Judge Righteously

Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, "Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him." (Deuteronomy 1:16)

We all demand righteous judgment in society—until we realize we must stand before a perfectly righteous Judge ourselves.

Have You Ever Been Judged?

Have you ever been judged by somebody? A question like that can evoke the memory of an instance where you were judged—your words, your actions, maybe even your motives and thoughts. If you're married, there's a good chance there have been times when you felt judged. Some of you are triggered even now.

When you are judged, certain emotions surface. You might think, they don't even know me, or she doesn't know what she's talking about. You think, thou shalt not judge—that's in there somewhere; remove the plank from your own eye; who do they think they are? They aren't so good themselves. Every one of us has felt those emotions, sensing that someone's assessment of us was not fair.

But there's another question: have you ever judged somebody? We've all found ourselves there too, telling ourselves, what I said was true, they were in the wrong, I was just being honest.

We Are Judgment Machines

When we start thinking about judging, we realize very quickly that by nature we are judgment machines. And I'm not sure we would survive if we weren't. I think it's by design—God has made us this way. We innately, continuously, and almost instantaneously assess objects, situations, places, and people, making snap decisions based on those judgments.

Consider driving here this morning. From a computational standpoint, it's remarkable. You're on the freeway surrounded by dozens of multi-ton vehicles, each independently operated by someone making snap judgments. It becomes so second-nature that you can arrive home and not remember the drive at all. People worry about autonomous driving, but at five o'clock on the 15, pretty much every car is already autonomous—and for the most part it works.

This adds weight to David's words in Psalm 139:14, that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. We could not survive without the ability to assess, judge, and decide quickly. And this is true not only individually but at a societal level—communities must be able to make assessments and decisions.

Applying Judgment Righteously

But there's a problem, captured in that first question—have you ever been judged? Sometimes our judgments are not perfect. We're not just judging objects but people, and sometimes we verbalize judgments that are wrong. That gets us into trouble.

So point two: for society to survive, we must apply judgments righteously. The word righteously often makes us think of moral perfection, and that's one meaning. But it can also simply mean the right way of doing something. For a community to function and survive, judgments must be applied rightly.

Moses and the Promised Land

A little review. Moses is the leader of Israel, nearing the end of his life. He knows he will soon die and that this people will finally enter the Promised Land that God promised centuries earlier to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Genesis 12 and 15. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan, but the people would first sojourn in Egypt before inheriting it. That was four hundred years prior; now, after thirty-eight years wandering in the wilderness under Moses' leadership, they are about to enter.

Whenever they had a problem too big for them, they brought it to Moses, who decided based on God's law. But now Moses will die, and God intends that when Israel enters the land they will govern themselves—no longer having a Moses.

A Representative Government

Forty years earlier, back in Exodus 18, Moses had established a hierarchy of government. We see it restated in Deuteronomy 1:13:

Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.

The people selected leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens. On the counsel of his father-in-law Jethro, Moses called the people to elect wise, knowledgeable, understanding men to govern—effectively a representative form of government, democratically chosen.

This is amazing. History books typically point to the establishment of the Roman Republic around 509 BC as the birth of such government. But what Moses did here predates the Roman Republic by nearly a thousand years. When this struck me, I contacted several Old Testament scholars I know to ask what they knew of it. They all wrote back saying it was fascinating and I should do the research and let them know—which is what scholars say when they've never seen it before.

It's important because it tells us something about how God desires communities to function. God's design was that His people would govern themselves.

What Self-Governance Requires

For God's people to govern themselves, they needed a few things. First, an agreed-upon common standard—the law. They received it from Moses and will be reminded of it in Deuteronomy 5, primarily in the Ten Commandments. If the law of God were like the Constitution, the Ten Commandments would be like the Bill of Rights—the basic precepts you must follow.

In our own 21st-century culture this is one of our challenges: there are arguments about whether an objective standard even exists and who gets to set it. Without a common standard, a society can hardly succeed.

Second, they needed leaders who knew, understood, and could apply that standard ethically. That means applying it righteously—in the right way; impartially—not one set of rules for one group and another set for another; and courageously. We recognize that a society breaks down when laws are applied with partiality. We'll look more at the impartial and courageous dimensions next week.

Leaders proved their competence by knowing, interpreting, and applying the law; those who showed wisdom rose to lead larger groups. Moses reminds the people of this, then tells them what those judges were to do:

Then I commanded your judges at that time, saying, "Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the stranger who is with him."

The standard applied to everyone within their borders, even foreigners. Judge righteously.

We Expect Justice

Point three: we expect that judges administer justice in a right, fair, and honest manner. Every one of us has been judged in a way we deemed unfair, unrighteous, dishonest. Societies have a hard time staying together when there is a miscarriage of justice—when the guilty go unpunished or the innocent are condemned, especially consistently, or when there is partiality.

