Milk Principle 2: Repentance from Dead Works: Chapter 8: Impartial Justice

In Exodus 23 the law of impartial justice is protected by a variety of laws which declare certain actions to be sin (or crime). Exodus 23:1 forbids false testimonies, which reiterates the Ninth Commandment, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). To tolerate false witnesses is to deny equal justice to all, and the people must rise up and demand repentance from their judges and the judicial system itself.

Exodus 23:2 forbids judges from perverting justice by acquiescing to popular opinion. Here is where democracies may fail, as we see even today. Just because the public is in agreement that certain practices are good does not give judges a mandate to please the crowd. Whenever such decisions are made, both the people and the judges must repent.

Exodus 23:3 forbids partiality toward a poor man as well. In today’s world, it seems good to many people that taxes should be increased beyond the biblical limit in order to assist the poor. To raise taxes beyond the biblical limit itself is theft, a violation of the Eighth Commandment, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). It is a sin to steal from the rich to give to the poor, even if it appears to be an act of love. Of course, if a rich man has gotten his wealth illicitly, then he ought to pay restitution to his victims.

Exodus 23:7 says,

⁷ Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty.

The unborn are the most common souls among “the innocent” and “the righteous” today. They have been slaughtered by the millions just since 1973. Recently, the Supreme Court nullified Roe v. Wade which had given women the right to murder their own children before they were born; but the Court left the issue to the states, rather than to the federal government. So this did not fully resolve the problem from God’s point of view.

Those states in particular which continue to allow abortions need to repent, along with the people who see such murder as a human right. Our Declaration of Independence says that all rights come from God, not from governments. Killing the unborn is not a right given by God but is a mere privilege granted by ungodly men.

Exodus 23:8 says,

⁸ You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.

In many countries, men use their positions of authority as a source of income. When given the authority to issue permits or to allow passage or some other authority, they often demand a bribe from the public to supplement their salaries. In many countries, such bribery has become a way of life and has been so normalized that even Christian believers practice it with no twinge of conscience.

This “subverts the cause of the just,” and God demands that they repent. When believers do such things, their works do not match their “faith,” and we must remind them that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). James demands repentance so that works prove one’s faith.

Oppressing Strangers (Aliens)

Exodus 23:9 says,

⁹ You shall not oppress a stranger, since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.

This is repeated in Exodus 22:21. As we have already seen, equal justice is due to aliens and sojourners who are in the land. Even if they do not live in the land, they must keep its laws and are also afforded equal justice if their rights are violated.

We have already seen from Num. 15:15, 16 how God demands a single-tier justice system for all. The prevailing Jewish opinion says that Jews are responsible to keep the law of Moses, while Gentiles are bound only by the so-called Noahide laws in Gen. 9:1-7. This belief is based on the view that Gentiles are incapable of understanding or of conforming to the law of Moses. This view, in turn, is rooted in the belief that non-Jews are mere animals, while Jewish souls are of a higher order.

Yet Exodus 23:9 overthrows this idea. God reminds the Israelites that they were “strangers” in the land of Egypt, where they were treated as unequal to Egyptians. It implies too that God had brought the Israelites into bondage in order to instill in them an abhorrence of inequality. Unfortunately, they forgot this lesson and reverted to interpretations based on self-interest.

Saul Persecutes the Gibeonites

The Gibeonites were a Canaanite tribe that made a covenant of peace with Joshua in Joshua 9. Even though they tricked Joshua into thinking they were from afar off, God held Israel to their word. They were given the responsibility of assisting in the tabernacle at Shiloh (Joshua 9:27), which was essentially the role of the Levites themselves.

Some centuries later, King Saul, in his rebellion against God, persecuted the Gibeonites and even killed seven of them. We read in 2 Sam. 21:1,

¹ Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

No doubt Saul thought he was pleasing God by getting rid of Canaanites. His view of the law was warped. So God brought famine to the land, not while Saul was alive but toward the end of David’s reign. The famine was not caused by David, but David had to resolve it in order to end the famine. This is a case where David re-established equal justice with the Canaanites.

Isaiah Interprets the Law

Isaiah gives us the clearest interpretation of the law of equality in Isaiah 56, 6-8,

⁶ Also the foreigners [ben nekar, “sons of foreigners”] who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and holds fast My covenant, ⁷ even those I will bring to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. ⁸ The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, “Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.”

Foreigners were to enjoy equal access to God in His “house of prayer” (temple). Isaiah was referring to Solomon’s prayer of dedication in 2 Chron. 6:32, 33,

³² Also concerning the foreigner who is not from Your people Israel, when he comes from a far country for Your great name’s sake and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray toward this house, ³³ then hear from heaven, from Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by Your name.

Isaiah elaborated on Solomon’s dedication prayer to let us know with no uncertainty that the temple was a house of prayer for all people, including foreigners. Centuries later, in the decades just before Jesus was born, King Herod dismantled the Second Temple and reconstructed a temple that was far more elaborate and beautiful. In doing this, he constructed a dividing wall in the outer court that would forbid non-Jews and women from getting too close to God. No doubt he did this to please the religious leaders of the day.

