with Bob Condly
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justice

Disputing Our Sins

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The New Testament is clear. Through the work of Jesus at the cross, the lost find salvation from sin. The apostle Paul reinforces this truth in the following verses:

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.” – Colossians 2:13-14

Catch that phrase: “the charge of our legal indebtedness.” It sounds more judicial than moral. Were we sinners or criminals? It appears we were both!

But Paul wasn’t thinking about arrest records or Roman governance. He was building on an Old Testament principle.

God couches His dealings with sin in legal terms.

Here’s an example:

“‘Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the LORD, ‘though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’” – Isaiah 1:18 (NKJV)

The Hebrew word for “reason together” (yakah) covers a range of meanings, including proving, judging, reasoning, correcting, convincing, and arguing. These come into play in legal proceedings in the ancient world. Unlike modern systems, those in the Old Testament era were less formal. Bible scholars often refer to such disputes as lawsuits. And they don’t mean it in the contemporary sense of filing a claim through an attorney, serving papers to the opponent, and settling matters in a civil court.

In Israel, people handled controversies in a more spontaneous manner. They would assemble a few elders and witnesses, engage their adversary, and debate back and forth until they resolved the trouble. 

Let’s return to the verse in Isaiah. When God addresses Israel, He isn’t issuing them a summons. He’s calling them to engage Him in a controversy. At issue? Their sins, and what to do about them.

In this verse, the Lord jumps from problem to solution. The sins of the people are real, but they can change. Blood red evil can become snow white.

So God isn’t out to destroy His people. His aim is transformation, not ruination.

But they have a part to play. God invites their input. “Let us reason together.” He won’t do all the talking. The people are free to speak their minds. What will they say?

They can deny their transgressions. The Jews don’t have to change their ways because their actions are fine. All they have to do is convince the Lord they’re right! Their deeds were never red; they were white all the time!

They can excuse their sins. God’s people can explain why they’ve done what they’ve done. And that should be enough to convince the Lord to ease up and back off.

And there are so many excuses!

  • You have to be tough in the business world.
  • I can control my drinking anytime I want.
  • I made him pay for what he said; he deserved it.
  • I couldn’t help myself; these websites are all over the place.
  • It’s only a few dollars, and besides, everybody does it.

They can repent. If God is right, agree with Him. Concede. Of all the options, this is least threatening. Why? Because God promises blessing, not retribution. Debating with God is an argument you will enjoy losing! Not only do you see yourself as you are, but you also get to see a new you.

And this promise given by God through Isaiah points to the New Testament. It’s in the suffering and death of Jesus that we learn who we are. But it’s in His resurrection that we discover who we can become. Who He can make us.

Christ fulfills the promises of the prophets. So we have nothing to lose. We can reason with the Lord and get serious about the condition of our hearts and our lives. And through the grace of Jesus, we receive cleansing, renewal, and hope. When we lose the argument with God, we win!

So let’s reason together with the Lord!

The Judgment of the Gods

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We ended last week’s post with a question: what does the Lord do with those sons of God who failed Him? Responding to the attempt to build the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), God confused the languages of humanity, scattered people in clans, and turned over the governance of these linguistic groups to members of the divine council (Deuteronomy 32:8). It’s not only Moses who reports this. The Greek philosopher Plato mentions the subject, too.

Plato

Writing around around 400 BC, Plato espoused the virtues of government by the gods. In the Critias, 109b-c, he penned the following:

Once upon a time the gods took over the whole earth according to its regions. They didn’t fight with each other over this. The gods recognized their own rights so they didn’t try to get for themselves possessions that others had a better claim to. By fair allotments each one received his own group, and they settled their countries. Then they raised us, like herdsmen craise their flocks, to be their cattle and nurslings. But they didn’t constrain our bodies by force, like shepherds using a staff. Instead, they directed from the stern where the living creature is easiest to turn about. They laid hold of souls by persuasion, as by a rudder, according to their own disposition; and so, they drove and steered all the mortal kind. [my paraphrased and edited version]

Plato didn’t define the era in which this all took place. But it fits the period of the Babel incident. Disobeying the Most High God, the peoples of the world ended up under the jurisdiction of lesser gods.