We are so committed to this that we get angry at injustice. I saw it last night when the 49ers came up in conversation—some people are still burned over calls in the Super Bowl that they feel cost their team. We feel it even in a game.

This sense begins early. If you have kids, you hear that's not fair multiple times a day. They constantly assess how a sibling is being treated and protest when the standard isn't applied equally. We want the standard known, and we want it applied equally—and when it isn't, we get angry and demand justice.

Justice for Others, Mercy for Ourselves

Or do we want righteous judgment? When we feel unfairly judged, we want justice. When someone gets away with wrongdoing, we want righteous judgment. For the most part—not always—the Old Testament shows us what it looks like to live in a society where justice is purely meted out.

But when we have erred—and we all do—and we deserve justice, we want mercy. I experienced this on the drive north on the 15 this morning, driving slightly quicker than the posted limit. I glanced in the mirror, saw a white roof on a black vehicle, and immediately thought, I need mercy. (It turned out to be an FJ Cruiser—no big deal.) When someone flies by or cuts you off, you cry, where's the cop? I want justice. But when it's you cutting someone off, the response is, I need mercy.

Old Testament and New Testament

I raise this because of a question I've received many times: there seems to be a difference between how God judges in the Old Testament and how He works in the New. The Old Testament can seem harsh and unrelenting; the New does not. That's by design—because the Old Testament, for the most part, shows us what it looks like to live under the law.

Realizing God is the supreme Judge, Abraham—the first follower of God by faith—cried out when he learned God would judge Sodom and Gomorrah, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:25). The Judge of all the earth must do things rightly.

Isaiah 11 tells us God does not judge by the sight of His eyes or the hearing of His ears, but with righteous judgment. We have one of the better judicial systems—we gather people to hear testimony and weigh evidence—but they don't always reach the right decision. God says He doesn't judge by sight and hearing; He makes perfect, righteous judgment. Jeremiah 17 says God tests the mind and searches the heart. So yes, He will judge righteously.

Before Perfect Judgment We Cannot Stand

Point four: in the face of perfect righteous judgment, we cannot stand. Here is the dilemma. We desire—and need—righteous judgment in society. But when we stand before a perfect, holy God, we have a major problem.

Hebrews 4:13 says nothing is hidden from His sight; everything is exposed before Him, to whom we must give an account—not just for what we've said and done, but for everything we've thought. Matthew 12:36 says we will give account for every idle word. Psalm 7:11 calls Him a just judge; Psalm 9:8 says He will judge the world in righteousness.

What does living under the law look like? Hebrews 10 says anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Sometimes a friend or coworker struggles with the Old Testament—didn't they execute adulterers? Didn't they stone children who dishonored their parents? Here's a good answer: that's what it looks like to live without mercy. That's law with no grace. Is that what you want? James 2:13 speaks of judgment without mercy, and James 2 also says whoever keeps the whole law but breaks one point is guilty of all.

So the dilemma stands: society needs a common standard equally and righteously applied to move forward—exactly what Moses sought to establish. But if God judges us by the Old Covenant standard, we are toast. There is a perfectly holy Judge who knows everything. Where does that leave us?

We Need Mercy and Grace

Point five: we deserve righteous judgment, but we need mercy and grace. We want and need in society what we cannot bear from God. So what do we do? The Old Covenant prepares the way for the New.

Jesus articulated the New Covenant on the night before the cross, holding a cup of wine and saying, "This is the cup of the New Covenant in My blood." There is a righteous requirement the law demands, because God is a perfectly just judge. And Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us, standing in our place to receive the just judgment for sin upon Himself—that we might receive His righteousness and all its benefits.

Isaiah prophesied this 700 years earlier in Isaiah 53:

He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The righteous, just judgments of the Old Covenant—which we need in society—we cannot survive before God. But the Old Covenant readies us for the new: the good news that Christ bears our sin on the cross so we can have His righteousness and a right standing with a holy God. The price is paid in Jesus.

Communion

This is so important that Jesus told His disciples to remember it regularly. So this morning we partake of communion. The bread represents His body, broken for us; the cup represents His blood, shed for us, reminding us of the New Covenant we have in Christ.

As you hold these, consider the reality: we all desire righteous judgment until we realize we must stand before a holy God—and there is no possible way to stand in our own righteousness, for all our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). It is not righteous enough and never will be. So we must be clothed in the righteousness of another. He who knew no sin became sin for us.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, we thank You so much as we sit here today for the glorious good news of the gospel. This is what makes the good news so good. I pray, God, that You would stir our hearts to truly praise You with thanksgiving as we prepare our hearts now for communion. Remind us of the greatness of Your grace today. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said, amen.