Deuteronomy 16:18-20--Justice

Deuteronomy 16:18-20
English Standard Version

Justice
18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. 19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous. 20 Justice, and only justice, you shall follow, that you may live and inherit the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

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Certainly an abrupt change in topic to go from the required pilgrimage feasts to the appointment of judges and officers in all the towns, yet we see that God's people are not just to be know for their religious worship and their holidays, but also for their love of justice and their integrity when it comes to issues of law and order.

People should not have to go far to report a crime or have their case heard--they should have local officials and local judges that will hear the case.  The judges and the law-enforcement officials should be from their own tribe and should be chosen by the people of the tribe so that they choose people that they know are above reproach and have integrity.

They are never to take a bribe to sway the outcome of a decision, nor are they to treat anyone with partiality.  They should apply the Law equally to all.  Only then will people be able to see the wisdom that the LORD would give to such people and they will be able to point people to the Law of God if they have a problem to say, "Your problem is not with me, but with God and His Law.  You need to take it up with Him and ask Him to bring your heart into alignment with His Word."

Once again the LORD promises that if they do this then things will go well for them in the Promised Land and they they will live long and have generations that will inherit the Land He is giving them.

So what do you expect?  We will see quickly that this is not a priority for the people and that the officials that the people do appoint are corrupt like the people that appoint them.  We should not be surprised by this as we see such issues today.  We have a hard time finding honest politicians, but we also have a hard time finding honest citizens in general.  If you poll people about what characteristics they look for in a candidate they might say "honesty" before the election, but if you ask them why they voted for their candidate in exit polling, very rarely is "honesty" anywhere on their list.  It is usually some agenda item that was important to them--seemingly more important than the honesty and integrity and righteousness required here by the LORD for the leaders of His people.  Israel did not have perfect people to choose from and neither do we, but we can try to make this a priority for ourselves and we can serve in local government ourselves and encourage others that we know that are people of integrity to run.  Right now it is more important than ever to have local officials to make good policy as school board members, city, county and state officials, members of the House and Senate, and any other person that comes up on the ballot for you (some places like where I used to live still vote for their judges and keep them on term limits as they believe that it keeps the judges from corruption if they have to run for reelection every few years).

I look forward to the day when we will have the perfect government because Jesus will be King of Kings, Lord of Lords and our Righteous Judge.  We will be perfectly safe in His Kingdom--so much so that the gates to the city will always be open.

Micah 6:8
English Standard Version
​8 He has told you, O man, what is good;
    and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
    and to walk humbly with your God?