Justice, Justice

The Finding Emet radio program focuses on understanding and living the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. Brother Daniel Rendleman teaches on the importance of wisdom and justice, using the example of King Solomon's request for wisdom in the book of 1 Kings. The concept of justice is emphasized as a major theme in the Bible, and its Hebraic understanding involves restoring balance, declaring good and bad, and conquering injustices in the world. The importance of seeking justice and doing well is highlighted, and the role of judges in the Torah is explained. Yahweh is described as being all about law and a system of justice. Hello and welcome to the Finding Emet radio program. Emet is the Hebrew word for truth. This program will help you understand and live the truth of the Bible from a Hebrew perspective. The Finding Emet radio program features the teaching ministry of Brother Daniel Rendleman of Emet Ministries. Prepare your heart to receive the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. More audio lessons and teaching articles are available at the www.emetministries.com website. Please visit our site to find all things spiritual including a free online Bible search program or submit your prayer request. That's www.emetministries.com or www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website. Let's welcome our teacher Daniel Rendleman as he helps us find the Emet. We're going to start out with a question, kind of fun to answer. I want you to think about it. If you could have anything in the world, what would it be? We asked this question, if you could have anything in the world, what would it be? And people would answer differently depending on where they're at. You know, some people would say million dollars. Some people would say, you know, a new husband or make my name Mrs. Donald Trump. Maybe that's what other people would like. I don't know. A good night's sleep, as one person said. World peace. If you rubbed the bottle and the genie popped out, you know, it's kind of fun to think about that, to wish a little bit. It kind of helps us get an idea of our priorities. The Bible records a similar situation, similar picture, similar thing that happened. No, it wasn't a genie. It was Almighty Yahweh. In the first Kings chapter 3, Yahweh comes to Shlomo. Don't you love that name? Shlomo. Shlomo. I mean, that's just classic. Solomon, King Solomon, Melech Shlomo. He comes to him in a dream. And he promises to grant him his heart's desires. Anything he wanted as king, he could have. Now, that would be interesting for us as a king, because as a king, we might want, you know, the life of our enemies or more land. We might want to rule the world. We might would want a new jet so that we could fly over to the other places. Now, we've been told that he was smart. And he asked for what? He asked for wisdom. He asked for wisdom. Now, is that really so? Did he really ask for wisdom? So turn with me to first Kings chapter 3. And looking here, verse 7 or so. And now, O Yahweh, my Elohim, you have made your servants king, instead of David my father. I am like a little child. Do you not know how to go or how to come in? Your servant, Eved, is in the midst of your people that you have chosen, a great people that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. So give your Eved, your servant, a heart of understanding to show fit your people, or give your Eved, Alev, a heart of benah, understanding to show fit your people, or give your Eved, Alev, a heart of benah, understanding to show fit your people, or give your Eved, Alev, a heart of benah, understanding to show fit your people, or give your Eved, Alev, a heart of benah, understanding to show fit your people, or give your Eved, Alev, a heart of benah, understanding to show fit your people, or give your Eved, Alev, a heart of benah, understanding to show fit to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil, tove and bad. For who is able to judge this, your great people? Who is able to, in Hebrew, show fit your great people? And in verse 10 it says, the words that he said pleased Yahweh that Shlomo had asked for this thing. So it pleased him that he asked for a wisdom concerning justice. Wisdom concerning judgment. It pleased him, it pleased Yahweh, not just that he asked for wisdom, because notice that? He didn't just say, give me the lucky lotto numbers, let me have wisdom to what, you know, how big of a stock Google's going to be before it all ends. He wanted to know that. He didn't just say, Shlomo asked for wisdom concerning a certain subject. And not even just life in general, do you see that? He didn't ask for wisdom for all his thousands of concubines, because any man with one wife, much less Mormon ones, has got to have a lot of guts, wisdom, you know, to be able to live. So here, the subject and calling of his prayer is wisdom towards justice, or judging your people. Not just wisdom, but wisdom towards justice. Now justice, think about that, justice. When he could have had riches, when he could have had honor, when he could have had the, you know, that