Greetings
to you all in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
I consider this an opportunity to
speak to you all from the Word this morning.
So, for our meditation today, let us turn our Bibles to Isaiah 1:17.
Let’s Pray:
Dear Lord Jesus, I submit myself into your hands.
May the words I speak, proclaim life and may the words from my mouth speak to
your people. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
We come every Sunday to worship God. One of the
very prominent portions of our liturgy is, “Holy art thou, Oh God”, “Holy art
thou Almighty Lord”, “Holy art thou, Immortal Lord”, “Oh Thou that was
crucified for us, have mercy on us”. Even as the choir we sing that the Lord is
Holy, he is Immortal and he is Almighty. So when we say that God is Holy, what
do we mean? Holiness not only implies the purity and sanctity aspects but also
the righteousness if God. He is an upright, virteous and righteous God. And
when we say that he is a righteous God, we also mean that he is a just God.
Holiness and justice go side-by-side with each other. One cannot do without the
other.
So, what is justice? Usually, the desire for
justice is something that triggers within you when you feel violated. So when
do you feel violated, you may ask?
Okay, so in this passage we read about
the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. Exodus chapter 1 verses 1 onwards, we
see that the sons of Jacob went along with their brother, Joseph, to Egypt and
settled there and the Lord blessed them, and they were fruitful. And so, after
several years, when the new king came -who didn’t know anything about Joseph
and the way he administered to Egypt and helped handle the famine and drought
in Egypt - he saw that they were fruitful and multiplying in number and this
alarmed him.
- Well, suppose, you open the newspaper and see the headlines
that a girl has been raped/murdered, you may feel a sense of injustice for the
girl and her family. Or when your boss calls you to work during the weekend, you
may feel violated that he isn’t respecting your personal time. Or, it could even be something as simple as, you feeling a sense of violation when - suppose you’re standing
in a queue and someone barges in and breaks the queue.
So these
are all different levels of violation but in some way or the other they may
trigger something within you which says, “No, I don’t like the way this
situation works. I wish something could be done to change it.” And that is
where the seeking of justice comes into play.
I personally believe that everyone of us in some form or the other, deeply yearn for amendment and correction for justice to prevail. And the Scripture is also full of examples of justice.
- We have the example of King Solomon handling injustice when two mothers were fighting over the same baby. In the book of Acts, we see the early church handle the injustice done to the Greek widows when they were overlooked during the food distribution. And we also have the famous story of the Good Samaritan, where a Samaritan passes by a wounded Jew and sees that he’s been beaten and robbed and sympathises with the injustice done to him and does whatever he can to help this man recover.
- So, this is a recurring theme in the Biblical
narrative. It’s not new to any of us. And so I hope even today’s message is a
reminder of what we as Christians or what we as image bearers ought to do.
So,
for today’s message, let us look at a passage in the Old Testament where we see
two women dealing with the dilemma of justice in their work lives.
- Can
somebody read Exodus 1:15-19?
He thought that there had to be
something where he could control the population of the Israelites. So, he goes
to the Hebrew midwives and commands them, that when a Hebrew woman gives birth
to a female child, let her live, but if it’s a male child, do not let him live.
So,
in regard to this, there are three points that I would like to draw to your
attention.
1.
They were known for their commitment to their profession:
The
King knew that the Israelite women relied on Shiphrah and Puah for their
delivery needs. Their dedication and commitment to their work was so strong
that the king thought that by telling these two women alone, the male
population, which will be the strength of the nation, will be under control.
So
Shiphrah and Puah were excellent in their profession and also had high levels
of professional ethics. Speaking of ethics, let me come to my 2nd
point.
2.
They knew that just because something is legal, it isn’t necessarily ethical:
The
King had not only allowed them to kill newborn males but commanded them to do
so without fail. But it did not sit well with their values, it did not sit well
with their principles. They had the discernment in them. They knew that just
because the King tells them to do something, it doesn’t automatically make it
right. And they used their discernment and let those boys live.
