We are looking at some of the earliest information available about how national and local leaders viewed ‘justice’ in the ancient world. I invite you to read the last part of this series to refresh yourself about the legal codes of justice from the 3rd Millennium.
Abram Learns About Justice
We last saw Abram and his wife Sarai leave Egypt and return to Canaan after God dealt with the king of Egypt (pharaoh). Abram left Canaan for Egypt to find food to feed his family, servants, and animal soon after arriving in Canaan. You can read the details in Genesis 12.
God called Abram to leave his country and his father’s house – ‘to a land that I will show you.’ God promised Abram that He would make of him ‘a great nation,’ that He would ‘bless’ him and make his name ‘great.’ God also promised Abram that he would be a blessing to others. God said –
I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Genesis 12:3
Abram passed through the land of Canaan to ‘the place of Shechem, as far as the terebin tree of Moreh.’ God promised to ‘give this land’ to Abram and his descendants. Abram built an altar to the Lord there. Abram then moved on ‘to the mountain east of Bethel.’ Bethel was on his west, while Ai was on the east. Abram built another altar to the Lord and called on His name. Abram journeyed on southward from there and came to dwell in Egypt because of a severe famine ‘in the land.’
You can read the details of Abram’s time in Egypt in the last part of our study, but one thing I want you to see is that while in Egypt, the pharaoh gave him many animals and ‘male and female servants.’ That ‘gift’ from pharaoh would play an important role in what Abram would later learn about God’s Justice. We’ll see the outcome of that in a few minutes.
Something else that happened that would teach Abram about God’s Justice was what happened between him and his nephew, Lot. Once they arrived back in Canaan, Abram traveled to Bethel, ‘to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, to the place of the altar which he had made there at first.’ Abram ‘called on the name of the Lord.’ Abram and Lot both had flocks, herds, tents, and servants. The land was not able to support them, ‘that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.’ This caused ‘strife’ between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. Abram didn’t want the strife, so he told Lot to look around and choose where he’d like to live. Abram said he would go in the opposite direction.
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. Genesis 13:10-13
After Lot ‘separated’ himself and his family from Abram, God told Abram to lift up his eyes and look ‘northward, southward, eastward, and westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.’ God told Abraham to arise and ‘walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.’ Abram then moved his tent and ‘dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron.’ Abram built an altar there to the Lord.
Defensive Justice
So far Abram seems to be a man of peace. He’s an older man who wants to live in peace. However, that was not the way of the world then – just like it is not that way today. Genesis 14 introduces us to a group of kings who made war with another group of kings.
Remember Lot, Abram’s nephew? He chose to live in Sodom. Unfortunately for Lot and his family, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah lost. Many of them fled to the mountains, leaving Lot unprotected. That’s when the other group of kings ‘too all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way.’ They also took Lot and his goods.
One of the men escaped and told Abram what happened. Keep in mind that Abram is an old man and wants peace. However, kings had taken his nephew and family captive and were headed back to their ‘nations.’ What was the ‘just’ thing for Abram to do?
Now when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his three hundred and eighteen trained servants who were born in his own house, and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. Genesis 14:14-16
How do I know Abram did the ‘just’ (right) thing? Because of what happened while Abram was returning home.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: Blessed be Abram of God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tithe of all. Genesis 14:18-20
The name Melchizedek in Hebrew ( מַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק) means ‘my king is right.’ He was the king of ‘Salem,’ (שָׁלֵם) which means ‘peaceful.’ Melchizedek is identified as ‘the priest of God Most High.’ Melchizedek blessed Abram and said God had blessed him and ‘delivered’ his enemies into his hands. That supports that what Abram did in rescuing Lot and his family from the evil kings was ‘just.’
[You can learn more about Melchizedek here: Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1, 10-11, 15-17, 21]
‘Defensive Justice’ is where a person is in the ‘right’ to defend themselves against an attack and rescue others who are under attack. Abram and his servants ‘attacked’ the armies of the evil kings and ‘pursued them’ as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus. It was at that point that Abram and his servants were able to rescue Lot and his family. There is no word of Abram going any further than a ‘rescue.’ By that I mean nothing is mentioned about Abram taking ‘revenge’ on the kings and their soldiers for what they had done in kidnapping Lot and his family. It would appear that Abram and his servants returned home once their rescue mission was accomplished.
God Reveals His ‘Plan’
God revealed His ‘plan’ for justice in greater detail in Genesis 15. God told Abram that He was going to give Abram an ‘heir’ that would come from his own body. Abram was an old man and didn’t have any children, but ‘he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness.’
God told Abram what the future held for his descendants –
Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Genesis 15:13-16
God was going to demonstrate His Divine Justice against other nations through Abram’s descendants. After the sun had gone down and it was dark, God made a covenant with Abram, saying –
To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. Genesis 15:18-21
Hidden within that statement was a future filled with more of God’s future justice against the evil people of the land of Canaan. However, something occurred that had the potential of harming God’s plan. Abram’s wife Sarai wanted a child. She had gotten a ‘maidservant’ during their time in Egypt, named Hagar. Sarai asked Abram to ‘go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.’ Abram ‘heeded’ Sarai’s request and Hagar conceived a child. That was what Sarai wanted, but something bothered her about it and she became angry –
Then Sarai said to Abram, ‘My wrong be upon you! I gave my maid into your embrace; and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord judge between you and me.’ So Abram said to Sarai, “Indeed your maid is in your hand; do to her as you please.’ And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence.
