Someone got hold of my details and sent me a text, offering to help me sue the manufacturers of a car we used to own. No matter that we sold it four years ago, we could still get up to £10,000 in compensation.
Actually we were happy with the car. But that’s not the point. The point is, it was a diesel. There are certain diesels that run less efficiently and emit more pollutants than they should, therefore if ours was one of them I could claim compensation, and this law firm wanted to help me do it (for a cut of the profits).
Which is ironic, when you think about it. We all thought that the law exists to uphold the right and defend the wronged, and therefore we might have expected that the aim of lawyers would be the same. But we all know, of course, that in this world that’s not necessarily how it works. If there’s a route for cynical diesel owners to access easy money, whether or not they’re bothered about their car’s efficiency, then inevitably there will be law firms who will profit from encouraging them.
Abusing God’s Law
When God formed the nation of Israel out of the band of slaves He’d brought out of Egypt, He gave them a law to live by. It’s called the Law of Moses, it’s contained in the Bible books Exodus to Deuteronomy, and it formed the basis of many later national codes of law.
It was a God-given law, and had it been properly implemented it would have produced a society that was just, peaceful and equitable. But its problem was that it depended on human administrators.
The Old Testament history of Israel shows society sliding downhill; God’s prophets berating and pleading with the people and their rulers: ‘Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause…’ (Isaiah 1:17). At last the nation was so corrupt that it was destroyed and its people exiled.
By the time of the New Testament – the First Century AD – the Jews were back in the land of Israel, but the Law was working no better than it ever had. Jesus regularly clashed with the lawyers and rulers, who were operating the system for their own benefit rather than administering justice. In Mark 7:9-13 we get a glimpse of the kind of thing they were up to: the Law of Moses directed that people must look after their parents (Deuteronomy 5:16), but the lawyers had found an ingenious way whereby the authorities would help a man to evade his responsibility, in return for them getting a slice of his money.
A Better World
How different is our modern world? There are bad societies, and better societies; societies where corruption is rife and the rule of law is just a veneer, and societies where integrity is rewarded and the authorities do try hard to uphold justice. But the basic problem is still the same as it ever was – human nature. Wherever there are loopholes, wherever the law can be exploited for profit or power, it will happen.
It will not always be like this. The Bible assures us that a better age is to come – the Kingdom of God, which Jesus Christ will establish on his return. The problem of human nature will at last be solved (1 Corinthians 15:53); the judiciary will be incorruptible (Revelation 5:10); authority will flow from Christ himself, the man who during his ministry showed himself honest and true and zealous for justice, and who will now be immortal and all-powerful.
Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice! (Psalm 72:1-2)
You and I are invited to be a part of this better age to come.
Chris Parkin