private jet, or long life, he could have asked for that, or the life of his enemies. He recognized the importance of justice. And he knew that by understanding justice, or judgment, that he would be blessed with everything else that he needed. Because he asked for justice, or wisdom concerning justice, he got much, much more. Take a look at verse 11. And Elohim said to him, because you have asked for this thing, what thing? Wisdom concerning justice, or understanding of justice. He says, and you've not asked for yourself a long life, neither have you asked for riches for yourself, nor have you asked for a life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself wisdom to discern mishpat. It says, wisdom, binah, to discern justice. The word for justice in Hebrew is mishpat. It comes to us from a root word, shofet. We'll talk more about that in a minute. Verse 12. See, I have done according to your words. See, I have given you a wise heart of understanding, so that there was none like you before, neither after you shall there arise. I have also given you, look at this verse 13, I have also given you that which you have not asked for, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you all of their days. By asking for an understanding of justice, by asking for an understanding of a judicial system, really, he got everything he needed plus more. Justice. Now, you think about justice, we don't hear a lot of sermons or teachings about justice. We know there's the Justice Hall. If you like cartoons or comic books, there's the Justice League, and heroes, Batman, Superman, you know, there's the Hall of Justice, there's the Department of Justice. The concept of justice is kind of foreign to us. We think that's something only for the government or for superheroes. This concept, though, is a major theme in the Bible. I believe it's in Micah, that it says, what does Yahweh require of you? To do what? To do all of this, all this stuff? Or no, what does it say? To do justly. To love mercy and to walk humbly with Yahweh. By doing justly and loving mercy and walking humbly with Him, you're going to fulfill the commandments, the mitzvot. However, it begins with doing justly. So, if we were to title this teaching, let's call it this idea of genie in a bottle, I dream of justice. How about that? I dream of genie, but I dream of justice. The Hebrew word often in the scriptures for justice is mishpat, as I said, and it comes from a root word, shofet. Mishpat means ordinance or custom or manner. The root word, shofet, means to judge or to govern. So, with justice, a Hebraic understanding of justice is to right the wrong, to provide truth for the offended, to give balance to prevent anything else bad from happening, to declare good or bad. Justice means to restore. It means to restore a set of relationships to the community, to acquit the innocent and to sentence the guilty. You see, it's not justice if you just sentence the guilty, and it's not justice if you just acquit the innocent. Justice is both, amen? It is both, and the Hebraic concept of justice includes a conquering of the world's injustices. There are injustices that occur. Look at it this way. Justice is being corrected for a wrong committed. You understand? An injustice is facing problems though you were innocent. Now, we all live in a system, a judicial system here in America where we have lawyers that are set up, and if there's a problem, you bring a person to the judge, and that judge should be what? Just. They should be fair. They should weigh the scales of justice, lady justice, and then make a decision based off of that. And yet, we also know that there are some people who are accused wrongly, and they're able to go free because of the system. It works on many occasions. It's not perfect. It's a picture of the heavenly system, but the worldly system is not perfect. But think of justice this way. When the wrong is made right, that is the justice system. When the wicked are punished, that is the justice system. However, when you face a problem, when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, that is called an injustice. It tells us in the scriptures, it says, learn to do well, seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Isaiah chapter 1. Learn to do well. Seek justice. And in the scriptures, we have the book of Judges, right? Now, this isn't people who just wore this long robe and had the curly hair and the gavel. These were, the idea, the brain concept of Judges, a judge in the Torah is a person who knows Torah, who understands Torah, and when someone comes to them with a problem, a scripturally based problem, then they are able to discern good from evil, right from wrong. And even world life problems could come to the judge and that judge would decide. Remember Moshe? They would come to him and he would discern for them. He would make judgments for them. And then he set up judges over tens and twenties and fifties and hundreds and thousands or such. The concept of justice. Solomon understood that there is a judicial system in the heavenlies. But Yahweh is all about law. Let's just make that