Justice and Robbery

We often hear the question of why there is so much injustice in the world and how can a God of love look on such injustice. It ‘s clear from the above Scripture that the Lord links injustice to robbery and wrong doing. Yet so often it’s God who is blamed for injustice. It’s a sad fact that many have turned their back on belief in God because of the injustice they see around them.

If we think of the word ‘robbery’, we probably think automatically that it means stealing what belongs to someone else. Maybe we have a kind of tunnel vision, and only think of a robber as someone who takes another’s possessions. We understand that such a robber would be breaking the law of the land and, if caught, would receive the penalty for this crime.

However, if we look more closely, robbery is not just about personal possessions. What about stealing someone’s wife or husband, robbing someone of their reputation, or robbing someone of their dignity? How about robbing someone of their personhood through domination, robbing someone of their innocence through sexual abuse, or robbing someone of their ability to trust anyone in the future?

There are many forms of robbery which have their origin in the sinfulness of mankind. Sadly we are living in days where mankind avoids taking responsibility or accountability for sin. In fact sin is a dirty word, but to avoid truth is to also avoid the solution. In our modern day we’re more likely to hear of our ‘rights’ rather than our ‘sins’, and it’s seemingly by claiming our rights that justice is done! Sadly claiming our rights has encouraged a ‘blame culture’ focussing away from personal responsibility and accountability.

As human beings we’re not perfect and the Word of God tells us ‘The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?’ (Jeremiah 17:9). We all (even the most perfect individual) have greed, pride and selfishness and we all need a merciful God. He has opened up the way of salvation by sending the Lord Jesus into our ‘mess’ so that we can confess our sin and be forgiven, and then we will receive the gift of His righteousness.

Without the selfless act of sacrificial love which Jesus gave at Calvary, true justice would never have been known. May we all turn to Him in real conviction and allow Him to change our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, which give and don’t count the cost. In this way giving will overcome robbing, and God’s justice will be made known through us.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to allow You to change my heart and see those areas in my own life where I have robbed others and created injustice so that I can truly deal with my own sin and be restored in You. Amen.