QUESTION: Can you say the Old Testament is the Revelation of Justice to the World? – Fr. Thomas K.

ANSWER: Jacob Parappally MSFS

The Old Testament is not really old. It is the first Testament which articulates the revelation of God to a people who were chosen to experience God and reveal God to others by sharing their experience of God as the just God and the liberator of the oppressed people of God. In the New Testament which is also called the Second Testament Jesus reveals himself as the One anointed by the Holy Spirit to set at liberty those who are captives because of all unjust systems of this world (cfr.Luke 4:18f). Though God’s justice to the world which includes everything that God created is emphasized in the Old Testament, the Old Testament revelation of Justice to the world appears to be contradicted in certain narrations. Certain commands and actions as narrated in the Old Testament do not present God’s justice to the world. Therefore, some doubt whether the Old Testament reveals the revelation of justice to the world.
There are some preachers of the present day who emphatically state that the justice of God revealed in the Old Testament is by rewarding the righteous people and punishing the unrighteous people or the evil doers. But surprisingly we also find narrations that give the impression that the unrighteous flourish and secure riches and prosperity while those who trust in God experience poverty and misery. What kind of justice is this?
The prophets of the Old Testament times constantly reminded the people about the justice of God. Prophet Amos reveals what the Lord wanted from his people. Not only that their dealings with others must be just but also the practice of justice must be the way of life for them. So the Lord says: But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24). We may wonder why justice is very important for God that he insists that the people he had chosen to actualize his plan for the entire world needs to be just. It is because justice is revealed as an attribute of God. An unjust God is not God at all. But the problem with the people of that time and in our present time is that we fail to understand that there is a difference between what justice is from God’s point of view and human point of view .
Just God and Justice of God
It is a Judeo-Christian belief that God is just and executes justice in the world according to God’s just judgements. However, there are a lot of interpretations among theologians and preachers about the understanding of the Just God and the Justice of God. It may be obvious to everyone that a just God must execute justice in the world. But the problem that confronts us is about what we mean by the affirmation that God is just. Do we consider that God is just from our own standards or understanding on ‘who is just and what is justice’? Throughout the Old Testament fulfilled in the New Testament it is revealed that God is just because God keeps his terms of covenant or keeps his word of salvation or liberation or wholeness. God wills that all humans experience wholeness or salvation finally through Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of Creation and therefore, the Only Mediator between God and humans (cfr I Tim 2:4-5). God wills that everyone and everything live in communion with God, the Absolute Communion of the Father, the Son and the Spirit. God’s attribute of justice or the understanding of the revelation of God as Just God is essential to the understanding that God is Absolute Communion. Therefore, anything that brings about division, discrimination and disharmony is injustice or Sin.
God has given humans freedom to reject God’s eternal plan of fulfilling their lives to live in communion for which they are created. A just God cannot take back the gift of freedom God has bestowed on humans. If God does it, then God is no more God or just. Therefore, the justice of God is always a favourable justice or God’s judgments are favourable judgments for humans. It is never a punishing justice and God is not a punishing God. Certainly, humans have the freedom to refuse God’s favour or the offer of the grace of reconciliation and friendship with God. God is, in a way helpless, before the arrogant refusal of humans to accept the offer of reconciliation as God cannot take back humans’ freedom to accept the favour of grace which is God’s justice to them.
One can show many narrations in the Old Testament to show as examples of God’s punishments like flood at Noah’s time, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues, the divine warnings in Exodus 19, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 etc. They are to be interpreted as a pedagogical method to frighten people with dire consequences in order to make them obey the rules and regulations to build up the community to fulfil their mission to bring other nations to communion with the true God revealed in the Old Testament. Such a way of talking about a punishing God was necessary to educate people to walk in the way of justice and righteousness in the evolution of their religious consciousness. It is like bringing children to obedience by frightening them with the punishment they would receive from their own fathers or some higher authorities. But even today, to use such verses that express about God’s curses and punishments that would affect not only the perpetrators of the crimes but also their following generations even if they are innocent of the crime is a type of blasphemy. But some preachers do not hesitate to do it to evoke guilt and shame in the minds of the faithful. According to John’s gospel, it is not God who judges but humans judge themselves (John 3:19) and choose to be in darkness, lie and death. The just God’s justice reveals the absolute holiness of God. Prophet Ezekiel reveals God’s mind about humans. “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” ( Ezekiel 18:23). God’s compassion is always related to his justice.