The philosopher praised the work of these beings. In his Laws, 713b-e, he considered this to be a golden age:

There existed in the time of Cronos a most prosperous government, on which the best nations are modeled . . . cTradition tells us how blissful life was in that age, with everything in abundance and lots of spontaneous growth. And here’s why: Cronos knew no human being could have irresponsible control of all human affairs without becoming filled with pride and injustice. So he appointed as kings dand rulers for our cities, not men, but beings of a race that was nobler and more divine, namely, daemons. He acted just like we do with sheep and cattle. We don’t set oxen as rulers over oxen, or goats over goats, but we, who are of a nobler race, rule over them. In the same way (the) God, in his love for humanity, set over us at that time the nobler race of daemons. These beings, with much comfort to themselves and to us, took charge of us and gave us peace, emodesty, orderliness, and justice, thereby making the tribes of men happy and free from fighting. [my paraphrased and edited version]

The ancient Greeks used the word daemon (or daimon) to refer to any spiritual being, good or evil. In the New Testament, daimonion refers only to evil spirits, but that’s not who Plato had in mind. He thought the gods ruling over the nations were beneficent and produced wonderful results.

This might have been true at the beginning, but things changed. These angelic authorities came to enjoy the devotion of those under their care. Rather than directing people to God, they sought for themselves the worship of the Gentiles.

And to encourage the nations to bow down to them, these rebellious powers promoted immorality and injustice. This triple combination appealed to fallen humanity, which further alienated people from God and His standards. By this point, the human race was trapped.

Psalm 82

But the Lord would not allow this sorry state to continue. He will hold the angelic rulers accountable. We learn about this in Psalm 82, written by Asaph.

We’ll break up the psalm into sections and handle them one at a time. And it’ll take more than one blog post to cover everything, so be patient and enjoy the trip!

Context

“God has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods He holds judgment.” – Psalm 82:1

The first verse has a chiastic structure, which means it’s shaped like an X. We can also use the term ABBA to illustrate this form. Here’s the arrangement:

A: God has taken His place

B: in the divine council

B: in the midst of the gods

A: He holds judgment

This form allows the psalmist to repeat himself and so to stress key ideas. In this verse, point A refers to God acting as a judge. Point B identifies the personal situation of the proceedings.

The Hebrew word for God, elohim, occurs twice in this verse. The first time it refers to God who is the Judge. The second time it refers to those involved in the judgment, translated in the ESV as “gods.”

To make a noun plural, Hebrew adds an “-im” at the end of the word. But even though elohim has a plural form, it’s often singular in meaning. One way to decide whether the noun is singular or plural is to check the accompanying verb. In this case, “has” is singular, so the first elohim gets translated as “God,” not “gods.”

The first middle point describes a group. A council (`edah) is a “congregation or gathering,” denoting a collection of individuals. Therefore, the ESV went with “gods” for the second elohim.

The Lord has a role in the council. 46 times the Old Testament describes God as the Most High. He’s the supreme leader of the divine council!

Asaph further clarifies that it’s God’s council. He attaches the generic noun for God, el, to “council.” Here, it acts as a descriptor. So this is no ordinary council. It’s divine; it belongs to or is overseen by God Himself.

And one last tidbit. The verbs are in the imperfect tense. In Hebrew, this means the action hasn’t been completed yet. From Asaph’s perspective, God has started to judge, but He’s not finished.

What do we get out of the first verse? We see God holding court to engage in judgment. He’s surrounded by fellows, but we don’t know why they’re there. Are they members of the council or are they defendants?

Charges

“How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? 3Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” – Psalm 82:2-4

In this passage, God lays out His charges against the accused. They’re still unidentified, but they appear to have authority. These individuals can judge, grant justice, rescue, and deliver. They can also abuse their position and grant favors to the powerful while disregarding the poor and weak.

In the ancient world, judgment, rulership, and military command were all combined. Today in constitutional republics, we diffuse these responsibilities to prevent a single person from amassing too much power. But in the days of the Old Testament, rulers governed as absolutes. Only to the extent that a king delegated his responsibilities did others take part in his authority.

Given that background, we can say that the Lord is addressing authority figures. They’re not living up to their God-given duty to provide justice. 

Christ

We’re going to pick on Psalm 82 next week, but for now, let’s remember that Jesus is the primary aim of Scripture. In fact, I’m going to end this post with a passage from Luke’s gospel. It describes Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s plan for the government of the nations. The gods have failed, but Jesus won’t.

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read. 17And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:16-21

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