There was no command in Scripture to build such a dividing wall, so Herod’s wall was built according to the precepts of men.

Are Jews Chosen by Bloodline?

John addresses this question directly in John 1:13, while speaking of those who have the right to become the sons of God:

¹³ who were born, not of blood [bloodline], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God [God’s will].

There are multiple problems with the commonly held belief that the Jews are God’s chosen people, and this too requires repentance. First of all, it presumes that even those who reject Jesus as the Messiah are chosen, when in fact no one is chosen apart from faith in Christ.

Second, it presumes that the Jews are Israelites and are the heirs of the promises to Israel. This, of course, ignores the history of the Divided Kingdom, when the 10 tribes of Israel revolted against Judah. Up to that time, Israel included all 12 tribes, but after this, the name Israel applied only to the 10 tribes and excluded Judah. In other words, the definition of Israel changed to suit the political situation, and all the prophets who prophesied subsequently distinguished between Israel and Judah.

Judah’s calling was to produce the kings, culminating with Jesus Christ, who is the final King. Other kings from the line of Judah continued to rule through King Zedekiah’s daughter, whom Jeremiah took to Ireland, but these were placeholders until Christ would come personally to take His throne. Though imperfect, their role was vital to fulfill Jer. 33:17,

¹⁷ For thus says the Lord, “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.”

The Israelites, meanwhile, were conquered by Assyria and resettled in the land of Gamir, as we learn from the archeological records from the great library at Nineveh. Many of them moved west to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia, where Peter found some of them (1 Peter 1:1). This region is now part of Turkey.

When Assyria fell a century later, many Israelites began to migrate north through the Caucasus Mountains into Europe—so many, in fact, that historians called them Caucasians. Hence, Israel’s graveyard in Assyria was the birthplace of Europe. The groups of immigrants were called by different names in the records of the nations. Hence, they lost the name Israel and became known prophetically only as the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Jer. 50:6; Matt. 10:6).

To repent means to turn in a new direction or to change one’s belief. Understanding the difference between Israelites and Jews is a very important change if one hopes to understand Bible history and prophecy. One cannot assume that the Jews are the Israelites that the prophets wrote about, nor is it true that the modern state of “Israel” is the biblical Israel.

The Chosen Remnant

The Kingdom “tree” had some branches pruned from it, including both Israel and Judah. Israel was pruned 700 years before Christ when God divorced Israel and sent them out of the house to Assyria on account of their unbelief. A century later Judah was exiled to Babylon and then again in the first century—and for the same reason.

In light of this, Paul asked in Rom. 11:1 if God had rejected His people. The answer is NO, because His people are people of faith. He then gives the example of the days of Elijah. The small remnant of grace (a mere 7,000 men) was never rejected, even if God rejected the rest of the nation. In Rom. 11:7 Paul concludes,

⁷ What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

Paul tells us that there were just 7,000 men in all of Israel who were actually “chosen,” and that these carried the promises of God, even when the rest of the nation was rejected. In other words, most of the Israelites were not chosen, nor were they God’s people. To be God’s people, they had to be men of faith whose faith resulted in obedience.

So we see that even though both Israel and Judah were rejected, the promise of God did not fail, because His promise was carried by the overcoming remnant of grace. So how is it said today that unbelieving Jews are God’s chosen people by virtue of their genealogy? That was not Paul’s revelation, nor, in fact, was it Elijah’s revelation. Neither King Ahab nor the high priest Caiaphas were chosen. Instead, they were among those who were “hardened” (i.e., blinded).

Many in the church need to repent of thinking that God has chosen those who are not part of the remnant of grace, those who have no faith in Jesus Christ. If a Jew or an Israelite by genealogy wants to be chosen, let him or her believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah). The way is open to all equally.

The Result of Jesus’ Work

Jesus Himself abolished that wall by His teachings, as we read in Eph. 2:13, 14,

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.

Those foreigners and women who formerly had to worship God from a distance were invited into the presence of God as equals with the Jewish men. This, of course, scandalized the religious Jews of that time. Their religious fanaticism, in fact, was seen when they suspected that Paul had brought “Trophimus the Ephesian” through the gate of the dividing wall (Acts 21:29). This caused a riot. The charge was unfounded, but in the law no one was to be excluded.

Paul’s gospel and revelation was inclusive of all ethnicities. He fought hard for the rights of non-Jews to be treated as equals. Paul explains this in greater detail in Galatians 3. He shows that the blessings of Abraham were not to be given exclusively to his biological children but were to be distributed to all families of the earth (Gal. 3:14). He concludes in Gal. 3:26-29,

²⁶ For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁷ For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.

There are many who disagree with Paul, while others give him lip service but ignore certain of his teachings. Such people need to repent, change their views and their behavior. God is impartial and judges people not by their ethnicity but by their faith and obedience.