However, the ‘Angel of the Lord’ told Hagar to return to Sarai and submit herself ‘under her hand.’ The Angel of the Lord told Hagar that He would ‘multiply’ her descendants ‘exceedingly,’ so that they shall not be counted for multitude.’ The Angel of the Lord to Hagar to name her child Ishmael, ‘Because the Lord has heard your affliction.’ The Angel of the Lord said that Ishmael would be a ‘wild man’ and that his hand would be ‘against every man, And every man’s hand against him.’ (Genesis 16) Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.
God changed Abram’s name to Abraham 13 years later – ‘for I have made you a father of many nations.’ Why did God change Abram’s name? Why did God tell Abram when he was 75 that He would make him ‘a great nation,’ but change Abraham’s name when Abram was 99 and tell him that He would ‘nations of you?’ The reason was because of what Abram did in listening to the voice of his wife, Sarai.
God also changed Sarai’s name to Sarah. He told Abraham that Sarah would become pregnant with a son and that she would ‘be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be from her’ (Genesis 17:15-16). Abraham questioned in his heart how a child could be born to a man who was 100 years old and a woman sho was 90 years old. Abraham said to God, ‘Oh, that Ismael might live before You!’ However, God told Abraham that Sarah would have a son and that they would call his name Isaac. God said His ‘everlasting covenant’ would be with Isaac and his descendants. As for Ishmael, God said He would make him fruitful and that he would ‘beget twelve princes’ and make of him a great nation. ‘But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year’ (Genesis 17:21).
Physical and Spiritual Justice
This episode in the life of Abraham teaches us about both physical and spiritual justice from God’s perspective. Isaac became the father of Jacob, who became the father of 12 sons. God changed Jacob’s name to Israel and his 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel. Ishmael became the father of 12 sons who ‘dwelt in the Wilderness of Paran.’ Hagar, who was Egyptian, took a wife for Ishmael ‘from the land of Egypt’ (Genesis 21). You can read the genealogy of Ismael in Genesis 25. Ishmael’s sons ‘dwelt from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt as you go toward Assyria.’ Ancient maps show that this area includes Arabia.
The physical side is not finished yet. Isaac and his wife Rebecca had two sons – Jacob and Esau. Jacob was part of God’s covenant with Abraham and become the father of God’s people, Israel. Esau married multiple wives, including the daughter of Ishmael, Mahalath (Genesis 28).
The reason I point this out is because the descendants of Ishmael and Esau became enemies of God’s people, Israel. You will find those descendants opposing Israel throughout the Old Testament. Muslims, who have opposed Christians and Jews for centuries, believe that Ishmael was the ‘son of promise’ rather than Isaac. The many physical wars fought in the past and the present, and wars to come, among Muslims, Christians and Jews began with Abram. God promised ‘a nation’ that would bless the world. That nation is Israel. Though Israel has made many, many terrible errors through its history, the Jews are God’s ‘covenant people.’ God will restore Israel to a place of physical prominence among the nations of the world in the future when Jesus Christ returns from Heaven to establish His earthly Kingdom – ruling the world from Jerusalem.
As for the spiritual side, we look to insights the Apostle Paul shared in his letter to the Galatians –
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar— for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children— but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all … Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.’ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Galatians 4:21-26, 28-31
Hagar was the ‘bondwoman.’ Sarai was the ‘freewoman.’ What does that mean spiritually for us as Christians? We are ‘children of promise,’ born ‘according to the Spirit.’ We are to cast out ‘the bondwoman and her son,’ meaning that we are not ‘under the law.’ We are under ‘the Spirit.’ Christians are now ‘free’ in Christ and not ‘bound’ to ‘Mount Sinai’ and the bondage that comes from the Law. We have been freed from the Law. That is why Paul wrote these words next –
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love. Galatians 5:1-6
Old Testament Importance
Many Christians have told me through the years that they rarely if ever read the Old Testament. They believe that only the New Testament is for us now. That’s a huge error on their part. It should be obvious from how often Christ’s apostles referred to the Old Testament to make important points about living as Christians. I especially point you to the Apostle Paul, since he is an ‘apostle to the Gentiles’ (e.g. Romans 11:13; Galatians 2:8; 2 Timothy 1:11). Paul’s reference to the story of Hagar and Sarai in Galatians 4 is an excellent example of how knowledge of Old Testament history helps us understand God’s Grace and our freedom from the Law of Moses and liberty in Christ Jesus – by which He ‘made us free.’
Next Time
Does God have the ‘right’ to destroy cities filled with human beings? Does He? Even many Christians seriously question whether God has that ‘right’ or whether the stories of God’s ‘wrath’ in the Bible are even true. We’ll look at examples in the next part of our special series – God’s Justice: How It Works.
God’s Justice eBooks
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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