BibleProject - Justice Part 1: What's the Biblical Vision of Justice?

Episode Date: October 9, 2017

This is our first episode in our new series on the theme of Justice in the Bible. When most of us hear the term "justice" we think of courtrooms, judges and cops. Some of us might think of biblical justice as “God’s Judgement”. What did the Hebrews believe justice looked like? And what was the biblical vision for a “just society?” In the first part of the conversation (0-22:50) Tim outlines where the words “Justice” and “Righteousness” come from in the Bible and what they meant in their original context. The guys speculate about why every person seems to have an ingrained idea of “fairness”. Tim shares three common perspectives of Justice from a Harvard professor (Brian Sandel) book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? Justice is Maximizing Welfare Justice is Respect of Individual Freedom Justice is Promoting Virtue In the second part of the show (22:51-44:45) Tim outlines the famous verse in Micah “do justice, love mercy” and what that verse originally meant to Hebrews. The guys talk about the differences between retributive justice and restorative justice. Tim shares the prophets ideas of the quartet of the vulnerable: widows, orphans, immigrants, the poor. Finally, (44:50-end) the guys discuss the story of the Hebrew Exodus, and how that story framed many images in the Bible about justice. Thank you to all our supporters! You can learn more about the bible project on our website: https://thebibleproject.com/ Resources: Books: Annie Dillard: Pilgrim At Tinker Creek Michael Sandel: Justice: What’s The Right Thing To Do? Show Music: Defender Instrumental: Rosasharn Music Flooded Meadows: Unwritten Stories You Can Save Me: Beautiful Eulogy Exile Dial Tone: Beautiful Eulogy

Hey, this is Cooper at Bible Project. I produce the podcast in Classroom. We've been exploring a theme called the City, and it's a pretty big theme. So we decided to do two separate Q and R episodes about it. We're currently taking questions for the second Q and R and we'd love to hear from you. Just record your question by July 21st

and send it to us at infoatbiboproject.com. Let us know your name and where you're from, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds and please transcribe your question when you email it in, try to keep your question to about 20 seconds, and please transcribe your question when you email it. That's a huge help to our team. We're excited to hear from you. Here's the episode.

Hey, this is John at the Bible Project. In this episode of the podcast, we're starting a new series on the topic of justice in the Bible. We have a new theme video on justice coming out on our YouTube channel soon, and so these conversations are Tim and I talking through the theme of justice and righteousness, how it weaves through the biblical story. This is a very important and timely conversation. This is also a very convicting conversation, but at the same time a really exciting and empowering conversation for those who follow Jesus.

We'll look at how the theme of justice and righteousness weaves through the biblical story. The phrase, giving someone their rights, protecting their rights, all this language comes from the Bible. All this language of rights in our culture is rooted in the old King James translation. And so what is for the, you know, for the prophets,

what does true justice look like? What does Mishpah and Mercy look like? It's where the poor, the widow, the orphan and the immigrant don't have to worry about their safety. It's a community where they don't have to worry about who's going to take advantage of them. That is the just society. So what's the Bible's vision for justice and righteousness?

Thanks for joining us. Here we go. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background six pages of your notes in front of me. Sorry. I'm ready to learn. All right. Bring the learn. It's hard to know where to begin. Justice, the word justice, appears a lot in the Bible, actually, the word, I did my word search numbers this morning. The word justice, or the word any that occurs over 400 times in the Old Testament alone.

And then once you bring the related vocabulary word, righteousness in the mix, that appears in another 130 times, just in the Old Testament. Righteousness is 130, just this is 400. 400. And they're related. They aren't that related in English anymore, but they're deeply related in the storyline of the Bible.

Okay. So first, as we kind of normally do, we kind of need to clear the ground, identify what's going on in English, with our categories with these words, and then find a way to check those at the door, and then let the Bible kind of rebuild its own categories. So the other day,

Paxton, my oldest came up to me and he said, Papa, it's not fair. Sayers watching a show, I should be able to watch a show too. And so I said, what do you mean it's not fair? And he goes, it's not fair. It means he gets to do something that I don't get to do. And I was like, well, that happens all the time. Right?

Like, you get to go to school and he doesn't get to go to school. Like, you get to wear, underwear during the day and he doesn't get to. Yeah. I mean, so like, and I could see him kind of thinking about it and he kind of was getting it, but then he was like, no, no, you're trying to pull one over. You're trying to pull one over me. If he's watching a show, I get to watch a show. Yeah, that're trying to pull one over. You're trying to pull one over me. If he's watching a show, I get to watch a show. Yeah, that's right.

But so fairness is definitely something just deeply ingrained into psyche. And I actually kind of surprised me of just thinking like, I never sat down with them. It was like, Max, let me teach you about fairness. Yes, here's, yeah, that's right. You know, like if someone else gets something, you should get it too.

It's just something he learned and has become a core value of his. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, it's a value that tends to form early and in almost all human beings. I'm not a philosopher or an anthropologist or anything, but I think this is a fairly accurate statement to say all human cultures develop a sense of fairness. Yeah, and have deep rooted because it's rooted in the human experience of being aware of other people's life experience and then being aware of what I lack. That's either not going on in my life and they have that going on. So I should be able to have that going on because they're stoked on watching shows. Or ice cream, or having clean water, or having religious freedom or having.

