Be a Righteous Judge

In this week's Torah Portion, Shoftim שׁוֹפְטִים (Judges), we learn the meaning of being righteous judges in the Kingdom of Adonai. As I contemplate this first and often important verse in this portion of scripture, Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9, I begin to ask questions that we often ignore. The verse says:

"Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the Lord your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly." Deuteronomy 16:18

In Hebrew, the part translated as "judge the people fairly" is Mishpat-Tzedek מִשְׁפַּט־צֶֽדֶק, better translated as "judge righteously." What does it mean to judge righteously? A key understanding that MUST be resolved before we even begin thinking about judging.

Before I dive deeper and attempt to answer this question, please understand that these blog entries are like an appetizer. It is a tiny, decorative bite meant to entice you to experience the larger meal. It is meant to give you a taste of what the chef can offer in a full meal. That is what I often hope to do with these entries. Each Torah Portion contains so much information and wisdom that it is very difficult to choose a "small bite" that I can give you to enjoy as a snack, but the actual goal of this is to leave you hungry for more; to leave you starving for God's word. Leave you wanting more in the hope that you will seek more during the week. Please keep this in mind every week as you read my blog entries. It is not enough to sustain you, so please take time for yourselves to sit at the LORD's table every day and fill your souls with His wisdom and word.

Image from ffoz.com for this week's teachings generated by AI.

Before we even contemplate what it means to judge righteously, let's ask ourselves if we should judge at all, who we should judge, and with what intention or purpose. This entire section of scripture answers all these questions, as does our Messiah, Yeshua, clarifies in the New Testament. Many of Jesus' misunderstood words derive from these chapters in Deuteronomy. For instance, the famous and often misunderstood statement from Yeshua that says, "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you" in Matthew 5:38-42 comes straight from this Torah Portion. Usually, it is interpreted as Jesus telling us not to judge and not to do justice, but to be merciful. Which is partially true. Those who study Torah understand that this portion teaches one to judge correctly. It isn't telling us not to do justice. In this portion, we learn the difference between a man who murders and a man who commits manslaughter and how they should be judged. Even in modern society, we have a different standard of judging and sentencing a person who commits premeditated murder and a person who accidentally kills someone. They are not the same and shouldn't be judged the same way. It is this portion that equates a murderer with a person who "hates" his brother, and that is what Jesus is saying when He brings up these statements from the law (as the example when He says, "you have heard before do not commit murder, but I say if you have hate in your heart you have already murdered in your heart" in Matthew 5).

Another distinction that this portion teaches is about who we should judge. We are not to judge other nations, even when we see them doing the wrong thing. Other nations (non-believers) were worshiping false deities and sacrificing their children to these false "gods," and Israel was not meant to judge them (they were often instruments of God's wrath, but were not called to be their judges daily). They were instructed to judge only people within their own tribes and within the nation. Similarly, we are not to judge everyone we come across, but only those who are part of our community (in this case, our church). Adonai never called us to go around judging everyone and everything. We weren't called to start YouTube channels dedicated to alerting people to what others are doing, or even movies and music from the world. Many times, they say, they are "exposing" these things to the world and alerting Christians about it. Sadly, most of the time, they are accusing ministries and other churches of bringing shame amongst the brethren. Causing division and shame to the body of Christ because they are not part of their considered "in crowd" or groups who share their beliefs. Jesus said this to His disciples regarding a similar incident:

"'Teacher,' said John, 'we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.' 'Do not stop him,' Jesus said. 'For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.'" Mark 9:38-41

If anyone is bringing shame to the Father and doing things incorrectly with malice will be dealt with by God Himself soon enough. They will have to stand before the Almighty one day and present an account of all they have done in due time (see Matthew 12:36). It is not our duty to do such things, and Jesus did not do this while on earth. He was too busy doing His Father's work to take away time to "expose" anyone. We are to live as He did, and since He didn't do these things, neither should we.

The last question to address before we even talk about the righteous part is: with what intent should we judge? What is the purpose of judging our brothers? Scriptures seem to contradict themselves when they speak about this topic, often leaving us confused and divided. Consider these verses:

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Matthew 7:1-2

"Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it." James 4:11 (careful who and how you "expose" others, if you are wrong, there will be consequences)

"If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." Matthew 18:15-17

So, are we supposed to judge or not? The answer is absolutely YES. We are called to judge and will one day judge nations and even angels (see 1 Corinthians 6:3-5). However, we are never to judge with the intent of getting revenge, nor should we judge with the intent to condemn. Those types of judgements will come, but are reserved for Adonai. "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord." Romans 12:9, which is based on Deuteronomy 32:35.

Our intent should ALWAYS be to win over a brother or sister. To bring them back to Adonai. To promote restoration and repentance. As it is written in Matthew 18:15, "If they listen to you, you have won them over". Any type of judgment beyond this is evil, and we will be judged as harshly as we judge. Words that should make us tremble before the LORD. If we condemn, we will be condemned. So remember that next time you tell someone, "if you do such and such thing, you will go to hell," Or when you say, "God hates you for what you are doing," You may even be right, but you are not being righteous.

Lastly, we can now address the word righteousness. A person who is righteous is simply a person who does the right thing. I say this often because it is true: the Hebrew language is very simple and direct. It often says what it means and is very literal. It isn't meant to be mystical or difficult to understand. God's word and principles are meant to be understood by a child. In fact, it is often better understood by a child. When we embellish it or try to be too lofty and wise, we often mess up the original message. To be righteous, we need to do what is right in God's eyes. It is that simple. But to know what is right in God's eyes, we need to know Him and His Torah (teachings and law).

Christians often speak about heaven. We talk about it all the time. Just this weekend in our Breakfast of Champions men's ministry event, our pastor mentioned how awesome it will be to finally get to heaven. Something I hear all the time. We know things on earth are a mess, and oftentimes that spills over to our personal lives, and we are dealing with a whole lot of messes. It is easy and human nature to try to escape and put our hope in "eternity". I'm always reminding people that Jesus came to establish God's kingdom on earth. I'm always reminding my fellow brothers and sisters to shift their focus back to earth. To roll up their sleeves and put on their battle face because we have a lot of work to do on earth, and even if Jesus returns tomorrow, we won't go to heaven for another thousand years. God's promises are for us on earth. Do not accept defeat and stay in a stagnant state, dreaming about heaven. Yes, one day we will reign with Christ and judge nations, but before we get there, we need to learn to do it here. I find it interesting that this Torah Portion addresses even that. If we are to become a "king" or a "queen" of Israel, we need to do the following:

"When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign for a long time over his kingdom in Israel." Deuteronomy 17:18-20

If we are to reign with Christ, we MUST know God's law and read it daily. Believe me, we won't receive the title without doing the work. We cannot judge or rule righteously if we do not know His laws and abide by them. If these words are not enough to persuade you, then maybe the words of Christ will:

"Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."... then he adds, "Jesus replied, 'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.'" Read John 14:9-20 for full context.

Jesus lived and taught Torah (the words of the Father). Jesus came to establish God's Kingdom on EARTH. Jesus will reign on EARTH for one thousand years, teaching Torah to His followers and the nations. We will not enter heaven until we have His teachings engraved in our hearts, for in heaven there is no sin (Satan sinned and was immediately expelled from heaven). So it is up to each of us to pursue to learn and understand Torah so we can bring God's kingdom to earth and also live a life of abundance on earth. We need to stop dreaming about heaven. There is much to be done on earth. I love you all. Shalom Ve'Shavuah Tov.

"Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time." Deuteronomy 4:40 (ON EARTH).