Letters From God – 09/01/22

This series of Letters From God is an attempt to put the thoughts of God as revealed in the Scriptures as they relate to individuals and the nation of the USA.

QUESTION:
Is America’s Justice System Irreparably Damaged?

You are in grave danger! Ever since your leaders and your nation has chose to reject me and my wisdom you have been doing things that reveal that you are foolish and outright stupid. Solomon, through his wisdom I bestowed on him said, “so I turned my mind to understand, to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things and to understand the stupidity of wickedness and the madness of folly.” (Ecclesiastes 7:25).
I am your Creator and designer and I made it very clear in my book, the Bible, how you should exercise judgment that will be beneficial and not detrimental. But you have chosen to do almost the exact opposite and the gap is widening. If you keep it up, the dam will break, and the flood of chaos will engulf your nation.
Let me remind you of my design and use it to evaluate your foolish decision making.
When I created the first man and woman, I poured out my love and bestowed upon them every wonderful, positive and gracious gift they could imagine. I withheld no good thing from them as an expression of my love (Psalm 84:11). It came from my heart that has no evil and longs to bless my children. But I also told them clearly that, should they choose to disobey me, they would become separated from me and they would begin to live in ways that would bring death instead of life. “And the Lord God commanded the man, “you are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17).
I was very clear, speaking from my heart of love, that if they chose to rebel and disobey me, their Creator, they would face painful consequences. It included physical death and without a Savior, they would die spiritually separated from me forever. In other words, in my design I included, as a demonstration of love, firm discipline, punishment and painful consequences for bad behavior. Isaiah the prophet captured how this approach to justice is really the only way to get the attention of lawbreakers to turn them around.
Isaiah said, “when your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord. (Isaiah 26:9-10). You see, for those who are in rebellion and disobedient to me and who then unleash their sin on others I, as an act of love, will use painful consequences to draw my rebellious children back to me. Please understand, coddling them and keeping severe judgments and penalties from them, only makes the problem worse. It is worse for the offender because there is no motivation to change their ways. It is worse for the offended because the perpetrator, because of a lack of consequences, will continue to hurt others.
I also made it very clear that just judgment must be followed quickly with painful consequence if you ever hope to bring about change. “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Without painful consequences there is no motivation to change. But many will change their ways in light of the swift and painful penalties levied upon their convictions.
Now, consider your ways and see how far you have fallen from my design and how your ways are foolishly leading to chaos and death. You call good, evil and evil, good. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20). You defend the criminal and punish the victims of crime in your courts. “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.” (Amos 5:15). “you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones.” (Micah 3:2) You mock me and my standards for justice. “You have wearied the Lord with your words. “how have we wearied him? You ask. By saying “all who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord and he is pleased with them” or “Where is the God of Justice?” (Malachi 2:17). What fools you have become.
Let me close with my words through Ezekiel, the prophet. “In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god…But you are a man and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.” (Ezekiel 28:2).
If you don’t wise up soon it will be too late for me to deliver you from your foolishness.
God

These letters are written by a New Hampshire pastor.