If he gets it, I should get it too. And that is equitable. Yeah. So our English word, which has a long history, well, there's few words, I guess, fair. That's what your son was saying, fair. But just is the classic English word, it's not just. That's adjective. And then the noun that comes out of that is the English word justice, which has a, you know, you have, you have an online etymology thing you sometimes use. Right. I just did a quick Oxford English Dictionary search.

Justice comes from the Latin word, used to meaning fair or upright. The noun, yeah, is used to tia. Used to tia. Used to tia. Upright is a metaphor. Yeah, it is. Not crooked.

Not crooked. Yeah. And that actually is an old testament a lot like a- It is uprightness. Uprightness. Yeah, it is. Not crooked. Not crooked. And that actually is an old testament a lot like a... It is, uprightness. Yes, that's a different word. It's a different word, but it's related. We'll see some examples of that. Fairness, straightness.

Straightness. There's a straightness to how humans opt to relate to each other. And it becomes very evident when things become our crooked between humans. Things were crooked between your sons. Right. It's crooked. Yeah, why is straight become so meaningful to us

versus crooked? Yeah. Something's crooked. It's not as easy to work with. It's less beautiful. It might be damaged in some way when it's crooked. I mean, things in nature are always crooked. Yeah, that's right.

Branches of straight things. Vains and yeah, but humans create straight things. Nothing in nature is straight. No, nothing. Yeah, I remember being very aware of this after I started skateboarding. What is that? Well, everything, because you're looking for a smooth concrete. How much you like a place is dependent on whether the concrete smooths.

So yeah, I remember different parts of town, older parts of town. Yeah. Over time, straight things become crooked, and smooth things become bumpy. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so anyhow, but the whole point is that nowhere in the forest do you encounter a surface for skateboarding? Right, yeah. It's clearly a human-made entity.

Yeah, yeah, it's so interesting. Yeah, we just watched The Lion King as a family, and it's weird to have, you know, because in the Lion King, the animals are all anthropomorphized. But they're animals. So the lions, they eat the gazelles and so on. They have to talk about it and they have to figure out, like, how do we talk about, how is this fair, inherently fair?

And the way they talk about it is the circle of life? Huh, so like the the father forget his name But Simba's dad Simba's like, oh man, we eat the animals like that. That's a bummer and he's like well We eat the animals, but then we die and we become dirt where the grass grows in the animals he does and so There's this inherent fairness. in the circle of life. Yeah. But humans just start like on a different, we kind of seem to be creating a world of justice that isn't inherent in the natural order, which kind of bring it out. Yeah, it's a human project, the creation of a just community. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't come from some

previous stage of development. There's the thing. It actually is unlike anything in the universe. There actually is a good analogy to that. Annie Dillard, she went to go live in a small cabin by a creek for a long period of time to disisolate yourself and be alone with nature. And so the book is about her experience. And one of her big takeaways in the book was that she actually became, had this whole season where she was terrified by what she was seeing every day down at the creek.

Namely, the nature, this beautiful idyllic thing that she was going to experience was absolutely bloodthirsty and terrifying. So she has this whole thing about a praying mantis, like what kind of a horrible creature a praying mantis is. Yeah, right. And so it led to this, at least this reflection of, yeah, nature is not just. There's nothing just about how animals behave towards each other. There's nothing in the natural world that leads logically or naturally to our concept of straightness in how humans relate to each other.

Don't come in the existence in a just way. Here's the quote from Ayah Delaide. Okay. There's not a person in the world who behaves as badly as praying mantises. But wait, you say, there is no right or wrong in nature. Right or wrong is a human concept. Exactly. We are moral creatures living in an amoral universe. Or consider the alternative, it's just a human feeling that's freakishly amiss in the world.

Okay, then we're freaks of nature, and nature is what is normal. So let's all go have lobotomies and be restored to our natural state. And we can leave lobotomized, go back to the creek, and live on its banks untroubled like any muskrat or weed. You go first. You go first. Any dillard pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Is that brilliant?

Is that the idea of like the golem in a way? Oh, huh. Like, you kind of just go back to this instinctual, animalistic. So, yeah, her point, yeah, justice, the just society is very much... We all want it. We all want it. And it's a, if it's going to happen, it's going to be something humans create. It's not going to match the natural trajectory of human relationships is not towards justice.

At least human history has not shown that to be the case. There has to be some active force or choice or value system or story driving people to live unnaturally. But it wasn't like Martin Luther King Jr.'s thing about the arc of history as long, but it bends towards justice. Correct. He's saying the opposite thing, right? Which is, there is a force pushing us towards justice. Correct.

Yes. He's saying that very much as a Christian, living in the biblical story. Okay. So the biblical story animating us as humans is bending towards justice, not nature. God's at work in the world. Dr. King believed through Jesus to bend the universe back towards straightness. That's the Christian story. Otherwise, humans

left to their own devices or left to alternative stories will descend into injustice. Anyway, just as a as a preface. So here's what's interesting in our culture today. Every justice is a very fashionable word. It's a word, it's a positive word that gets respect. If you can claim to have justice on your side. Yeah. But in our kind of modern Western culture that comes out of these kind of Judeo-Christian roots, we, it's an extremely confused conversation happening about what constitutes justice. Right.