clear right now. We don't want to hide anything, right? Yahweh is all about law. You could call him a legalist if you wanted to. Now, he's not about man's law. He's not about, oh, you got to do this this way and how high can you jump? But he's all about law and a system of law because he's set up the universe with checks and balances. There are physical and spiritual laws. These are guidelines that are in place. One law, which is the law of gravity. If you walk off the top of a building, you are going to fall and you're probably going to die. That is a law of gravity. And Yahweh does not violate his laws. Think about it for a minute. Let's say you just decided to walk off the Empire States Building. And on the way down, you prayed, oh, Yahweh. Maybe even you said the right names and everything. Oh, Yahweh, save me right now. So for him to stop gravity at that moment to save you, all the people in their airplanes are going to die and fall and everybody in their cars are expecting the car to be held to the ground because gravity is suspended for that minute. Their car may go flying. All these other millions of instances are going to be affected all over the world because he doesn't change. He doesn't violate his law. Now, when we have miracles that take place, that is us walking in faith and seeing spiritual laws supersede physical laws. That's what a miracle is. But as far as we go, as far as believers go, New Testament believers, especially, have forgotten this concept because people see the law as evil, as binding or something that you want to stay away from. You know, churches teach today, you know, the law has been done away with and therefore justice has been done away with. If the law has been done away with, then justice has. Of course, there's a problem there because without the truth, without the law, there would be no legal or moral codes. Think about America for a minute. What if we had no laws? I believe that most people would say that America is one of the freest countries in the world. We are land of the, you know, free and home of the brave, right? Did you know that America actually has more laws on its books than any other country in the world? We have more laws. These laws aren't to bind us and to keep us down, to restrict us, but to protect us, to ensure our what? Our freedom. So, the law remains. We understand that. But without the law, there is no standard and anything goes. There's no justice. By focusing on mercy and grace, we as believers have forgotten about justice and the scales of justice have done what? They've been tipped over. There has to be justice. There are spiritual laws in place to enact justice. Whatsoever you reap, you shall what? You shall sow. Yahweh has not made a liar. You know, he's not mocked by this. You reap what you sow. That is a spiritual law. Did you know that justice is something that Yeshua called a weightier matter of the Torah? Matthew 23, verse 32. It's part of the woes. He says, oh, woe to you. Woe to you for this, right? And he says, you know, you scribes and Pharisees because you you tithe to the nth degree, but you leave behind the weightier matters of Torah being love, justice, and mercy. We like love. We like to talk about love and we love to talk about mercy, but who talks about justice? We've almost forgotten that and and we can fall into that same sin as our forefathers, right? We keep the weightier matters of the Torah. We begin to learn what, you know, kosher eating is. We begin to eat more kashrut and better. We begin to wear tzitzit and we begin to, you know, keep the Sabbath. It's time also we learn these things, but what did Saul say? When I became a man, I put away childish things. It's time to put away our doctrinal discussions and complaints over these other issues and move on to the weightier matters of Torah being justice. Saul said this. He said that Rabbi Saul or Paul said that justice should be one of the things we think about. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, think on these things. Here's the problem. We like to think about our pain and our injustice. I can speak for myself. I do. I like to wallow in it. I like to have pity parties. However, Paul tells us to don't dwell on that, but to think on things that are just. He's telling us here, believers, learn what justice is and when you learn what it is, don't just learn it, but think about it and do it. There's a judicial system set up, a judicial system set up, and it's in the heavenlies. And so, let's consider that for a few minutes. You with me? Okay. Number one, there's Yahweh and he is the judge. So, go ahead and say, whoo, thank you. Everybody say thank you. Whoo, thank you. Wipe the sweat off your brow. You are not the judge. You are not the judge. You are not the judge. Yahweh is the judge because only Yahweh can be just and fair. Here's the good news about Yahweh being judge. He's not moody. Amen to that. He's not temperamental. He doesn't wake up, you know, on the wrong side of the bed. Yahweh is fair. Yahweh is just. Yahweh is holy. Yahweh is awesome. He has set the laws into effect by his word. And he never has