says, " He is going to bring charges against Israel." You see God speaking to them in the first person and He uses the personal pronoun "I" and you can hear the lament in His voice when He tells them that what He really wanted was not sacrifices (they were faithful to kill the animals for the blood that was needed to cleanse and forgive them of their sins) but righteousness. He said what He really wanted and required was that they, "act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God." He recounts their guilt and all the dishonest things they were doing and lets them know the consequences that they will reap as a result of their actions. Then in the seventh chapter you see Micah as the counsel for the defense and He also is speaking in the first person and you see him lamenting or grieving  over the current state of Israel's depravity. He recognizes the judgement they will receive for their wrong doing, but  then his misery turns into rejoicing as He realizes the judge in the courtroom (God)  was going to show and extend  mercy and you see this covenant of mercy God made with His people.  It says in verse eighteen that, "God will not stay angry at his people forever, because He delights in showing His unfailing love."  That word unfailing means, " constant" and not capable of being exhausted.

JUSTICE AND MERCY

    Justice is giving people what is due them, or  what they deserve and mercy is compassion that treats people better than they deserve. The two don't contradict each other, they actually travel together. We see this relational theme clearly  between the two in the book of  Micah. Reading the entire book helps grasp the entirety of the message. I found the word justice and judgment often interchangeably used throughout all of scripture, although justice is often defined as being righteous or doing rightly, and judgement can mean different things in different contexts. It can mean the calamity inflicted by God on sinners, or it can mean the determination of the mind formed from comparing the relations of ideas. Think about the cross, where we see God's perfect justice for sin, and where we also see that the guilty can be made free from sin, because Jesus, who was innocent, paid the penalty for sin. If God chose to forgive us without the cross, then He would be merciful but not just. If He refused to forgive sin at all, He would be just, but not merciful. When we view justice through the lens of getting even or getting revenge for someone's wrong behavior, and respond accordingly without any thought given to mercy, we don't think and act the way God does. While they rightfully deserve to serve the consequences and be given what is due to them according to their actions, if they were to choose to turn away from their wrongdoing could we treat them better than they deserve?

 Mercy doesn't look the other way and pretend that injustice never occurred, which is what I have seen demonstrated. In Psalm 85: 10, it says, "mercy and truth meet together." So just like justice and mercy travel together so does mercy and truth. We can see a pattern of several others, like righteousness and peace, and truth and love. You can walk in truth and not walk in love, but you cant walk in love and not in the truth. The two need each other and work best together. In the same way that mercy doesn't turn a blind eye to the truth, the same could be said about forgiveness. True forgiveness doesn't justify or give a free pass to wrong doing, although we can choose to extend grace (be courteous and kind) to an individual when they express and own their wrong doing. When someone harms or sins against us we are the ones that suffer the emotional/physical pain of the injustice and experience the grief. It works the same when we  harm or sin against someone else. They  are the ones that suffer and bear the pain and grief.

 Forgiveness is simply the release of the debt, that the individual doesn't have the capacity to pay back. When  someone wrongs you, they can't undo the suffering and grief that their wrong doing inflicted, and this incurs a debt they don’t have the capacity to undo or pay back. They can seek restitution and restoration by fully owning and validating the harm that was inflicted, but the one that they harmed still bears the pain and suffering from their wrong doing.  In releasing them from their debt, you protect your self from becoming bitter. Forgiveness can also help gradually release the feelings of vengeance and resentment against an individual. We don't ignore that these feelings don't exist when they do, and we don’t suppress them, but allow ourselves to grieve and embrace the pain that is so often buried  behind or underneath these feelings. When we grieve our losses, emotional pain can heal and  lose its power over us. Pain that is not grieved is often weaponized and can become self destructing and harm others. We can walk around with suppressed pain in our physical bodies too. I have seen people view forgiveness as a way to suppress the reality of the pain and suffering  that they endured and this is not helpful nor is it being truthful. I think this actually fosters more un forgiveness which gives feelings of resentment and bitterness a stronger hold, to poison our hearts. When you forgive and release someone from their debt, you also ARE NOT giving them a pass to continue to mistreat you, you're simply releasing them and removing yourself as their judge and releasing them to the Lord, so He can rightly judge. Even though they may not yield their hearts to God, He is still the author of right and fair judgement, just like He was in the book of Micah. It is completely just and merciful to take action and establish healthy boundaries and consequences for wrong behavior, that can encourage that individual to own and take responsibility for their own wrong behavior, even though, it doesn’t guarantee that they will choose to do so. True change doesn’t happen unless an individual can see, own, and take responsibility for their own wrong doing.

