Deliverance: Justice - David Mitts
The goodness of God is the unfailing standard for all of life. The prophet Micah declares that the Lord has shown us His goodness. Yeshua tells us that the only standard of true goodness is the Lord Himself.
“But Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)
It looks of the surface that Yeshua is even saying that he isn’t good. But I think the true emphasis should be on the “calling” of someone good or evil. Mankind has no true standard of Good and Evil apart from God. Only God who is good can declare something good or evil.
We see this is the creation described in Genesis where God calls that what he does, “good”. For example, in Day 3:
“Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit according to their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth produced vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, according to their kind; and God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11-12)
God speaks and what He says is “good”. His Word is always and forever good. This means that He alone can judge. His requirement to us then is based on His revelation of what is good.
Looking at Micah 6:8, the Lord tells us that He requires of us to do justly. In Hebrew this is to “osot mishpat”. Osot, or rather oseh is the root form means to do. This is an action word that is unambiguous. He requires to do things in a just manner. Mishpat or its root shaphat is where we get the word for judging and judges, like the book of judges. The Lord requires us to be just.
How can we who know no goodness determine through our actions what is just? Let’s look at ancient Hebrew word root and see if we can get a glimpse on this reality.
The root is made up of 3 letters, the shin, the pey, and the tet.
The shin is the picture of teeth. It is the symbol for the destruction of something. Destruction as the beginning of justice tells us that justice will separate good from evil. Yeshua spoke about this in the context of sheep and goats:
“"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.' "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.' "Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.' "Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."” (Matthew 25:31-46)
This prophecy gives us a perspective of how destruction is the beginning of living justly, exemplified by the letter shin. We also see this with Jericho where God chose the spoils to be destroyed. This was a judgment on the idols of Canaan.
The second letter in shaphat is the letter “pey” which is the word picture of a mouth. It tells us that words are a key to just living. Yeshua again explains this:
“"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."” (Matthew 12:33-37)
Our words reflect our heart, and we will face judgement for our words. Often, we think words are harmless. They are not! To live justly is to learn the lesson of the “pey”, to watch our words.
The final lesson is the “tet” which is the ancient picture of a coiled snake. It implies a snare or a trap. The ensnaring of our heart comes through offense.
“Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! "If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.” (Matthew 18:7-9)
The connection of offense to our hands, feet or even our eyes tell us that we must be extremely careful about what we do, where we walk and how we see things. Our deeds, our choices, the path for our feet and how we “see” things in life are the doorways to offense. These are potential traps or snares in our lives.
All of these are rooted in the heart. The heart is the place where the coiled snake can bury itself. The name of the coiled snake is iniquity and results in lawlessness. Because of the snake of offense, we can become cold to one another and violate the very goodness of God in our relationships.
In this prophetic hour the challenge is to be just and walk with our God. This requires a humility and a sensitivity of the perspectives of others, even those we find offensive. Yeshua described this hour:
“All these are the beginning of sorrows. "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:8-14)
Justice, shaphat is the standard that exposes the darkness. The darkness lives through conflicts. Conflicts arise out of offense. Offense breeds betrayals. We have seen over the last 2 years, the ugly face of betrayal. Those who took the shots hated those who wouldn’t. Those who stood for the life of infants in the womb have been hated by those who think it is their ultimate right to terminate an unwanted child. Those who stand for just choices are being attacked by those who just want things their way, no matter how perverted their way is. Children are on the chopping block of race theories and sexual deviance.
Truly we are seeing lawlessness, iniquity in such a degree that love is growing cold.
Amidst all of this, we are reminded that there is a just God. He has given us His good and just standards in the scriptures. We don’t have to figure it all out. We just must follow the path that he has lain out for us.
Justice separates. The teeth of the shin tear past the superficiality, the masks that we wear, the pey tells us that our words reveal our true intentions and the tet, the coiled snake tells us that there is danger lurking in the realms of offense. This time frame that we are in is the time of offense and betrayal. We should wake up and guard our hearts as the world is spinning ever faster towards judgment day.
Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He is a destroyer, and his name contains 2 of the 3 letters of justice, the shin and the tet. This is the word picture that he destroys through offense. The nun at the end is the seed. Satan rises to destroy through accusation breeding offenses which impact the seed of God, His spoken Word and His children who bear the word.
Justice shaphat is separated from Satan by the words we speak. Remembering that if we believe in our heart and confess with mouth that Yeshua is Lord and risen from the dead, we have everlasting life. Our words either justify us or condemn us.
Activation: Choosing words of life. Think of what your confession is. What you believe in your heart and confess with you mouth will judge you. Begin to change the judgments of your life by changing your intentional confession.
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