THE LAWS OF JUSTICE AND MERCY
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: EXODUS 23:1-12
KEY VERSE
“You shall not follow the crowd in doing evil; nor shall you testify in a dispute so as to join together with a crowd in order to pervert justice; nor shall you show favor to a poor person in his dispute”.
Exodus23:2-3
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
This Lesson explains to us that there are certain ideas and attitudes that are found in God because these belong to the nature of God. They are a part of Him and they cannot be separated from Him. So when we think about God we right away think that justice, a word which means always doing right, and mercy, a word which means showing compassion and not always punishing people and giving them what they deserve for the wrongs they have committed, will always be shown by God.God also has done great things for usG
It is sometimes difficult to think God will always do what is just and at the same time always doing what is merciful for people who do not deserve mercyWhen they were captured and taken into exile away from their countryW. But God is like that. The God we worship and give honour to, and praise for the great things that He has done for us has taken us into His family and He wants us to become like Him. The Holy Spirit has the job to change us and once we believe in Jesus the Holy Spirit has begun the job to change us. We therefore have to learn how to show justice in everything that we do. We have to show mercy in everything that we do. We cannot tell lies about other people, gossip about them, love to hear gossip about other people, and to join a crowd of people who are doing things to harm others. We have to make sure that we do what is right and that is justice for others. If we do not do that we are perverting justice. God does not like that at all for we are to grow steadily to be like Him, and we are to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We should not only do what is just and right to our friends and family. We must not do what is wrong to strangers and people we do not know.Sometimes people who should know better
God commanded the nation of Israel to always behave in the way of justice and show mercy to others who could not help themselves. They should forgive people when they do wrong and encourage them to keep on doing right from then on.
God loves when we show justice and do what is right, and He loves when we show mercy to others for in doing that we do what is right. God has promised that He will protect us when others do what is wrong to us and when they do not show mercy to us. He will take up our cause and it will not be nice for those who do not behave in the way of justice and mercy. Anyone who break these laws will be punished severely by God.
So let us obey God. These laws are things that we must do and the Holy Spirit will help us make it easier and easier for us to do them as we grow in our knowledge of God.