God doesn't deal with denial and disassociation from evil and injustice, but always deals with it. Timing and patience is an important factor with God bringing justice and setting things right. A delayed response from God in setting things right, doesn't mean inaction or an unwillingness to deal with the injustice. Justice in the court systems is also often delayed because it takes time to examine all the evidence in a trial. We can grow weary with delay, however it’s in the delay, that I personally have learned that focusing on the Lord and looking to Him to guide my steps, aids me in my own learning and  healing journey. Our healing is not dependent upon an individual owning their wrong doing, but it can determine whether reconciliation is possible or not. When we are able to see good fruit grow in us where we thought the suffering and pain would destroy us, then we can know we are coming out on the other side of it. We know we are healing, when the suffering we have endured is transformed into something beautiful, in some capacity. Maybe its a new confidence and strength that wasn't there before, or insight into something that you can share with others in their moments of suffering that brings them comfort, etc.

We also see mercy and justice working together in Jesus as He walked with sinners. He loved and cared for the sinner, but didn’t participate in the sin with the sinner. He allowed a prostitute to wash his feet with perfume and her hair. He had an ability to continue to love the sinner in spite of their sin. You need the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you to be able  follow Jesus’s example and to be like Him. It is the kindness of God that leads people to repentance and to see the error of their ways, not your own self righteous indignation or wrath.  Whenever we are presented with paradoxes like these we often revert to either/or, and black and white thinking and think it has to be one or the other. We can’t seem to be able to see the value of both and how they function better together.  I hope this article can shine some light on the relationship between some of these paradoxes and help adjust our thinking surrounding them.

GOD IS STILL CALLING HIS OWN

 God is still continuing to call those that belong to Him, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him. Those who aren’t afraid to forsake the man-made religiosity, with all its  ideals, rituals, performances, etc. that God has said he doesn’t require. He is looking for people who actually care about the things and people He cares about, and to walk and do the things Jesus taught and did. To be vessels who create space for His presence where  He can manifest His person (nature and heart) to rescue and save the lost, heal the broken, and liberate the captives.

 We can act justly and love mercy and still not walk humbly with God. I think all three of these at work together create a powerful  harmony that makes it possible  for the power and presence of God to be manifested. There are still prophetic voices that God is raising up that warn of the exploitations of evil where it occurs and we still see the oppressed and disadvantaged being set free and given a voice and a chance at coming into that new life that Jesus paid for them to come into. Those that learn to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God, most likely will not be readily acceptable to everyone or part of the majority crowd.

In the last chapter of the book of Micah where He is lamenting about the depravity among God’s people, He talks about grapes (fruit)  and there not being a cluster of them to eat anymore. He is referring to those that are not found righteous, faithful or upright in heart. He is painting a visual image here of what  it looked like to be among the majority, and still be part of the minority in a society that had fallen susceptible to all kinds of evil and corruption. He talked about how  a man’s enemies would be those of his own household and how we can not trust a friend, or place our confidence in a companion, but place our confidence and faith in God alone, just like Micah did, who saw both the justice and mercy of God.  I think there is so much we can learn from Micah to encourage us in the  present day that we live in today. I pray this article has blessed, inspired, and encouraged you, in some way.Selah.