We don’t often see justice prevail within an expected time frame or the way we hope it will. In fact, we can look at social and economic issues over history and wonder if justice can prevail. So we can easily conclude that justice doesn’t always manifest. There is nothing new under the sun. Justice will fail where truth is ignored.Israel experienced this. Isaiah wrote about it.
“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter” (Isaiah 59:14).
RELEVANCE
I learned, as many of us do, that God loves mercy. He loves when we have mercy on others. In fact, something miraculous happens when you do. God opens the floodgates of grace.
God loves mercy and truth. He gives us all a chance to come to truth. As long as we fail to seek God for truth, however, mercy will also lag. The prophet Hosea even connected truth and mercy with the knowledge of God. “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land” (Hosea 4:1).
If we know mercy and truth we will apprehend the knowledge of God. Truly, God loves to have mercy. He also loves truth. The two go together. That’s why Solomon, in all his wisdom, exhorts us to wear mercy and truth.
“Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
And so find favor and high esteem
In the sight of God and man.”
(Proverbs 3:3-4)
REFLECT AND RELATE
Where are you looking to see justice? Ask God for truth. Ask for the grace to love mercy. Ask how you can apply mercy and truth in a real way.
REFERENCES
Psalm 85:10-11; 86:15; 119:25-32