HOW TO DO JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS
We cannot really understand how to apply justice and righteousness until we put them in the context of pure religion and defiled religion where we see that justice and righteousness equate with New Covenant (i.e. Pure Religion) and injustice and unrighteousness equates to Old/First Covenant (i.e. Defiled Religion).

It is for very good reason that Jews and Christians are very concerned about righteousness. The term is mentioned 210 times in the NASB Old Testament and 86 times in the NASB New Testament. Justice, on the other hand, is a significantly less important doctrine. Justice is mentioned 126 times in the NASB Old Testament and only 9 times in the NASB New Testament.

Based on these scriptures, Jews have developed the Tzedakah doctrine that strongly emphasizes doing righteousness as an act of charity in which Jews try to create a measure of balance in economic injustice by helping people who are financially poor. Christians take a slightly different view of how to achieve justice through political involvement in contemporary social justice issues (e.g. abortion, health care, hunger, poverty, sex trafficking, environment, world peace, etc.).

While charitable and political efforts of well-meaning Jews and Christians do make real differences in some areas of social injustice as it defined by their cultures and religions, they have an uninformed understanding of God’s unique view of justice which relates to the oppression that religious leaders impose on people who follow them. Followers voluntarily enslave themselves to leaders by continually going to them for religious instruction. We see this principle in the story that shows how Israel became slaves in Egypt.

When Israel/Jacob first went down to Egypt, it was because of a spiritual famine in the Promised Land. Since man’s spiritual life depends on every word that comes from the mouth of God, we interpret this famine to mean that Israel/Jacob and his sons were not listening to God’s voice. Instead of personally listening to God’s voice, and instead of teaching his sons to listen to God’s voice, Israel/Jacob did the expedient solution of sending his family to Egypt to buy food. His sons came back with food, of course, but it was only the meager food of religion — not the spiritual food that comes from the mouth of God.

Because Joseph kept Israel’s youngest son Benjamin hostage in Egypt, Israel/Jacob was compelled to go to Egypt himself so that he might see his son again. Israel/Jacob knew that it was wrong to go to Egypt, but God gave him permission to go because he (i.e. God) knew that at the right time he would deliver Israel from Egypt and make it a great nation.  which is symbolic of turning to religious false prophets for instruction about God

Religious life in Egypt was good because they had food, land, and a brother who was close to Pharaoh. However, after the season of plenty ended, and during the season of famine, the freedom and prosperity Israel/Jacob and his sons enjoyed had turned to slavery and death when Israel’s sons, along with all other Egyptians, sold themselves into bondage for more of the meager food that Egyptian false prophets provided. This story is a picture of religious life for Jews and Christians. It begins with a season of plenty where life in religion (i.e. Egypt) is good. They are well fed and prosperous. But it ends badly when there is a spiritual famine forces Israel, along with all other Egyptians, to sell themselves to other gods and false prophets (i.e. Pharaoh) in exchange for food.

STUDY TIP: See Bread, Food and Wine for understanding of food. Also see this link for understanding of the symbolism of Pharaohs.

There is much to learn from Israel’s time in Egypt, but none of it makes any sense unless we first understand that going into Egypt (i.e. religion) was all according to God’s plan. God allows the seasons of plenty, prosperity, growth that ends in famine and slavery for both Jews and Christians who have become great religious nations.  And it is during this time of oppression and slavery that they cry out for deliverance and God responds by sending deliverers like Moses and Jesus who speak for God.

These stories are all parables of the beginning and end of religious life. In order to apply these stories of deliverance to ourselves, it is necessary to apply them to ourselves and others as individuals — not to a group of people all at once. These stories are parables of our individual experiences while we are in bondage to religion and, hopefully, when we are delivered  from religion. The following is a brief summary of our experience:

Our introduction into religion begins when we go down to Egypt. There we find religion to be good at first but it eventually leads to slavery. For a while — the time varies from person to person — we find religion to be very satisfying, but eventually we begin to have doubts. And, hopefully we will begin to see that religion is abusive to us an others. At that point we are ready to make the transition from Old/First Covenant to becoming New Covenant disciples. While we remain involved in religion, however, we are victims of abuse and oppression.

God views this abuse as the highest order of sin because it is the sin that enables all other sins and injustices. It has this weight because religion is THE obstacle that obstructs people from becoming New Covenant disciples and from hearing God’s voice. Here is a brief overview of the environment that allows injustice to thrive:

God also uses the terms slavery, injustice, affliction and greed to describe how religion uses and abuses people for temporal, personal rewards:

Just like Pharaoh enslaved Israel to build structures that enhanced his kingdom, religious leaders of all kinds in all ages have used their supporters and followers to enhance their personal kingdoms. These radical terms (e.g. slavery, injustice, oppression and affliction) and the images they evoke are hard to accept, but we must accept that God always uses exaggeration and hyperbole to educate us about his perspective on our heart attitudes and fleshly behaviors. Therefore, from God’s exaggerations, we must conclude that he feels very strongly about these matters.

When we discount, minimize, ignore or dismiss any scripture because we think it is unimportant, archaic, irrelevant, ambiguous, or even nonsensical, one or both of the following attitudes apply:

These attitudes indicate lack of trust and rebellion toward God. Since Jews and Christians like to believe that they trust God and are faithful to obey him in all ways, they should desire to come to understand where their personal practices of idolatry might arouse God’s jealous anger toward them. If they really want to be on God’s good side, they should make every effort to study with the hope of learning the issues for which they need discipline so that they might correct their attitudes and behaviors, repent, and return to God.

None of this will happen, however, unless they understand the symbolism of the Bible. If understanding of the literal Bible would bring them to repentance, they would repent for slavery, persecution and oppression but these are not messages heard in synagogue or church. Intellectual reasoning and knowledge does not lead anyone to conviction of sin and repentance.

Moreover, change in perspective and practice will not happen until and unless we understand that not listening to God’s voice is sin. If we listen to the voices of false prophets and do not trust that we can really hear God’s voice ourselves, we effectively place those false prophets between us and God. If we consider false prophets to be reliable sources of truth, knowledge and wisdom, we practice idolatry. By going to religious leaders for instruction about God instead of going directly to God, we insert them as idols between ourselves and God. And if we do not engage in personal study that will lead us to understanding of the deep mysteries of God, we show that we do not love God enough to seek him with our heart, mind, soul and strength.