We all want justice, but we don't necessarily agree on what it is. Yeah, because how you define what is the straight thing and what is the crooked thing actually isn't self-evident, just like it's not self-evident in nature. It comes from a set of core values, usually religious values, a worldview that says these things in life are the ultimate goods or the ultimate values. So a helpful book that I was pointed to by Timothy Keller who wrote an excellent book on

a Christian vision of justice, called Generous Justice, and in it writes the beginning quoted from this Harvard law professor who wrote this book that was excellent. His name's Michael Sandell, and it's called Justice. What's the right thing to do? And Sandell's not a Christian. Well, actually, he might be, I don't know. I haven't looked up as Wikipedia page, but he's not writing as a Christian for Christians.

Okay. He's trying to identify the fact that America and the West, modern West, Europe too, lives in this really confused state, where we all say liberty and justice, but we have sub-cultures that have totally different core values that define what the just thing is. And he boils them down to three that I found they're helpful.

And this will be, this is helpful for understanding what's going on in the Bible with justice. That's why I'm bringing this up. Okay. So he says there's a whole group in subculture with political parties attached that their core value In defining what is straight or just he calls it the maximizing welfare view So the straight action the just action is whatever will bring the greatest amount of good and Reduce the greatest harm for the greatest number of people.

But as a core principle, if the core is whatever reduces harm and increases flourishing for the greatest number of people, that if that's your guide, that does get you going in a direction that will make life good for many people. But what that core value doesn't do is help you determine what is the greatest good and what defines harm. Like you have to define that. So anyway, in a broad, these are very broad brush strokes. So maximizing welfare, basically what will help the most people and not hurt the least people.

And what ever we do, we should always be maximizing that. the most people and not hurt the least. And hurt the least amount of people. And whatever we do, we should always be maximizing that. Yeah, that's a true North. And in that view, it's a social equity. Correct. You're getting more and more towards equality for everyone. Yeah, yeah. It's how that would bend.

Yeah, and so yeah, this view would find itself most often expressed in more socialist political groups. Okay, so groups that are really interested in redistribution of resources and making sure everyone has equal rights Correct. Well actually that's number two. I think that's different. Yeah, and they're not all different universes These three overlap. But the point is, if you listen to our public discourse about justice, you'll tend to find these three patterns in people's arguments.

And people could have a number of them operating. Yeah, usually we're a hotchpodge, but we tend to value one more than the other. Okay, yeah. Maximizing welfare, got it. Maximizing welfare. Sandel says the second is the respecting freedom view. So this is about liberty, your visual liberty.

So justice is what creates the greatest amount of respect for the rights and freedoms of each individual to live how they want to live. This is deep rooted in American culture history. Don't tread on me, tell me what to do. I had a hat that? Don't tread on me. Tell me what to do. I had a hat that said, don't tread on me with a snake in the boot.

Yeah, and I didn't know what it meant. I just thought it was awesome. It was a trucker hat. Yeah, it was a trucker hat. And I wore it like for a long time. And then later when I wasn't wearing it more, I learned that that symbol had a lot of meaning. And then it just occurred to me, like, man,

a lot of people just assume something about me because of that hat, rightfully so probably, my liberty. Yeah, liberty. So this is a, if this is your core value, Sandel says, these will be groups that, for the view of the just society is a society that will accommodate and adapt to promote the fair treatment and the equal liberties of

every single different kind of core, distinct division of justice, Sandel talks about is he calls it the promoting virtue view So justice is what is going to shape a society so that people act as they ought to in accordance with moral virtue Here, there's a vision of humans ought to behave this way a certain kind of moral compass certain level of virtue and integrity and the the Jeff's society is what will push people to become like this. Okay. So the freedom view tends to get connected with what in America is called political liberalism. Libertarianism. Libertarianism. The third is often the conservative. Yeah, political conservatism. And then the first maximizing

welfare is often connected with socialism. And liberalism, yeah. And so, Sandel's point is, when you're talking across the spectrum, it's just helpful to be aware that even though you're using the same vocabulary, these words, justice, and fairness, you actually have really different views. Yeah, you put a liberal socialist, a libertarian,

and like a conservative in the same room. Yeah. And they're all using the word justice. They're using them in a different way. Yeah. Yeah, so plug in any of our hot topic, cultural, to be clear. Yeah, I was just thinking about that.

Yeah, whether it's about a wage. Well, let's talk about that. Yeah, but just go down the hit list and you can begin to plug them in, like a minimum wage or write to life, portion issues, or anything to do with definitions of marriage. Yeah. Or it seems really hot right now, or comes up a lot as transgender issues.

That's right, gender, that's right. So like the respect for freedom would be, hey, what you wanna do, you know, like if someone else is able to marry someone, you should be able to marry someone. Or if someone has a choice for they want to marry, you should have a choice for you to marry. So that's the like just liberty. But then if you think of it through the virtue lens, then you might say, no, there actually

has to be some boundaries to this. Yeah, actually marriage is a good example. There's been voices from the first view, maximizing welfare, non-religious voices, from the maximizing welfare view, arguing against the redefinition of marriage. Oh, okay.

