Justice, in Amos, has nothing to do with meaningless religious rituals. Then, with tragic irony, the northern kingdom, which broke away in response to injustice, becomes corrupted by oppressive kings—epitomized by King Ahab, who repudiates Torah’s inheritance laws (a major justice-fostering force that meant to protect future generations from being disinherited from the land). The term justice (mishpat) in this context (as in the study on Mic 6:8) refers neither to legal decisions nor to retribution (retributive justice), but to the process [...] of restoring and heal in g ( restorative j u st ice). lwf-assembly2003.org. Those that choose to be passive and silent. Second chance for people of promise (Ezra 3:1-13), 4. John Howard Yoder: A Faithful Teacher in the Church, Making the penultimate too important often leads to violence, 1. By calling the evil good (i.e., the so-called “justice” at the gate that had become injustice, and the people’s wealth, that was gained at the expense of the poor and weak) and the good evil (abhorring the one who speaks the truth, 5:10), the Israelites transform what should be sweet (justice) into something bitter (wormwood). Some people call this charity. 12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. We might generalize the ideas to something like “being and deciding what is right.” But in the Bible “justice” has a lot of related terms as well. Biblical Justice: Where is the mishpat for the black community. So, if you steal something, you go to jail. Lent: What is it, and should you practice it? Justice has to do with caring for the vulnerable when they are treated in hurtful ways—and with directly challenging social dynamics that are hurtful. At the heart of Torah we find a self-conscious effort to create a way of life completely removed from the injustices and systemic violence of the slavery regime in Egypt. Mishpat conjures up the idea of a courtroom and balanced scales. “Do horses run upon rocks? For in it the justice of God is revealed.” (1:16-17). the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. A key principle was that everyone in the community was to be valued, healthy relationships were to be cultivated, power was to be shared. “I hate, I despise your feasts and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. An unjust society will die, it cannot help but collapse of its own weight. Biblical Apocalyptic: What is Being Revealed? It is incredible to Amos that the rich could be content in their luxury and grieve not over the ruin of “Joseph”—that is, the destruction of the covenant community (6:6), and that a place of justice (the court at the gate) could become unjust, poison. Mishpat, restorative justice, is the latter; it is a making things right again: in the family, in the community, in the nation, and in the world. This restorative justice is what these protests are trying to accomplish, and I am here for it. It is visible, first of all, at the linguistic level. When he is asked, what is the greatest commandment, he replies with a direct quote from Torah: “You shall love the Lord God with all your being and you shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which he asserts is a summary of the message of Law and Prophets (Matthew 22). I like this image of the need for a homeopathic cure for the Western world’s catastrophic embrace of retributive justice—an embrace all too closely linked with Christian theology. But most cases of mishpat actually refer to restorative justice. How then will God deal with this alienation? God is clear on Their stance regarding justice for the marginalized. It can refer to retributive justice. The word mishpat (משפט) is the Hebrew word that is used throughout the Bible to mean “judgment” and “justice.”. This word "justice" is the Hebrew word, "mishpat" ...[and] most often in the Bible, mishpat refers to restorative justice. To conclude, let’s summarize the main elements of biblical justice: (1) Justice is a main characteristic of God—who creates out of a wish for relationships with creatures and who seeks endlessly to restore those relationships when they are broken. Is this the purpose of election? This destroys community and ends up lessening the well-being of each person in the community. Has God chosen a particular people to be saved out of many who will find themselves condemned? 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, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”. When Amos 5:10 speaks of hating the advocate of the right and abhorring those who speak “the whole truth,” it apparently refers to personal opposition to the essence of the court-justice system. I cannot hold them to the standards of God and God’s Word, because it is meaningless to them. Its Restorative Justice Act aims to increase the use of RJ and promote public safety by providing resolution that affords healing, reparation and re-integration. I’m frustrated that the media is being shot at by police while trying to find the truth. Tsedeq has as its basic definition what is right, righteousness, or rightness in business, government, a cause, speech, and ethics. He suggests, though, that rather than rejecting the Bible wholesale, we should look more carefully at it. 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