and he never will violate his word. Amen. Yahweh is the judge. And in the scriptures, he's actually called Yahweh Mishpat. Yahweh Elohei Mishpat, which means Yahweh, the mighty one of justice. Yahweh, the mighty one of justice. He never has, he never will violate his word. And he seeks justice for his children. Turn with me to Psalm 37. Let's look there real quick. Psalm 37, 2. It says here, Yahweh loves justice and does not forsake his saints. Tehillim 37, 2. He says, Yahweh loves justice and does not forsake his saints, which would tell us that if justice was not available for us, then it would be like Yahweh leaving us. If justice, if making things right that were wrong was not available, then it would be like Yahweh forsaking us. Psalm 37, verse 2. Psalm 97, 2, says that righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne. Psalm 97, 2, says righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne. And actually, that's about four places in the Psalms where it says, this is the foundation of his throne is justice. Without justice, could we have a throne of Yahweh? Think about that. But the foundation of heaven is his righteousness, is his justice. Deuteronomy 32, 4 says, all his ways are just. Who's the judge? Yahweh, and he's perfect. He's a just judge. It tells us in Exodus 34, 7, it says, Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Zephaniah chapter 3, one of the favorite chapters of the Bible for me. Zephaniah chapter 3. In Zephaniah chapter 3, it talks about the restoration of the Hebrew language. It says this there. It says, every morning, Yahweh brings justice to light. Every morning, he brings justice to light. Now, we know in Lamentations, it says that his mercies are new every morning. Here, it says, every morning, he brings justice to light. What that means is, if you take this verse, I mean, you take the verse, Exodus 34, 7, that says, Yahweh will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. It tells us that every morning, what is done in the darkness, those deeds of the darkness, those deeds of sin, he's bringing to light, and he is judging because he is a just judge. Hebrews 10, 30, here's a tough one. It says, Yahweh will judge his people. Yahweh will judge his people. It says that it's a scary thing to fall in the hands of an angry Elohim. Because Yahweh will judge his people. So, we have the judge. Are you with me? We got the judge. He's just. He's faithful. He's always right. Wouldn't it be nice to have Judge Judy to be always right? You know, wouldn't that be something? However, we also have an accuser, the prosecuting attorney. And this prosecuting attorney, though it may look like it's our friends, or our family, or people we thought were our friends, who is the prosecuting attorney? None other but the adversary himself, in Hebrew, Ha-Satan. In Hebrew, the word Ha-Satan literally means, the accuser. Ha is a prefix meaning the. Literally, the accuser. The Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren. And how many know he uses the brethren to accuse the other brethren? The brothers and sisters are always fighting, always got problems with each other. And many times the world will come against us, but even worse, our brothers will come against us. And we think they're the enemy. They may be the one speaking the words or doing the actions, but who's behind them? It's the accuser, the adversary, pushing them along. He's trying to get them to do that, to bring the case against us. Now here's the issue. The prosecuting attorney, the adversary, Ha-Satan, he knows our weaknesses. He knows our areas of sin, and he often attacks us to bring a legal case against us. What's more, he knows the Torah better than we do. He knows the Bible inside and out. He understands it. And so when we violate a mitzvot, or when we fall into sin, guess what he's doing? He's building his case against us. He knows the spiritual laws, and he also knows the physical laws. If he can tempt you to walk out in front of that 18-wheeler and say, you know what, I'm tired of life. Take these pills or do whatever. He knows the physical laws, and he uses those against us. He knows the scriptures better than we do, and he twists it, and he turns the Bible in order to form a case against us. Our problems and our sin that we do put into motion certain effects. I mean, let's just be honest here. The wages of sin is what? The wages of sin is death. And the accuser can't be everywhere at one time. So what he's done, he's smart, is he knows these spiritual and physical laws, and he uses them against us. He's sly, he's sleek, he's cunning, he's evil, he's sleazy. I'm not talking good about him, am I? I'm saying this is a bad, you thought you knew of a bad attorney. You thought the ones on TV are bad. This dude is rough. He knows that the wages of sin is death, and he knows this. He knows that we have sinned, and he accuses us of things that we've done. And how many know he accuses us of things that we've not done? He uses other people to accuse us of things that we've not done. He uses people to build a case against us. If the word tells us we were