I forget who it was, but they were a couple like law professors, and they were arguing against redefinition of marriage, not, okay. I forget who it was, but they were a couple like law professors and they were arguing against redefinition of marriage not from a religious point of view. They were saying we shouldn't redefine marriage because it won't maximize. It'll actually be. In the long run, they made a historical argument that it will be as a detriment of our society as a whole. So just to point us, these are three different. You could take that issue and you could argue it through any of these three lenses Right and you're gonna get and you're gonna get into different places when you start That's right with any of those

So sandals point is this is a 30,000 foot map of American views of justice and how it shapes Very charged emotional conversations. Yeah in our culture very charged emotional conversations in our culture. So here's what tends to happen. Is there are religious believers of all kinds, Christians of all kinds, who are in all of those camps? And what tends to happen is the Bible. You get conservative Christians, you get liberal.

And they all appeal to the Bible as advocating for their particular point of view. And this was Tim Keller's point and why he brought up Sandel. And this is I think just the point to make. And I don't know, we won't be able to have this conversation in the justice video, I don't think, maybe acknowledge it. Okay. It's complex. But it's just saying the Bible, what we tend to do is be in a camp ourselves, have a point of view ourselves, and assume that the Bible supports my particular point of view. And what's fascinating is when you look at all of these hundreds of uses of these words, justice and righteousness in the old and new testament, you find that actually the biblical definition of justice taps into all of these.

It actually, it doesn't support one against the other. There are different places where biblical authors will be connecting to each of these core values, which means to this. It means the Bible doesn't fit neatly into our more modern categories. That's a different thing. I can break a broken record. this. It means the Bible doesn't fit neatly into our more modern categories. That's a different one. I'm referring. Like a broken record.

Yeah. It takes great discipline to just set aside our modern debates about whatever topic and just listen, learn how to listen to the biblical story and how it defines justice and then come back to our modern context and see what wisdom it has to offer us. But the unique thing is that it doesn't just tap into any one of these. It actually unites them in, I think, under a bigger vision. And so this bigger vision is a fourth bucket? Well, I don't know. We just have to lift the conversation unfold.

Alright, then go there. So, here's a helpful place to start. One of the most famous Bible verses about justice. From the Old Testament, a prophet from Micah of Mordershez. In the sixth chapter, he has this classic line. Yes, he says, God has told you, oh human, what is good and what the Lord requires of you It's to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God Yeah, epic and yeah, did you sing that as a kid? No, I have I know know there's a song to it. Oh, there is? Yeah.

Huh. I don't know. It's not like a hymn. I don't know what it would have been written. Maybe it's a hymn. But yeah. I think it would sing it. It's that line.

It's a little poem. He's told you a human what's good, what the word requires of you. Three things. To do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God. The Hebrew word justice, you don't have to clear your throat. It's very simple to say,

Mishpat. Mishpat. Mishpat. And in the context of Micah as a whole, Micah was accusing the leaders of Israel, specifically. So remember, Israelites are in the land. Joshua divided up the land all the tribes Everybody's supposed to have their own piece of land. Yeah, that they can work and develop and cultivate

To provide for themselves and to contribute to their community. It seems very fair It's very fair. Yeah, in the Old Testament story the land boundaries and it's like the ideal state where everybody has the chance to work hard and contribute. But as the kingdom period went on, it's just what naturally happens, just like what happens at Tinker Creek. As there's certain individuals begin to accumulate through fair or unfair means, more resources, more land. And what I, Micah, identifies is there's people who are changing the boundary lines at nighttime, or there's people who are buying land from lower income land owners, and then slowly turning them into bond servants or slaves, or they rig the weight systems in the markets so that wheat is, you know, that's whatever, it's what humans do.

And he's ticked. Oh my gosh, like the whole book of Micah, he's ticked. And so this statement comes that the pinnacle of him accusing the elite leaders and landowners of Israel. And that's what he says. Here's what God defines as good. Justice, mercy, and humility. So we'll talk about what he means by Mishpah. But it's interesting that he joins it with mercy and humility. So one part of what he means is, hey, we need to go like settle these disputes and write these wrongs. These are inequities.

Probably need to go to a courtroom. It means that by doing justice. So by doing justice, but it's clear that he doesn't mean only that this is gonna happen in a courtroom because he joins these three things together, doing justice, but also loving mercy. So mercy is about your motivation

for why you would do justice. Whatever justice is. Okay, let's back up. Okay. So the whole courtroom thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So in our culture and in many human societies, when there is a dispute about whether something that's happened to his fair or not, just or not. Yes, yes. We've created a system in which we can try to get to, try to get to that answer in the best way possible by calling it witnesses, by looking at evidence, and by someone or appealing to legal statutes that define what is right. Peeling to what we've already decided. In our land. Yeah, is the right and wrong thing to do.

Yeah. And then interpreting those things, and this is all presided over by a judge, generally. Who's carrying out the statutes of the definitions of right and wrong created by a body of elected leaders. Yeah. of right and wrong created by a body of elected leaders. So the sole process of finding justice then happens in an environment that we're calling the courthouse. So if you're trying to do justice, oftentimes it will end up in court. That's just a place where justice is considered.

