JUDICIARY – PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
July
2006 article by John Lockyer
The
judiciary has been the focus of the public’s attention recently as a
consequence of a number of sentences meted out by High Court judges in several
high profile cases, which are seriously disturbing society’s perception of
justice in this country.
One of the
oldest books in the Bible is the Judges, which unfold a sequence of events in
which notable judges such as Deborah and Barak, Gideon and Samson were
involved. However, they were very
different characters from the legally trained experts who sit in courtrooms
dispensing judgements on criminals. They
were leaders, or saviours, who periodically rescued the Israelites from
invasion and oppression. On ten
occasions as political and economic disaster faced these people, “the children of
We might
dismiss these events in Judges as completely irrelevant for us today, because
they seem so remote from our fast-moving high-tech 21st century,
until we scratch beneath the surface and enquire why these repeated disasters
befell this nation. Part of the answer
is given in the final comment in the book: “every man
did that which was right in his own eyes”. Modern translations phrase it like this: “everyone did as he saw fit”.
There are
some very modern versions of that statement which pervade our society today
which makes the events in Judges very relevant indeed. “Doing your own thing!” “So what! It’s all a matter of opinion anyway”. “What’s it to do with you? What I choose to do with my own life is my affair”. “As long as
it does not hurt anyone else, there’s nothing wrong with it”. “We can learn a lot from what other people
do!”
This brings
us back to our opening comment, because much of our legislation seems to be
framed to accommodate all shades of opinion, which our judges have to interpret
as best as they are able. The problem
which it creates in trying to please everyone is that it ends up by pleasing no
one.
The
Israelites before the time of the Judges had been given clear guidelines about
the way in which they should live in what we know as the Ten Commandments. These became the bedrock for all civilised
society, right down to our present times.
The Jews in the days of the Judges ignored them at their peril, and we
do likewise today. “Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any
people”. That truism uttered by
King Solomon 3,000 years ago is as true today as it was then.
On one
occasion when the Lord Jesus was surrounded by a bitterly hostile crowd, he
threw out this challenge to them. “Which of you convicts me of sin?” No one was able to accuse Him of anything and
neither has anyone else from that day to this.
Jesus is the only sinless man to have lived, and now is at God’s right
hand waiting to return to this earth as God has promised in His Word, to reign
as King over the whole earth and to dispense judgement as no other judge has,
or can.
Six hundred
years before the birth of the Lord Jesus, the prophet Isaiah looking down the
passage of time, foretold an age when this would be a reality.
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse,
and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD. And shall make him
of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD and he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears. But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked. And righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.”
God has
promised that that age will bring other benefits as well, which Isaiah again
articulated in another passage.
“And the work of righteousness shall be peace,
and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever”.