not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and authorities in this world's darkness. Behind the attacks are these Shadim, these demons. It is the prince of the power of the air, the god of this world, the accusing attorney. And his goal is to render us powerless and unfruitful, dead in our sins. That's his number one goal. And he's accused us. So we have the prosecuting attorney, which would be the accuser. We have the judge. So who's the accused? Me and you. We are the accused. And here's a tough thing. We're guilty. Unless you're sinless, you're guilty. We've been caught, and we are deserving of punishment. And because Yahweh is just, because Yahweh is an Elohim of justice, it tells us in the Psalms that he is Elohe Mishpat. He is the Elohim of justice. Justice always requires punishment for the crime. Nobody gets away with anything with Yahweh. Praise Yahweh for that. For the sins that we have committed, justice requires punishment. The truth is we're guilty. And what HaSatan does is he takes our guilt, and he keeps more and more accusations upon us. He accuses us of things. He lies to us. He lies about us. And he uses anybody he can, right? He'll use other believers. He'll use the world. He'll use our exes. He'll use our bosses. He'll use our wives, our cues, our fees, our family, whoever else, to hurt us, to steal from us, to bother us, to try to trap us, confuse us, and bring about pain. The enemy wants us to do this. He wants us to settle. You follow me? He wants us to admit defeat. The enemy wants us to settle. He wants us to settle where? Not in court, but where? Outside of court. He wants us to be so beat down that we don't bring our case before the judge. We're the accused. We have Yahweh. He's the judge. He's faithful. And we have us. And many times, let's just be honest here, we grow weary. We get tired of fighting. I know I do. We get tired of fighting. We grow tired. So we got Yahweh, who is the judge. We have a prosecuting attorney, who is the adversary. And many times we want to give up. We want to give in. We want to settle. He wants us to settle outside of court. Because how many know if you settle outside of court, you get less than what you're due? We don't know and understand the judicial system very well, the heavenly judicial system. We don't understand that there is justice available for us. And so many times we just give in. Kind of like an unknowing person do millions of dollars from a forgotten class action lawsuit. We just kind of sit back. Or instead of giving up, here's what we do. Instead of giving up, instead of going outside of court, we lash out in self-defense. We act on our own behalf. We react out of the flesh. We don't trust the judge. So guess what? We take matters into our own hands. And we become judge and jury ourselves. We say, vengeance is mine, saith Daniel. You know, and we go about doing it. We put ourselves on the throne. Yeshua said, judge not lest you be judged. That's what he said. Do you know why? Because he said, judge not lest you be judged. Because you've got a judge. The judge is Yahweh. And when you judge other people, you render his justice system void and null. When we lash out, when we come back, even in self-defense, when we make the judge, we render his system void. He says, judge not lest you be judged, because I am the judge. We already have a judge. We are the accused. We are the victim. The judicial system grants us what? I mean, even today, we have a right to what? You have the right to remain silent. Some people don't have the capacity to do so, but we do have the right to remain silent. We have the right to a what? To an attorney. The scriptures are clear. We have a right to an attorney. Now, we have a couple choices. We can be our own attorney. We can fight ourselves, and it's a vain effort. There's an old saying, he who has himself for an attorney has a fool for an attorney. Because we have the accuser coming against us, we have Yahweh the judge who is always just, and we have ourselves, and we try to fight off ourselves. We try in a vain effort to defend ourselves, maybe to excuse our actions. Unbelievers who do not accept Yeshua, guess what? They're their own attorney, and they may be good people. Because through teshuvah, through repentance, we can accept what? A court-appointed attorney. Yahweh's the judge, and guess who appoints for us? From the law firm of Yeshua Hamashiach and associates, none other than the master Yah, Yahshua. He is our defending attorney. But if we don't repent, we remain guilty. If we don't repent, then we remain guilty. Yeshua Hamashiach is the one that the court system has allowed to represent us. We have an attorney that stands for us, and his defense is pretty simple. Now this is going to surprise you. Yeshua is our defending attorney. HaSatan is the accuser. Yahweh is the judge, and here's what he says. Here's what Yeshua says. Our attorney acknowledges that we are guilty. I don't know if it's a slip of the tongue or whatever, but he says, yes, the case is brought before a judge, and our attorney says, well, the judge says, well, how do you plead? And our attorney says, guilty as charged, your honor. And we're back there saying, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, we're not guilty. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. But when it comes down to it, we're all guilty. Even the things that we say people have done against us, guess what? We've probably done against someone else. We're all guilty. We're guilty of sin. Yeshua, the Torah tells us that if we committed one offense, we've broken them all. She's guilty. He's guilty. We're guilty. And because we're guilty, we deserve what? The judgment. Because Yahweh is just, we deserve the judgment. We deserve the judgment. But then, because our attorney says not, he says we're guilty as charged, he then stands to his feet, and he says, I will step forward to pay the price. Justice always requires a penalty for sin, and Yeshua accepts that penalty for sin for us. It tells us in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 5, it says that Yeshua became sin so that we might become the righteousness of Yahweh. Many times when the word justice is translated in our scriptures, it's the same Hebrew word for righteousness. Yeshua took our place. He took our sin. And therefore, it is just as if we have never sinned. When we repent, when we do teshuva, what happens when we don't do teshuva? We're there defending ourselves. And we're bad attorneys. But judge accepts our attorney's plea. He bangs the gavel, you could say, dismisses the charges, and he says, you are released and set free to go. It reminds me of a story I heard of a king who made a law, and he said, anyone that violates this law, the penalty is your eyes will be poked out, both of them. A couple months passed by, and they brought before him, because he was king and judge, they brought before him his very own son. His son had committed the crime, had violated what the king had decreed. And his advisor said, king, you're going to have to put out his eyes. He has violated your decree. If you do not, this whole kingdom will go crazy. They will go, they will think you are weak. They'll go about doing their own thing. So the king says, read me my decree again. And the decree said, if you violate this ordinance, the penalty, the punishment is to have your two eyes poked out. And the king said, I have to be just, I have to be fair, poke one of his eyes out, and one of mine. And therefore, from that day forward, whenever anyone looked at the king or looked at his son, the future king, they would recognize justice had been paid, however, the price was high. Now, that's a great story, but Yeshua's done it all for us. One of our eyes doesn't have to be poked out. He's taken every bit of it for us, all of the punishment, all of the judgment for us. And when people look upon us, they can see Yeshua and remember that great king Yahweh. Yeshua has taken our sin, and he's dealt with it. Amen? Praise Yahweh for that, right? However, everybody say, however, however, every minute, every second, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, the enemy keeps dragging us to court. Think about it. Today, if you live in a major city, you can't go in and have a lawsuit in a matter of a couple of weeks because there are all these frivolous lawsuits bogging down the judicial system, right? That's what the enemy does with us. He can't go in and have a lawsuit with us. He keeps dragging us back to court, accusing us. Well, he did this, and he did that, and he said this, and he went there. He accuses, he threatens, and he uses people to slander us, and hurt us, and steal from us, and cheat us. His constant attacks are attempts to do what? To make us weary, to weigh us down, so we're too weary to walk. He knows. But the judge's decision is final, yet he also knows that he can render our life and our faith unaffected if he can wear down the saints. So he keeps dragging us to court. The enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. John 10.10, right? He keeps us in court, frivolous lawsuits, false charges, all the time. He keeps us away from our settlement, because the enemy knows this. This is good. That justice not only calls for wrongs to be righted, but it calls for a settlement. If you break into my house, and you steal from me, you may go to court, and you may also be found guilty. You may also have to repay to me what you have stolen. That is called a settlement, because an injustice was done to me. The enemy perpetrates injustices against us day after day, minute after minute. If somebody's not talking about you, then something's wrong, right? You must not be breathing. And even then, they're going to talk about us. But because an injustice is done against us, and because Yahweh the judge is so fair, He not only, it tells us, He brings to light justice every day. It tells us in Exodus 32, that He will not allow the guilty to go unpunished, but He allows us to receive a settlement back. But the enemy knows, if he can keep us away from our settlement, he can keep us away from the abundant life. You see, as justice calls for a settlement, or payment to the person who has had an injustice done to