The kingdom of God in the world is about truthfulness and justice. Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” It can’t get much clearer than this, can it? Ezekiel tells us in verse 9, “put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness.” Apparently, God is looking for a people of integrity and clarity and veracity. Truth matters. Uprightness matters. Why do we have some many laws throughout our world? Because if left unchecked, violence and destruction and injustice and unrighteousness and untruthfulness would abound. Even with the laws, every day we learn of some person or company or country who did not practice justice. In Jeremiah 17:9 God says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”
The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Robert Kennedy gave a speech to the Cleveland City Club in which he said, “violence breeds violence; repression breeds retaliation; and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.” Kennedy almost sounds like Ezekiel here, doesn’t he? “Only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our souls.” Truthful words. And, the truth is the cleansing must begin in our own souls first, and then expand outward, impacting our whole society. We’re not there yet, are we?
In ancient Israel, the lack of justice and righteousness were so widespread and so entrenched, that the people were God’s people in name only. They were God’s, mind you, but there was very little evidence of it throughout the culture, and God called them to a time of judgment and cleansing. In essence God said, “Stop it. Just stop it.” Through all the prophets this was the message. For Ezekiel the language was, “Put away violence and destruction, and practice justice and righteousness” (vs. 9). The Message paraphrases this verse to read,
I’ve put up with you long enough, princes of Israel! Quit bullying and taking advantage of my people. Do what’s just and right for a change. Use honest scales—honest weights and honest measures. Every pound must have sixteen ounces. Every gallon must measure four quarts. The ounce is the basic measure for both. And your coins must be honest—no wooden nickels!
The Church must listen to God’s heart and seek to be what God has called it to be. We are a people of the One who is “Truth” (John 14:6). God is calling us to a new way of being in the world. We are “citizens of heaven” (Phil. 3:20). We follow in the footsteps of Jesus, and we seek to be pliable in the hands of God so that we can be shaped and formed into the image of Jesus.
God is in our midst. May this truth be seen in the way we live and move and have our being.
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