Foundations of Old Testament Revelation of Justice
If justice is an attribute of God it needs to be actualized in history. God cannot reveal what God is not. The self-revelation of God needs to include one of God’s essential attributes as a just God. In fact, God does so and exercises God’s justice in the world whether humans recognize it or not. But God does not act justly or makes judgment alone. The Old Testament reveals that God takes humans as partners in exercising justice in the world because God’s attribute of justice cannot be exercised without the mediation of humans. The most important reason for relationship between the just God and the exercise of justice through humans is that humans are created in the image and likeness of God (Imago Dei ), the Absolute Communion. Unjust behaviour and unjust life go against communion. So to live justly and act righteously belong to the very nature of humans as humans. But the question can be raised what the criteria are there to judge what is the just and right relationship of humans with one another and with the entire world. On this important question the Old Testament has very clear revelation on justice. But before we look at them we need to keep in mind that there is an evolution of understanding on what is just and what is unjust, what is right and what is wrong.
Today, there are some critics of the Church within the Church and there are many critics of the Church outside the Church attacking the Church or the Christian religion in general quoting certain inhuman commands and laws as revelations found in the Old Testament. If humans are the images of God and they need to practice justice how can it be told that if one image of God is destroyed by another image of God the second too must be destroyed? Anyway, it was not practiced in the first instance of the murder of Abel by Cain as the story goes. Cain was let free to live by God and was even given certain protection (Genesis 4:15). Later in Gen 9:6 says: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” Till today this is practiced even in so called civilized societies. The legal system of many countries approve capital punishment. The so called reciprocal justice, “If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:23-25). The further expansion of this reciprocal justice is revealed in the Book of Leviticus: “He who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him; the sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. He who kills a man shall be put to death. He who kills a beast shall make it good, life for life. When a man causes a disfigurement in his neighbour, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has disfigured a man, he shall be disfigured. He who kills a beast shall make it good; and he who kills a man shall be put to death (Leviticus 24:16-21 ). But reciprocal justice continues even today and practiced according to the judgments of the courts of justice even in democratic nations; it must be conceded that the human minds have not still understood the revelation of God as just in the proper way. With the limitations of human understanding of revelation of the Old Testament concerning justice articulated influenced by the tribal cultural laws of Israel and the surrounding gentile nations, the law, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was the practice of justice.
With the evolution of human mind and through the evolution of the religious consciousness of humans there should have been a radically different understanding of the justice of God. In fact, it happened with the coming of God into the world as human. In Jesus Christ justice and mercy have embraced, law of love radicalized the law of justice and the true justice of God as an attribute of God was revealed. In the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, `An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (5:38-39). The first of the five discourses in the gospel according to Matthew, namely, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chps. 5-7) expresses the correct understanding of the Old Testament revelation of justice to the world. It shows that God’s justice is for both the unfolding of humans as humans and for their all-inclusive communion.
It is the evolution of the understanding of justice according to the Old Testament that finds its most evolved expression in our historical context in the encyclical letter Fratelli tutti of Pope Francis. “From the earliest centuries of the Church, some were clearly opposed to capital punishment. Lactantius, for example, held that “there ought to be no exception at all; that it is always unlawful to put a man to death” Pope Nicholas I urged that efforts be made “to free from the punishment of death not only each of the innocent, but all the guilty as well” ( Fratelli tutti No. 265). Further, Pope Francis says: “Today we state clearly that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’ and the Church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide” ( Fratelli tutti , No. 263). We may have to admit that all humans have not evolved enough to recognize and practice all over the world that reciprocal justice is still a primitive practice and misinterpretation of the revelation of justice in the Old Testament. Reciprocal justice is followed to satisfy the animal instincts of humans and not according to the real nature of humans. Throughout the Old Testament the consistent revelation to the world is, “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). The justice that is revealed in the Old Testament lays down the universal principles of justice that has its source in a God who is absolutely Just!

Equality, Equity and Protection of the Weak
We have seen that the foundation of exercising justice according to the Old Testament is the fact that humans are the images of God, the Absolute Communion and as humans they are created male and female. In a world where discrimination of all sorts exists the Old Testament proclaims the equality of both genders, male and female as human persons. They share equally and fully the human nature created in God’s own image. However, in the Old Testament, this reality of the equality of human persons as men and women was perverted by the culture that received God’s revelation to subjugate, discriminate and oppress women in spite of constant reminder to the people that they have to act justly and treat everyone as human persons created in the image and likeness of God. Prophet Zechariah exhorts the people of God, “this is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other’” (Zechariah 7:9-10). Prophet Amos threatens, “those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts (Amos5:12). The law must be applied equally to all as all must be treated without any discrimination. The same book of Leviticus which stipulates the harsh laws of reciprocal justice, emphasizes the principle that all are equal before law. Moses says: “You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. ‘I am the LORD your God’’’ (Leviticus 24:22 ). Therefore, the Lord wants that the judges must be appointed who “shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 16:18-20). The verse “Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality” is the basis of the motto “Equal Justice Under Law”, carved over the entrance of the Supreme Court of the United States. It shows the relevance of this Old Testament understanding of justice even today and is accepted as a universal principle in dispensing justice in a court. Every court in the world stands by the same principle but may not practice it.
The Hebrew word for justice is tsedek which implies more than treating all equally. It would also mean that the weak, the poor, the widows and the orphans and the foreigners who feel isolated need to be protected and taken care of. The book of Job narrates how he practices justice. He confronts his accusers saying, “I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban. I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger” (Job 29:14 – 16). For this reason one who practices justice is also a tsadik or a holy person. For this reason the revelation of God according to prophet Jeremiah is: “Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 22:3 –Psalms 82:3 – “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute”.
The protection of the weak and defenceless is an act of justice and holiness. There cannot be any authentic holiness without the practice of justice. This too is the revelation of the Old Testament fulfilled in the New Testament and valid for all people of all times! The revelation of justice in the Old Testament, though understood progressively according to the evolution of human religious consciousness in history and sometimes perverted by the culture which received the revelation is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The law of love which Jesus preached and lived to the full is founded on God’s being as Absolute Communion and finds expression in the exercise of justice. This justice is actualized by recognizing the inalienable right of every human person to be treated equally like every other human person, protected by the laws of the system that has the duty to protect and take care of life of the individual persons with equity. Thus the life-preserving and the life enhancing revelation of justice in the Old Testament is relevant for the whole world!