Justice & The Day of the Lord

1 Essay: Justice & The Day of the Lord - OT - W7 Question 1 When God created the world, He created it in such a manner that all creatures would be equal. As such, because of this equality in status, every human being acts a God’s representative and is supposed to treat others in the same manner that they would like to be treated. According to the bible, this equality between living things is the foundation of God’s idea about justice. Therefore, within the context of humanity’s creation, the Biblical idea of justice refers to two main aspects. The first aspect is that all humans are not only equal, but are also created in God’s image. Therefore, whenever they interact with one another, they are to treat each other with fairness and justice.

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2 The second aspect is that the Biblical concept of justice put forth by God is one that He also abides by. In other words, God is the one who sets the standards regarding justice. Humanity therefore has a responsibility to abide by these standards.

In relation to the concept of justice, sin occurs where unjust actions are directly or indirectly committed by people. Direct injustice is where one commits unjust actions personally. Indirect injustice is where one stands by as injustice is committed to others. For this reason, to act in a righteous and just manner means to be just towards other people and also to stand up for the rights of those who have injustices done unto them. When God decided to use Jesus to save humanity’s sin, He was attempting to return humanity to His ideas about justice and righteousness. In this way, therefore, God has managed to reintroduce humanity to the vision that He had when he was creating humanity (Bible Project, 2017).

To understand God’s conception of justice, the life of the Israelites in the time of bondage and freedom becomes instructive. When they were shown injustice by others, God stepped in to save them. He showed them the ideal of restorative justice. Even so, after God saved them, the Israelites would also go on to show injustice to others by oppressing them. It is for this reason that God decided to send Jesus Christ to save humanity by dying for their sins of injustice. For modern Christians, their responsibility is to go out into the world and give this same gift to other people who are facing injustice of one kind or the other.

Question 2 The Tempter led humanity to believe that they could differentiate between good and evil without the need of relying on God’s providence. As such, this Tempter led humanity to have the belief that they would be able to lead worthy lives without facing the consequences of their actions. To do this, they would only have to rely on their human abilities (Bible Project, 2017). Therefore, Babylon becomes a way for them to understand that disobedience will never allow them to prosper. The events that occurred in Babylon revealed that, without

3 relying on God’s guidance, the world would not make sense. As the years went on, the significance of the day of the Lord became more acute. The remembrance of the day of the Lord to Israelites was connected with the fact their belief that God would bring again the day of the Lord as a way of rescuing them from the effects of evil.

Even so, it is worth noting that even though the Israelites kept longing for the day of the Lord, prophet Amos explained to them that even though it would come, its purpose would be the crushing of the evil that was found among the Israelites. In the end, when the day of the evil came, the Israelites were conquered and also taken into exile. Later on, when Jesus was sent to the world, His main focus was to conquer evil (Bible Project, 2017). In this way, evil was discovered to be the real enemy. Jesus’ strategy of defeating evil was to teach people to turn away from the sinful ways that governed their lives. To do this, He made the ultimate sacrifice by taking on the full power of sin and evil when He died on the cross for the sins of the world.

By doing on the cross, Jesus gave His followers the authority to triumph over evil and overcome the powers of the enemy. This ability to triumph over the enemy is the evil to which human beings have been opened up. Therefore, even though evil continues to operate in the world, the promise in the book of Revelation is that, one day, Jesus will return and destroy evil completely (Bible Project, 2017). After this destruction happens, the world will be free from corruption and, instead, there will be the existence of the perfect world that had been God’s plan all along. The day that will bring this world into existence will be the ultimate day of the Lord.

4 References BibleProject. (2017, October 27). Justice. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=A14THPoc4-4 BibleProject. (2017, April 27). Day of the Lord. [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=tEBc2gSSW04