3.
They were bold enough to disobey the Pharoah:
According
to the Egyptian rules, disobedience to the orders of a King can lead to
imprisonment and/or death without any trial. Now sometimes, the punishment can
be extended even to the family members.
Now
we read in the scriptures that when the Pharoah questioned them, they said that
Hebrew women give birth even before the midwives come, which wasn’t true. If
they were caught, by chance, they knew that they would probably lose their
lives as well.
But
something to be underlined is that, they feared the Lord more than they feared
the Pharoah.
So,
coming back to my question, what is Holiness? Or what is righteousness? It is
using your God-given discernment and doing those acts of justice in our
profession and in our everyday routine. Let us search the Scriptures to find
out verses that talk about justice.
Can somebody read Micah 6:8 for me?
 |
| “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly[a] with your God.” |
Thank you. Can
someone also read Jeremiah 22:16 for me?
“He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the
LORD.”
Is this not what it means to
know the Lord? Today when the choir sang, ‘Father, I adore you, I lay my life
before you. How I love you.’, the Scripture says that, our expression of love,
adoration and worship becomes fulfilled in our acts of justice when somebody
under our care is seeking for it. And this is what it means to know God. This
is what he Lord requires of us.
So, when we proclaim that
the Lord is Holy, when we say that he is righteous we also mean that he is a
God of justice. And as image bearers/ imitators of Christ it is our duty as
well. Justice isn’t just an act of convenience, but a duty or a burden that we
all must take upon in whatever area God has placed us in.
Before I wind up let me also mention about The
Quakers.
This is not something that we have learnt in our history text
books but a lot of aspects about this particular group has fascinated me. So,
the quakers were a group of British men and women, all white all Caucasian, who
were against the practice of slavery. So, they were a group of Christian
Britishers who were actively part of the anti-slavery movement happening in the
17th and 18th century. And mind you, this is in a time
when the Bible was used to justify and propagate slavery.
This was in a time when if you walked into a
church the pastor would preach saying ‘Hey! Abraham and many of our patriarchs
had slaves. Paul even tells slaves to submit to their masters in Ephesians. So
it must be okay to have slaves. It must be in God’s will to own another human
being. And who knows, maybe through us God may redeem them.’ This was the
normal outlook and narrative being spread during that time.
But the Quakers, were convinced that slavery
can’t be Biblical. They had the discernment to know that Christ-likeness cannot
be compatible with owning and exploiting another human being. And so they
didn’t let their privilege of being a certain color or a certain race affect what
they knew to be right.
There is also the example of Father Desmond
Tutu. For those of you who don’t know, Father Tutu was an archbishop of the
Anglican church of South Africa, passed away very recently in December 2021 and
he is known for his opposition to the apartheid that happened in South Africa.
So he stated this, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have
chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a
mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your
neutrality.”
I pray that we all have that kind of
discernment in our own walks of life. Today as
the choir sang, “Holy Spirit, living breath of God, breathe new life into me”, I
pray that the Holy Spirit breathes life into all of us and anoints each one of
us to be just, in whatever profession we may be in. As children of God, we are
called to exercise this attribute of God and extend justice to those in need.
Our country is also going through a similar
kind of turmoil like the one mentioned in Exodus. Our present ruling party has
been stirring up fear, has been stirring up division and, I don’t know, but it
is probable that in a few years it would not be legal to practice Christianity
publicly.
So this is my prayer, that just like Shiphrah
and Puah, who were mere midwives and did not have any influence on the King, we
as well, in our professions do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.
We are called to perform our little acts of
justice in our homes, in our neighborhood and in our professional contexts. I
pray that when we say, “God, you are Holy; Oh God, you are righteous”, we
remind ourselves that we as children of God need to have the same essence of
being righteous- of being just.
And I pray that wherever God leads us and
guides us, we always persevere to be righteous in His eyes and in all walks of
life. May God bless us all.
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