It can be considered in other places, around a table, with friends, but... But in terms of where things get decided in a public way, and for the public good. Yeah, so actually here, yeah, we're to two, this is right below in the notes. There's two main modes of justice that you can think about. One is you could call

it like a retributive or rectifying justice. This is like what happens in a courtroom. You store five bucks. That's wrong in our land. That's crooked. So you need to make that straight. You need to pay five bucks and probably do some community service and whatever. So that you put us all out so you need to... Yeah, or I was accused of stealing five bucks. I didn't steal five bucks. And now you've put me out of all this time to sit here in this room and prove to you

that I didn't steal five bucks. It's both your declaring behavior wrong and it needs rectifying it. Reuctifying it means punishment or recompense, Right. So that's one mode of justice. But then there's another mode of justice. You could call it restorative, which is we're going to create codes by which we choose to live and the creation of those codes will embody

a vision of straightness or justness. And as we draw those up, who are we going to pay attention to? Who are these laws going to benefit? And there's this is a huge debate, of course, in like modern political theory. In the creation of laws, should laws be oriented as completely irrespective of persons or should there be laws created specifically for certain groups that tend to get the short end of the stick more often than anybody else. So we're going to create specific laws so that these people get a leg up. Get a leg up. Yeah, and this is huge debates, but there's two modes and that

doesn't happen in courtroom. That happens on legislation on the yeah, we've called this legislation in our culture. And there we're talking about like rights. Somebody's rights being protected by the creation of law. So the question is, what's Micah talking about to do justice? Is he saying go to a courthouse and anyone who's stolen needs to be punished? Yeah. Or is he saying... So, and if you're doing that, why does he combine that with mercy and humility? Right. Because when you go to a courthouse, it's not about mercy.

Not about mercy. It's just like you stole five bucks. It's about justice. It's about justice. It's about what's right. Yes. Okay. So, so it's about justice in it in that retributive sense. Oh, I see. Retributial. But the other sense does have mercy because if you say, hey, look at this group of people, yes, are often marginalized. Yep. No matter what, they always end up being marginalized. So let's proactively and mercifully create rules which protect them. And that means you're not actually seeking strict justice. You're doing something merciful.

And here we're to it. This is the NAB of the issue. In the Bible, the word mishpoth, nine times out of ten, gets used in that second sense. The merciful sense. Creating a society where the most disadvantaged and the most vulnerable are supported and cared for. And you're creating legislation and your leaders are specifically focusing on the most vulnerable in the community. Of the 400 plus uses of the word mishpot, the vast majority are focused on that, on that second one.

Which is why in the Bible, justice is often connected with mercy, loyalty, humility. And you think, well, it's great if a judge in a courtroom is like a nice guy. But it's irrelevant to his lowest judge. Yeah, sometimes they kinda need to be judged. Yeah, yeah, hard. Kind of hard, no. Yeah, so that's where the Bible is just talking.

It's using, we have this English word to translate Mishpah, but Mishpoth is about much, much more than just what happens in the courtroom. Yeah, so there you go. So mercy is about looking on people who are in situations that are difficult and that are not my situation. So if I'm going to act in their favor or do good to them, that's called mercy. And the same with humility, I'm going to treat other people as more important than me. And so their problems, I make my problems.

And this is one of the main meanings of Mishpot, justice, to make other people's problems, my problems is justice in the Bible. Nine times out of 10. Yeah, I'm going to show you many examples. All right, let's look at some examples. Okay. So here's what's interesting.

Here's how this restorative sense works out. Well, here's how it's kind of like a this development of meaning, this interesting. Restorative is the second one. Yep, okay. So we're- Retributive and restorative. Yeah, retributive is punishing wrongdoors by the standard of justice.

Restorative is making sure everybody in my community is treated fairly and is given opportunity to flourish. Okay. So, this is the phrase giving someone their rights, protecting their rights. All this language comes from the Bible. All this language of rights in our culture is rooted in old King James translation. And it's really fascinating. So this is really Old Testament trivia. Which of the tribes, when Joshua divided up the land and all the tribes got to live on their land, which of the tribes actually didn't get their own land inheritance. Oh, yeah, the Leavites. Good job.

So there you go. I couldn't have answered that long time ago. That's not like common knowledge, anyway. Maybe it is if you've read the Bible, but... Well, I wasn't from bringing the Bible, it's from whatever, Bible classes or whatever. Growing up in church. So the Leavites job wasn't to work the land. They weren't farmers. They were a tribe dedicated

of in shifts volunteering at the temple. The Levi's were grounds and maintenance. For the temple. Yeah. And then one tribe within Levi were actually from the line of Aaron and Zadok and so on. So all of the tribes were to donate a tenth of their fields, produce, and animals. So this is where the word tithe comes from. What's interesting is multiple places, here's just one example, in Deuteronomy chapter 18, is talking about all of the other tribes giving a tenth of their income to the Levites, this temple tax is called the Levites Mishpot. It's the Mishpot of the Levites. Now, it makes no sense to translate that word justice there. It's the justice of the Levites.

What are we talking about? So we're talking about, they have arranged their society so that the right and good thing is to have one whole group of people that's supported by the income of the other tribes to maintain the worship and the honor of God in the temple. And so we have decided that the Levites have a right, a mishpot, right to one tenth of the income of all the other tribes. They create that and to not do that then is to do injustice. It's to violate their rights.

