Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who's Your Moral Authority? | The Writings | Psalm 82

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Who's your moral authority? Do you decide what's right and what's wrong? Should Christians work for social justice? In today's episode, Keith shares how Psalm 82 encourages us to follow in the footsteps of our just God. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 82

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Marilyn Voss Savant was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as having the highest IQ ever measured. I used to read her weekly column and Parade Magazine when I was a kid. The column was called Ask Marilyn, and she'd answer people's questions that they sent in. And those questions usually were logic problems or puzzles or math problems. But when a reader asked a more philosophical question, he asked,

what do you think is the source of moral authority? Sivant replied, most people find the source of moral authority in the religions, but I don't. Instead, she said she looks to the lessons of history, which offer her the advantage over religion in the sense that she got to pick and choose what she liked. In essence, the source of moral authority for Marilyn Voss Sivant is, now wait for it, the source of moral authority is Marilyn Voss Sivant. She is her own moral authority, and that in a nutshell is the problem. predicament of the world we live in. And this predicament, it isn't new. In one of the darkest moments in Israel's history, it says in Judges 21, all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

Whether it's thousands of years ago in the ancient Near East or today in our own country, there's the belief that I am my own moral authority. That never turns out well, but it's where we are. If you doubt that, listen to Christian Smith. He's a sociologist who did a longitudinal study following people from high school all the way through their 20s. And in his book, Lost in Translation, he explains the difficulty young adults have in making moral judgments. And here's some of the quotes that they gave him. It's personal.

They're saying their moral judgments are their own personal decisions. Or how about this quote? It's up to the individual. Who am I to say? Here's another one. I mean, I guess what makes something right is how I feel about it. But different people feel different ways, so I couldn't speak on behalf of anyone else as to what's right and wrong.

See, each person is their own moral authority, and that's dangerous. Proverbs 14 says there is a way that seems right to a person, but eventually it ends in death. So is there somebody who can tell us what is right and wrong? In other words, if morality and justice are not self-determined, who determines it? Is right and wrong determined by me or my culture or by a popular vote or whoever has the most power? We live in a world that has strong opinions about right and wrong. We're constantly telling each other that we are right and they, whoever they are, is wrong. There are arguments over racial and economic injustice, abortion, sexuality,

Vax mandates, parental rights in schools, gun control, just to name a few. So do you feel the predicament we're in? We live in a world that says there is right and wrong, but we have nothing to base that on other than our own opinion. In this world, whoever has the most power wins. If you have the right number of seats on the Supreme Court or the right number of seats on the school board or the right number of seats in the legislature, then you can make your own morality the law of the land. But that doesn't seem like a good way to live together, does it? So does the Bible offer an alternative vision to the idea that might makes right?

Genesis 127. God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. This is a radical truth. What it says is that God is the moral authority and God is outside of us. We are accountable to him. So we're not free agents. Every single person was created in his image.

Everyone, no exceptions. Every human being has dignity, value, and worth. And that comes from God. So we take it for granted that the prince and the pauper both have value to be treated fairly. But we shouldn't take that for granted. In the day Genesis was written in, people believe that. the Pharaoh or the king was the image of God, but not ordinary people. Ordinary people's lives didn't matter. They were expendable. Listen to Aristotle. For that some should rule and others be

ruled is a thing not only necessary but expedient. From the hour of their birth, some are marked out for subjection and others for rule. So Aristotle says that some have power and some don't. The powerful rule over the powerless. What could be more obvious, at least according to Aristotle. A slated was just one of many ancient, obvious realities that we reject. The superiority of men over women was obvious. So was the double standard for men and women when it came to marital infidelity. Infanticide through exposure was obvious to many in the ancient world. It was common to abandon unwanted children. But what the culture called obvious, the Bible called unjust. Psalm 82 calls out those who are taking advantage of powerless people. It says, how long will you defend the unjust?

