Wisdom and Righteousness and Justice
In the days leading up to The Justice Conference, I happened to be reading about King Solomon. I’m following a chronological reading plan right now, so I read both accounts of God asking Solomon what he wished for. In 1 Kings 3, Solomon asked for an understanding heart to judge the people, to discern between good and evil. In 2 Chronicles 1, Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge to rule the people. God’s response to Solomon in the first passage caught my eye: “Because you…have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice,…I have given you a wise and discerning heart.” It seems that the primary context for the knowledge and wisdom given to Solomon was to enable him to mete out justice.
This reminded me of a talk that I heard Arloa Sutter (Founder, Breakthrough Urban Ministries) give many years ago about righteousness, or צְדָקָֽה (pronounced tse’-daq-ah). She described how closely this Hebrew word, so often translated righteousness, was related to justice. This nuance is not so clear nowadays, since the Church has used and overused the term righteousness to mean purity over the years. As I pondered God’s response to Solomon, I wondered anew about the significance of the concept of justice in the OT.
I pored over Wigram for a few hours, and concluded that in the vast majority of uses in the OT, צְדָקָֽה, or tse’-daq-ah, righteousness, is indistinguishable from justice.
This association is so strong that צְדָקָֽה, righteousness, is frequently found paired with another Hebrew word for justice, מִשְׁפָּט (pronounced mish’-pat), a grammatical feature known as a hendiadys. For example, in 2 Sam 8:15 and 1 Chronicles 18:14, King David’s reign is characterized as strong on מִשְׁפָּ֥ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה, mish’-pat and tse-‘deq-ah, justice and righteousness; in 1 Kings 10:9 and 2 Chronicles 9:8, the Queen of Sheba marveled at how God had raised up Solomon to do mish’-pat and tse’-deq-ah, justice and righteousness (NIDOTTE, p. 749-750). In the OT, a large part of a King’s responsibility was to implement justice for all his subjects. In Proverbs 31, King Lemuel’s mother counsels him to שְׁפָט־צֶ֑דֶק sha-faat’ (same root as mish’-pat) tse’-dek, or judge righteously. This kingly responsibility finds continuity in Jesus. In Isaiah 9 we are told that a child will be born…the government will rest on His shoulders…there will be no end to the increase of His government ON THE THRONE OF DAVID…to establish it and to uphold it with מִשְׁפָּ֥ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה mish’-pat and tse’-deq-ah, justice and righteousness.
And Solomon requested wisdom from God, for the purpose of reigning with discernment of justice. This is a recurring theme in the Proverbs of Solomon. In Proverbs 1, the purpose for the book is laid out: To know wisdom and instruction…to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice and equity…
What is Biblical justice? From the teachings of the OT prophets (single examples are provided, but these themes permeate the OT, as well as the NT), it seems that God’s definition of justice is four-fold: deliverance of the poor and marginalized (Is 11:4); removal of oppression (Is 61:1); establishment of peace (Is 32:15); and inclusion of the outcasts, exiles, and refugees (Is 56:1-7). It is particularly interesting to note that Jesus quoted from Is 56:7 when He forcibly removed the money-changers from the temple: For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. The reference to this passage in Isaiah in context indicates that Jesus’ anger had as much to do with the exclusionary practices of the Jewish temple leaders as with the fact that they had turned it into a marketplace (Stassen & Gushee, pp 345-365).
What a great lead-up to The Justice Conference! As loyal subjects, we are to participate with the King in the implementation of justice and righteousness in His Kingdom!
Resources
Stassen & Gushee, Kingdom Ethics, IVP Academic:2003
VanGemeren, William A., Editor, New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, Volume 3, Zondervan:1997.
Wigram, George V. The Englishman’s Hebrew and Chaldee Concordance of the Old Testament, Baker Book House:1980.