So this is what's at the core of this meaning of restorative justice. There are these certain people who have unique rights. And so we, as an Israelite society, need to be aware of who these unique people are because their rights could be easily Neglected so I think about it. You know these Levi's these guys aren't working the land They could starve if the rest of the tribes don't respect their mishpot their god-given right But isn't it the case that the people run in the temple with the ones in power? So it's not like they had to be careful for their rights. They were the ones that...

Oh, well by the time after the exile, in the time of the kingdom, or before the kingdom, that was not the case. But once there's no... Because there's no king. In the second temple period, the high priest came to take the role of like governor priest. Yeah.

Yeah. But that was not the case. Okay. Before the kingdom period, when it's just a band of tribes, if there's one tribe that's saying, hey guys, we're going to take care of all the temple worship stuff on behalf of everyone. So we're not going to farm. And we're going to depend on you to take care of us

by giving us the percentage. And everybody agrees and calls that 10% of their mishpot. They're justice. They're right. The right of the Levites. The right, it's the right. So it's the right, yeah, it's the right.

So that's, I mean, that's kind of intuitive, you get that. From, so there's another group of people whose Mishpoth is often, often actually talked about way more than the Levi's and anybody else's rights. Biblical scholars call this the quartet of the vulnerables, the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, and the poor. So I could throw 30 examples at you right now. Here's just one from Zechariah, chapter seven.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, dispense true Mishpot and practice mercy and compassion. Those are the two key words from Micah, chapter six. Oh, mercy and humility. Yep, but this one's compassion. Well, no, this is Mishpat and Mercy and Compassion each to his brother and do not oppress the widow the orphan the immigrant or the poor So there's just one example. You have an Old Testament prophet who's exposing injustice in his community and

For Israel the whole point was that they are a different kind of community among the nations Yeah, that live by different terms to become priests to the nations. And so the prophets were constantly zeroing in. And so what is for the, you know, for the prophets, what does true justice look like? What does Mishpah and Mercy look like? Yeah. It's where the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant don't have to worry about their safety. It's a community where they don't have to worry about who's going to take advantage of them.

That is the just society. It's interesting. It's like in the Old Testament, the litmus test for Mishpot is whether people in these four groups are these people worried of who's going to take advantage of them tomorrow? Are they worrying for their safety or their well-being? four groups are these people worried of who's going to take advantage of them tomorrow? Are they worrying for their safety or their wellbeing? If so, that's not a just society. According to the prophets.

Which underneath it then assumes, oh, so what is the Mishpot? If the Mishpot of the Levites is one tenth of the other tribes in come, what is the Mishpot of the widow, the orphan, and the immigrant, the poor in Israel? I think it raises that question. But forces you to think that through. What's the right? Yeah, if we're saying do Mishpot and mercy

for these people specifically, it assumes that they have a right that needs to be honored before God. Which is to not be oppressed. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. They have a right to not be oppressed because of their condition. That's right. All these conditions are vulnerable conditions.

Vulnerable conditions. Yeah, so yeah, ancient Israel, this is ancient patriarchal farming tribal network. Yeah. So stability is about being connected to a family a family that has land. So who is not connected to a family orphans, immigrants in the widow? And the widow, yeah, it was at least because it was the ancient patriarchal society, the land ownership rights of women in ancient Israel, it was complicated. We would say that.

And so it would be very easy for one, for an uncle, to grab land from his brother's widow or something like that. So we're, we out, in that kind of community, these are the four that tend to fall through the cracks because they're not connected to family or land. So each culture has their different quartet of the vulnerable. It just depends on how the economy is structured or whatever. So I just put together a short list, like in our own culture, this is just something I've been thinking about as my own parents age,

is just the nature of like elder care facilities in our culture. You know, because you visit other family members, and maybe they're only on Medicare or something, and the kind of facility, none of the family members have taken them in. And so it's like not a great situation for millions, millions of elderly people in our culture. And they don't have influence anymore.

Right, just be go, you know? So every culture has its own cracks that people fall through, specific. Well, here's the thing, in our culture, we would typically say the person who goes and advocates for the elderly who are in really unacceptable conditions in myca care facility Or they go and donate, you know, they give food, they provide meals. We call that charity

Mm-hmm. We call that charity Okay giving or paying attention to Well, activism Well, you could call it activism. Well, I guess it becomes activism when you start to go into the public realm and speak out on behalf of these people who don't have a voice. Okay, and try to create... Correct. Justice. Yes, and this is Mishpot. It's Mishpot motivated by mercy. You're treating other people's difficult situations as your own responsibility.

That is Mishapat. And it just permeates, it permeates the whole testament. Yeah. And it's different. It's just so our word justice doesn't have quite that ring to it. No, not necessarily, but it does a little bit. I mean, it just depends on the context.

So it can mean just strictly making sure that, or wrongs are righted. So if you stole $5 from someone it doesn't matter if they're poor or rich, you stole $5. Yes, yeah. And the just thing to do is pay back. But this other thing, this restorative sense of justice,

I could see calling someone who spends their life, their time and their money to help a marginalized or a press group of people, to someone who cares about justice. Yes, yes. I can see that phrase being used, not just like simply someone who cares about charity. Yeah.