and show partiality to the wicked. Defend the weak and the fatherless. Uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Justice is not a social issue. It's a biblical issue. One time a guy in our church sent me an email,

and he said that he was worried about our church. He thought we were drifting away from the gospel. And I was a bit confused by it, because this guy's very involved and a very faithful Christian. So I asked him what led him to be concerned, concerned. And he emailed me right back and said, well, it's because we're having all these prayers about justice and oppression. And he heard those terms in a way that made him think that we were drifting away from the gospel. So I asked him to do me a favor. I say, go to Biblegateway.com

and just look up the words justice and oppression and see what you find. And he quickly emailed me back and he said, wow, these aren't social issues. These are biblical issues. And that's exactly right. They're not social issues. They're not political issues. Justice and oppression are biblical issues. And I think if you took the challenge of reading all the times those words are used in the Old Testament, what you'll find is that the Bible is specifically concerned with widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor. Why? Well, because in that society, and maybe in every society, those people were particularly vulnerable. So here's Zechariah 710. Don't mistreat widows or orphans or foreigners or anyone who is poor

and stopped making plans to hurt each other. In agrarian societies, these four groups had no social power. They lived at the subsistence level and were only days away from starvation if there was a famine or an invasion or any kind of social unrest. Today, you could add to that list,

the refugee, the prisoner, the disabled, the unborn, some single parents and elderly people. A society is measured by how it treats the weak and vulnerable. In a world where power wins, the weak and vulnerable often lose. But God is on their side. Psalm 146. God upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets prisoners free. The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. See, because God cares about the vulnerable, the weak, the marginalized, the overlooked. so should we. Proverbs 31.8.9 tells us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,

for the rights of all who are destitute, speak up and judge fairly, defend the rights of the poor and the needy. See, the Bible calls us Christians to speak up, to publicly advocate, to go to bat for, to come to the aid of the weak and the vulnerable. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rooted his work on behalf of the oppressed in biblical truth. In a sermon at Ebenezer Baptist, church in Atlanta on July 4th, 1965, he said, we must never forget this as a nation. There are no gradations in the image of God. In 1968, the sanitation workers in Memphis went out on strike. They were protesting poor working conditions that led two workers to be crushed to death inside of a garbage truck. Dr. King traveled to Memphis to encourage the activist. Sadly,

this would be his last March as it was in Memphis that his life was tragically cut short. The sanitation workers used a simple phrase to communicate their struggle. They carried signs that said this, I am a man. I am a man. I am a person. I am a human being. But if you remove the biblical teaching that all human beings are created in the image of God, what's compelling about that statement?

If human beings are nothing more than evolved animals, doesn't the statement, I am a man, lose its power? See, the good news is that there is moral authority outside of our statement. ourselves, a moral authority outside of our culture, and that is God. God loves justice. In Jesus, God identifies with the vulnerable. Jesus was born to a poor family. He lived among the marginalized and the outcast. His trial was a miscarriage of justice. He died violently, naked, and penniless. Jesus knew what it was like to be a victim of injustice, to be killed by a corrupt system. Christians know then that in the eyes of God we were spiritually poor and powerless.

We too were aliens and slaves, but God saved us by becoming oppressed for us. A Christian who does not care for the vulnerable, a Christian who does not advocate for the weak, is at best inconsistent and out of step with Jesus. But let me be quick to point out there's a danger lurking for people who care about social justice, and the danger is that in the name of justice, you're willing to do unjust things. so you become the things you hate. If you've ever read or watched the Lord of the Rings, you understand what I'm saying.

And by the way, if you've never read the Lord of the Rings, repent, come to Jesus and go get the book. I'm joking. In the Lord of the Rings, there is the Ring of Power. And everyone wants the Ring of Power because they know they will use it for good. They have good motives. They won't abuse their power.

But the Ring of Power corrupts everyone who possesses it. If you want justice, you're tempted to gain power so you can enforce justice. You've got good motives. You won't misuse your power. Don't be so naive. Power corrupts.

It's why the oppressed often turns around and becomes the oppressor if they have the chance. Jesus, he gives up power. And Jesus loves justice, but he doesn't get it through defeating his enemies, but by dying for them. He brings his kingdom by loving his enemies, not condemning them.

So let's finish by acknowledging that our work, our prayers, our protesting, are serving, our voting, our giving, are not going to bring justice on the earth. That doesn't mean we should give them up, but only that we shouldn't put our hope in our efforts, no matter how righteous they are. Justice comes when Jesus, the just king, returns to fully establish his kingdom. And Dr. King knew this. He said the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice. He wasn't expressing his belief in the goodness of human beings, but in the promise of God. One day soon, Jesus will return to

to establish his kingdom, then we will experience what the prophet Amos called for. Amos 5. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream. Amen.