It is possible then
to see a picture of that God, entering into the pantheon of gods that are
worshiped by the nations surrounding His people, all of which would, at some time,
be worshiped by His people. He stands in the midst of representations of
these gods, looks around, holds out His arms and says, “How long will you
continue showing favoritism to what is wicked? How long will you worship
these gods?”
To the leaders of His
people, the Creator God of Israel can be heard saying, “How long will you
attempt to live and rule based on the subjective whims presented in the stories
of these fickle and always changing gods? If you are attempting to honor
these gods, and to live and rule and judge by precepts that you believe will be
pleasing to them, rather than based on the firm foundations of the covenant God
that does not change, then you will forever be making legal decisions that are
not just, but rather, unjust and capricious. Because these gods represent
wickedness, with stories of their rule full of pragmatism and a self-serving
ethic, then your decisions will favor that which is wicked, because you are
doing nothing more than following in the patterns of the myths of man-created
gods, who have sprung from the imaginations of men that have been corrupted by
evil.” Clearly, this will not do for the people of the covenant
God. That God demands that His people act in justice.
So much time and
energy in wasted in the quest for an answer as to how the covenant God expects
His people to live, when that God provides a straightforward response and
merciful direction for the people that He chooses to carry out His plans and
purpose for the creation. After doing away with that which is purely
pragmatic and self-serving, and by rendering His clear judgment on the gods
that have been providing a faulty foundation for His people’s ongoing
justification for not carrying out His purposes for them, Israel’s God sets
forth His plan.
Quite simply, He
says, “Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless!” (Psalm 82:3a)
Defend the cause of the poor and the fatherless. Though poor is a highly fluid and relative
term that is dependent on a number of subjective factors (though access to
basic life necessities would be largely determinative of status in this area),
“fatherless” is easily understood. The Creator God expects His people to
be an advocate for the orphaned and abandoned. Orphans are
extraordinarily close to the heart of the Creator God, an assertion which is
borne out by the repetition of Scripture concerning the fatherless, and of the
God of Scripture being their supporter through His people.
This can be taken a
step beyond the understanding of “fatherless” as referring to those that are
orphans because they do not have an earthly father, with this conception
carried into the spiritual realm as well. Because Israel (and renewed
Israel through the covenant of belief in Jesus) can look to and speak to the
Creator God as their Father, those who stand outside of the covenant could be
considered to be “fatherless.”
How do the Creator
God’s people defend the cause of and support and show concern for such
fatherless ones? They do so, naturally, both then and now, through the
preaching the Gospel (Jesus is Lord) in both word and deed. Prior to
Jesus, Israel preached the Gospel (their God is Lord) by avoiding idolatry,
reverencing their God’s sanctuary, and by keeping their God’s Sabbaths as they
eventually came to look forward to a messiah through whom their God would put
down evil and restore His creation. In doing this, they were a light to
all peoples for their God’s glory, and were blessed by their God in a way that
was designed to draw people to Israel and to their God.
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