I mean, you can use either, I suppose. I guess, yeah, I would more. Justice can cover both of those just like the Hebrew word, Mishpot. But while 9 out of 10 times in Hebrew, it's referring to restorative justice. I think it's way more weighted for us to talk about retributive justice. Yeah, courtroom, crime, punishment. Yeah. Depends, fairness. Versus mercy.

Versus, yeah. Yeah, you're right. And we have other words that cover that ground, like advocacy, more activism. It's almost like there's certain, you know, like the civil rights movement. We would now call that a movement of justice. But when you're in the thick of it,

you might just call it mercy and advocacy. But then eventually you realize, like, actually, no, that's just justice. Yes. So it kind of depends on the point of view you're coming from, too. Yeah. And notice how in this vision, it ties together

all of Michael Sandell's kind of three, the maximum number of people are not experiencing the opportunity to flourish. Their Mishpoth is being violated. They're right to live here in our community and exist here and have opportunity. That's being violated. And also, if we aren't a society that makes those people's problems, our problems, we aren't actually truly virtuous. We aren't showing, we aren't being fully human. Oh, human, what is God required of you to do, Mishpoth, to love mercy and to treat

walk humbly with humility. So that's what I meant earlier. The biblical vision ties all of these together in a way that our culture is hard to capture that. If you read through the poetry of the Psalms, a huge number of appearances of this word Mishpoth are actually aren't describing what humans do. It's describing who God is and God's character and what God does. And actually all of it is rooted in the story of the Exodus. So the Justice video, thinking to the video, the Exodus will play a big, big part of this of the story line. So you get a poem like this, Psalm 146.

The Lord God, the one who uphold Mishpoth for the oppressed. What does it mean for God to seek Mishpoth for the oppressed? He gives food to the hungry. He sets prisoners free. He opens the eyes of the blind. He raises up those who are bowed down. He loves the righteous. He protects the immigrant. He supports the fatherless in the widow, and he thwarts the way of the wicked. This is when God shows up and does Mishpoth, these are the kinds of things that happen. To me, this is interesting. There are some things, he thwarts the way of the wicked, takes them to the courtroom, finds them, punish them. We think, yes, all right, justice. He supports the fatherless in the widow.

All right, Justice. He supports the fatherless in the widow. So that, like what we just talked about, advocacy, protecting the rights of, but then giving food to the hungry, opening the eyes of the blind. These are things that in our culture connected with generosity or charity. But in this poem, they all are expressions of Mishpat.

Yeah, giving food to the hungry is definitely in the category of charity. Open hands of the blind would be like just our desire to just medical advancements and helping people. I think of like doctors without borders, so it's, you know, people in a developed, more developed country take their skills and then they go set up shop in a community somewhere else where people would never have access to those kind of ear surgeries or something. In this biblical vision, that's an expression of Mishpot. Well, what would they mean back then, open the eyes of the blind? That would be a miracle. surgeries or something. Yeah. In this biblical vision, that's an expression of Mishpot.

Well, what would they mean back then, open the eyes to the blind? That would be a miracle. I mean, that's not like... Oh, yeah, that's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. He opens the eyes to the blind. Is it a metaphor? Is that a...

It's connected to prisoners. So if you're in a dark prison, you're opening the eyes of the blind. Yeah. That's a great point. Yeah, as a metaphor, something more spiritual or something. Nowadays, yeah, we can go. Yeah, I worked for Laxada. Laxada because nonprofit and what's their name.

But they just take eyeglasses to people who don't have access to them. And they're essentially people who are blind. And all they need is some corrective lenses in front of their face, and they can see. But back then, they don't know if there was that technology. Huh. Yeah, you just stumped me right now. Yeah, what is this metaphor of opening the eyes of the blind?

I mean, of course, our minds go to the... Medical side. Narratives. Oh, yeah, our minds go to the Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi- Medi of eyes which you can't see. Oh, oh. Yeah, but I'm saying the eyes of the blind being opened is in a matrix of ideas and themes about the new Exodus. Oh, really? Based on the old Exodus. Yeah, so it appears like in Isaiah 35, the day of salvation's come, your God is here to save you, the eyes of the blind will be opened the ears ears of the deaf, and stop the lame leap like a deer.

So these are all... It's kind of a new creation. Yes. Yeah. Image. Yeah. I need to think about that more. Yeah.

Yep. But, Mishpot is so radical that it reverses physical ailments. That's right. Yeah. Like... I think that's the point. Yeah. Yep. right. Yeah, like I think that's the point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Here we are in a yeah. And the whole point is praising God because he's the embodiment.

Where I think it's almost the poems asking us to say wherever you see Mishpoth happening in the world. Mm-hmm. You're seeing God's will carried out. Mm-hmm. He's the one who upholds Mishpahd for the oppressed. Because these poems are celebrations of this is God's will that the quartet of the vulnerable are cared for. But it's rooted in the history of what God has in fact done. Yeah, because Israel was an oppressed nation. An oppressed people group, I should say, slaves in Egypt, treated brutally, building the empire Egypt. The Mishpat was being abused and neglected.

