Partiality and Favoritism, part 2 of 3 - Proverbs 24:24

He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous," Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him; Proverbs 24:24

As we face the issue of partiality in judgment, we are shown the danger of it - and the anger that ensues when it happens.  We are told of someone who says to the wicked, "You are righteous."  It is important to see that this is not a case of religious judgment, but one that is happening in a court system - and also can happen in life as well.  The idea is not of religious righteousness on the par of justification.  This is simply a wicked man being told that he is in the right - he is without fault in a matter that clearly is the opposite.  We see this too often in our society and even in our court systems.  Gone are the days when what we truly desire in our courts is justice and righteousness.  When a criminal who is clearly guilty of a crime is acquitted because of a minor technicality - we groan and shake our heads in disgust.

We are told that when this happens, peoples will curse this man - and nations will abhor him.  Justice is something that goes far outside our homes - and even our cities.  When injustice happens, entire people groups will see - and nations will join in the condemnation of partiality and favoritism.  Wars have been fought because of errors in judgment - and favoritism toward those who should be convicted of crimes. 

I'm going to step into a danger zone here and comment on convoluted foreign policy.  I do so realizing that often the choices put before our state department are never between pure right and wrong.  They are usually choices between bad and horrible.  Regardless of the dilemmas that are faced, we too often support brutal dictators who are guilty of gross injustice toward their people.  We wring our hands wondering why in parts of the world people hate our country.  One reason is because our power is used to support oppressive, murderous men in positions of power.  We may consider them to be the lesser of two evils - and I understand that.  But we also need to grasp that when we put someone like that in power and say to the populace of that nation - this wicked man is righteous - at least righteous enough to be your leader, they are going to hate us. 

Honestly, I am glad I do not have to make decisions like the ones our state department makes, and I pray for them to have wisdom.  They have very difficult decisions to make.  But when we do call the wicked righteous - we need to know that the peoples and nations will curse and hate us.  It is just a fact of the Bible - and of life on this earth.

Since we are talking about "a little bit of wisdom" in these articles, some may ask, "Then what should we do?"  What would the "wise" thing be to do in these situations?  That is a difficult thing to answer.  But my thoughts are that we should first tend to issues of justice in our own nation.  First of all, we are horrific oppressors of the first order in our practices toward the unborn.  Our sins and crimes in that area match anything ever seen in the world - and since we export this barbaric practice all over the world for the so-called purpose of population control - we have serious problems of our own.  We too often paint ourselves as the great hope - while we are not even living up to the heritage handed to us by our forefathers.  My advice would be first to reclaim wise judgment in our own land - before we go off telling others how they should administer justice in theirs.  We need to remove the proverbial log from our own eye - before we try to go all over the world removing the speck from the eye of other nations.

"How can we do something so huge!?" would be the next statement made.  It actually begins by starting personally - with our own hearts.  We repent of the injustices in our own lives - and cry out for God's wisdom in rectifying our own wrongs.  Then we fall to our knees and pray for our country.  We pray for a revival that will break hearts and turn our churches back to biblical justice and righteousness.  Once biblical righteousness has been restored to our lives and the lives of God's church - then we can begin to address our public officials.  We can demand something other than base politics govern their thinking - and elect true men of character to our public offices.  They can then address the policies that promote ungodliness and gross injustice in our land - by the standard of God's Word.  Then and only then can we begin to hope to address the world about matters of justice.  We do it now - but only by the use of power and money.  May God so work in us, our churches, and our nation that one day we can speak from a vantage of moral clarity - and not just national self-interest.