Good Judges

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Choosing judges is a continuing controversy in our society.  It shouldn't be for Christians.

God says what judges should be.  He is, after all, The Judge of all things.  How can the right
kind of judge be anything except the kind of Judge God Himself is ?

It works the same as His command to the "kings of men."  The High King of All commands that
human "authorities" rule the same way He does, using the authority He gives them to do good
to those under their authority, and punish evil-doers.  They are, He tells them, and He repeats,
"ministers of God."  Their Master commands all the "kings of men" to act as He does.

It's the same charge Moses told the people he'd given their judges:

"...I charged your judges at that time, saying, ‘Hear the cases between your fellow
countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countryman, or
the alien who is with him.  You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear
the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God’s." 
(Deuteronomy 1: 16,17)

The right kind of judge is one who judges the way God judges.  And God tells us how He judges:

"...the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and
awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause
of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving
them food and clothing."  (Deuteronomy 10:17,18).

Everyone can make up their own mind if the people currently ruling our nation have ruled, or show
any intent to rule, the way God rules.  My focus here is the kind of judges they have set over us,
and continually tell us are the right kind of judges for us.

The current rulers have told us "conservative" judges are the right kind of judges: judges, that is,
in their own political image.  Being "conservative" is pretty much their whole criteria and definition
of a good judge.

The Senate hearings for Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the Supreme Court showed that better
than anything we've ever seen.  Those hearings are supposed to show us if the judicial principles and
"judicial temperament" of a nominee make him or her a good choice for our nation's highest court.

We instead heard Kavanaugh rant against "liberals" who questioned his record and his character: 
especially "liberal" senators whose Constitutional job that was.  But the "conservative" faction which
dominates the Senate deemed Kavanaugh's outrageous partisan anger eminently qualified him for
the highest court in our land.

Kavanaugh will be a good judge, "conservative" Senators certified by their vote, eminently qualified
to make good, true, and just decisions for every person and question that comes before him...even
those his blatant partisanship might deem "liberal" ones.


Right.

But it all comes back to what kind of judge God is: for that is God's standard of a good judge.

It's too obvious to be worth comment that, in both passages of scripture above, God highlights a
good judge's fairness to "the alien" and "the foreigner" among us.  It's hardly necessary to contrast
God's standard with the "conservative" standard: or with "conservatives" current political correctness"
that increasingly defines "good" and "right" as whatever the current president says.

The other quality of a good judge that God highlights in both passages...because it is His Own quality
as Judge...is impartiality.

We've seen, we've all inescapably seen in the travesty of the Kavanaugh hearing, the deep contempt of
"conservatives" for God's command a judge be impartial and truth-full . . . as He Himself is.  Yet somehow
that fundamental perversion of God's command has not dissuaded a large number of "Christians" from
identifying with, and joining with, "conservatives" . . . and adopting their criteria of a good judge.

Even Moses' father-in-law, a pagan priest, advised him to select "...able men who fear God, men of truth,
those who hate dishonest gain; and...let them judge the people at all times..." (Exodus 18:21,22).  And it's

doubtful, in our own time, that even the most militant atheist would propose that a good judge should be
biased, unfair, and dishonest.

But that's a strong belief of many "Christians" in this day.  And the current president successfully appealed
to that belief, and those "Christians," by promising to "appoint conservative judges" (not "good judges" . . .
a criteria for which the current president has little capacity, or respect).  Indeed, such "Christians" always
cite his manic appointment of "conservative" judges as proof of the current president's truthfulness !!  As
if promising to do wrong, and doing wrong, is virtue.

Again...always...God's word to today's American Church is "Repent !!  Repent deeply, and immediately !!"