Yeah. And then God rescued them. And that then becomes, for for them like the central... It's their foundation story. And the Exodus story is where God, the God of Israel first revealed Himself to the people. So if you go through the storyline, He'd revealed Himself uniquely to Abraham and the family of Abraham. But by the time of Exodus, they're like being reintroduced to the God of their ancestors. All of them. And who is he? He's the

well, this is Exodus chapter six. I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel because of the Egyptians holding them in bondage. I've remembered my covenant promise to Abraham and so on. So say to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord. I'll bring you out from under the I am the Lord. I'll bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I'll deliver you from bondage, I'll redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of Mishpat. So the Exodus story is like, if you could look up the ancient Israelite theology jiknari of Mishpat. Yeah, I would start there. It would say, what God did for us in rescuing us from slavery and Egypt. It's what gives the word its meaning.

This is why the poet can say, God is the one who upholds Mishpot by doing what? Setting prisoners free, raising up those bad down. And they celebrate the story of a Passover. So Passover is a freedom and justice celebration. It's... It's their fourth of July. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. And there's all kinds of passages in the Torah about, it's just one example in Deuteronomy 20. When your son asks you, what are all of these judgments and statutes of the Torah? And that word, judgment is Mishpoth. What are all of these, all these laws that create restorative Mishpoth in our community? And you shall say to your son, hey we used to be slaves. God brought us up out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He brought us out of there to

bring us into the land. This is why God wants us to live this way as a community. The Exodus story defines Mishpoth. Why should I care about justice? And why is it written in our laws? Why do we make such a big deal about this? Why are we supposed to be merciful? Why do I make somebody else's problem? My problem.

Yeah. And there is a bunch of very, the kind of radical rules in the Torah about like the year of Jubilee and different things where it requires a lot of mercy to say, okay, I have this land, but it would be better if it was yours. And so every seven years it's be better if it was yours. And so every seven years, it's going to go back to you. That's right. Yeah, if you made a bad business deal, you hit, there's a famine.

You can't afford your property anymore. You have to sell it. Every Jubilee cycle, every 49 years. Or every 49 years. Yep, the land goes back. But every seven years. Deats are. Deats, people who had to sell themselves. Okay.

Because of debts, all their wages are garnished. The debt gets erased. Yeah. So why do you care so much about, and why are these laws in there? Yeah. And then they would say, well look, this is our history. Yes. We were rescued, we were oppressed, And God showed us Mishpahat.

In both senses, they were being treated wrongly. And so they were rescued from that, from abuses. Yes. Yes. So God brought recompense on Egypt, on the bad guys, and he protected the mishpot of the vulnerable and brought them into a place where they could then flourish and provide for themselves and so on. So this is, yeah, it's all connected with all these other laws in the Torah about like, if you own land, if you own all of Orchard, you know, don't go through the trees a second time.

And leave the hedges of your... Leave those for the quartet of the vulnerable, the widow of the orphan. And it's not, it's actually totally different than our definition of charity, which is you just hand somebody food. Yeah. The point is is... Give them a bit more. They live on this land.

They live in the land of Israel too, which is ultimately a gift to the tribes in first place. So you actually don't own that land, you're just, you're trying to be stewarding it right now. And so the mish pot of the widow and the orphan is to go through the second gleaning of that orchard and it's for them. Like that's the one of the laws of the Torah. Is that different than keeping the borders of it? That's the one of the laws of the Torah.

Is that different than keeping the borders of it? Is it just to not pick the borders or something? Oh, well, that's just about not stealing another tribe's land. No, I thought there was like a rule about not harvesting the edges. Oh, the edges of you feel? Yep, that's right.

So there it's like wheat harvest. But there's another one about olive trees. Okay. Go through and glean it once. We beat the branches, we'll stick, and all the ripe all of us fall. Yeah. Take those.

In theory, you could maximize profit from a tree, and do it again in a couple of days. And the law was, no, that actually doesn't belong to you. It belongs to the video. It's the Mishpah. Just like the Mishpah of the Leviates is one tenth. It's the Mishpah of the like the Mishpot of the Leviates is one tenth, it's the Mishpot of the vulnerable

to go work and provide for themselves on your land. That's how the Israelites rolled. And I mean, listen, we can point out all these other laws in the Old Testament that don't feel that way. Right. There's plenty of them. Yeah. So what's God doing?

He's pushing Israel towards greater Mishpot. Yeah. So what's God doing? He's pushing Israel towards greater Mishpat. Yeah. What he's not doing is making them a perfect society. Yeah, or even I would just say making them like what our vision of the ideal society is. But that's just the way God rolls throughout the story of the Bible. He works with people, as he finds things. comes to where you are and pushes you further. And he pushes you forward in a way that will make you stand out and feel uncomfortable, but also won't make you an alien in your culture.

Yeah, really powerful. It's cool. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Project podcast. Next week we'll continue this conversation on justice in the Bible. Our theme video on justice will be released on our YouTube channel when it's ready. There's a lot of other theme videos there that you can watch and a lot more conversations on this podcast if you haven't listened to some of the older ones. The mission of the Bible project is a show that the Bible is a unified story that leads to Jesus, that the Bible is

literary genius and has wisdom for the modern world. This is a crowd-funded nonprofit, so you can join us and pitch in for the next video or you can contribute to all the next videos we're making. See what we're up to at thebiboproject.com. Thanks for being a part of this with us. you