JUSTICE JUDGES AND PRIESTS
LESSON FOR THE JUNIOR CLASSES
STUDY SCRIPTURE: DEUTERONOMY 16:18-20, 17:8-13
KEY VERSE
“You shall appoint for yourselves Judges and officers in all your towns which the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment”.
Deuteronomy16:18
INTRODUCTION AND STUDY
This Lesson explains to us that there are certain tasks that God has given to some persons and so He placed them in certain specific roles and gave them certain names. God gives everybody gifts and special abilities and He wants us to use them to bring happiness and righteousness. God also has done great things for us.
These jobs were extremely important jobs and they had to be done properly and exactly as God instructed so that the nation of Israel would always be blessed by God and allowed to remain in the Land that God had promised to give to Abraham and his descendants.
Just before the people of Israel entered into the Land God told their leader Moses to give the people certain instructions and some warnings so they would live quality lives. God did not want them to lose their blessing.
These were all young people with everyone 20 years old and under. Their parents had died in the wilderness travel because they had committed some horrible sins. But God saved their children. Moses now had the job of setting up and expanding the jobs that would solve the quarrels, disagreements, sins, and other difficulties that would arise in the nation.
He told the people that they had the responsibility to select and set up judges whose task it was to hear and make decisions to solve the problems in the different communities and so help the people live in peace.
God had already established Priests that would spend all their lives studying the laws of God and so be able to hear difficult cases and make decisions based on the laws and commandments of God. They would be wise persons and would assist the local judges make good decisions. The people were warned that when the judges, offices and priests met and heard a case and made a decision everybody had to accept and obey what was decided. Anyone who did not accept the decision and went in their own selfish way would have to be put to death to take away sin from the nation.
All decisions had to be based on the laws of God. God loved Justice and that meant all things had to be done right. The people of the nation werein a covenant with God and everything they did to each other, to strangers, and the poor, and those that could not help themselves would have to be in line with the Ten Commandments which taught that the people should love God with all their heart and their might. They also should love their neighbour as themselves and only do what they would like people to do to them.
God had given them the Land as He had promised and so the judges and Priests were obliged to do Justice and righteous for they were holy people separated to God. God loved them and in turn they should love all others and show that they were willing to do things pleasing to God.
In our times we should remember that God also loves us and want us to live showing Justice to othersWhen they were captured and taken into exile away from their countryW. God want us to appoint people under His direction who will practise Justice.
Moses told the people of Israel the people God appointed should never change from the right thing and refuse to give people their just rights. They should not show partiality, bias, prejudice or favouritism when making decisions. There should be one standard for everyone. They should not do special favours for the rich, the powerful, the superstars and take away the rights of the poor.Sometimes people who should know better
In addition they should not take bribes and gifts for that would encourage the judges and officers and the priests to make decisions in the interest of the rich and their families and ignore the rightsof the other people. Those behaviours were totally condemned by God.
We are in the same position
In our lives and in our churches we must be careful to always follow these rules set up by God if we want Him to bless us. We must select Pastors, Elders, Deacons and people to fill all the posts in the church that will follow the path of Justice, righteousness, and holiness. That is what God demands from us. We must pledge to obey God for we too are in a Covenant with God. In this relationship obedience must be shown to God’s words. He saved us and redeemed us from sin and so we must be careful to follow all that He has said. That way God will always bless us.