them, Yahweh longs to give us justice. He longs to avenge us of our enemy. It tells us in Isaiah 30, verse 18, this is a good verse to memorize. It says, Isaiah 30, 18, Yeshayahu, it says, Yahweh longs to show you mercy, and to rise to show you mercy, and to rise up on your behalf. Yahweh longs to rise up on your behalf. You see, the accuser accuses. But our attorney is ready to win. Yahweh longs to give us justice. He longs to avenge us of our enemy. And our attorney is there waiting. But we never show up for court. We've got a court date. But how many times, let me ask you, have you prayed for justice this week? How many times the past month have you said, Yahweh, avenge me of my enemies? I seek justice for how I've been wronged, how I've been lied about, how I've been cheated. My boss has let me down. My boss promised me this, and I've been lied to. We never show up for court. One reason why is because we don't understand the heavenly judicial system, or we're too boggled down by our problems. We're too hurt to think about justice. All we want to think about is revenge. Or all we want to think about is our problems. We never show up for court, and in essence, what happens? The accuser wins. Here's what the Bible says. It tells us in Colossians chapter two. It says, as you have received Yeshua HaMashiach, so also walk after him. So, if we received justice and salvation, what are we to do? We're to walk in what? Justice. If we receive salvation by grace through faith, what are we to do? We are to walk by grace through faith. We've been saved by judgment, by Yahweh's justice. We are to experience life, abundant life. We are to live for it. Yahweh has provided justice from our eternal enemy. Praise Yahweh. Amen. Let me just ask you this. Has Yahweh provided justice from your eternal enemy? Yes or no? Yes or no? Yes. Is not now part of eternity? If we've been promised, then he is faithful to deliver. The curse of sin has been dealt with. Amen? So, praise Yahweh. But the curses and the lies and the actions of others have been dealt with. They do not have to defeat us. Matthew 12 20. It's one of these verses that is spoken when you go into counseling. You know something bad happens? Turn with me to Bethityahu 12 20. A crushed reed he shall not break. A smoking flax he shall not quench. Haven't we heard that? Oh brother, I know you're going through this. It's hard, right? But don't you worry that a crushed reed he will not, he's not going to break you. You're smoldering. You got a little bit of light left on that wick, right? He's not going to snuff you out. That's how the NIV puts it. A smoldering wick he will not snuff out. But what does it say? Read it in context. A crushed reed shall he not break. A smoking flax shall he not quench until he brings forth justice, mishpatim, to victory. The context of this is victory is justice. Yes, you may feel like you're burning out. You may feel like you're burned out. You may feel like you are a crushed reed. But this verse means, and this verse tells us, that your justice is going to come. And it's not just coming, but it's going to lead you and me to victory. Praise Yahweh, right? I'm getting it. Praise Yahweh, that no matter what we face, no matter how bad it gets, it's going to lead us to victory. Victory is ensured by the judicial process. But you're not going to get to victory unless you ask for it. You do not have because why? You do not ask. There are two ways to receive justice. Number one is for the guilty. The guilty receives justice for their punishment. They did something wrong. They therefore required justice to happen to them. Then there is justice for the not guilty, the innocent. We call that a injustice. Evil intruded upon your life. You didn't invite it. You didn't ask for it. It invaded you. If there has been no invitation, if you are innocent as charged, or if you are innocent by repentance, teshuvah, then you are due justice and a settlement. That's good. Because what that tells us is, yes, we might have wronged someone, and we might be requiring justice and judgment, justice and judgment and punishment. But by teshuvah, we don't receive that punishment. All the curses are broken by the blood of the Lamb. The curse of sin, where is your sting? Grave, where's your victory? If he can deal with that, he can deal with all the other sins that we have. We don't have to reap what we sow. Because why? Yeshua took it when he died for us on the tree. By repentance, by teshuvah, it's just as if we've never done that. And then we're innocent. So then guess what happens? The enemy accuses us of something we never did. And then what we do, because we are innocent and it's an injustice, we're due a settlement. Praise Yahweh. But now let's just make this clear. When the ruach ha'qodesh comes to you and says, you've sinned, brother, sister, you need to do teshuvah. You need to turn from that sin and return to Yahweh. You need to have sorrow. You need to repent. Turn from that action. And then you need to understand that if the enemy comes at you again about the same thing, that is just greater victory for you. Because he's going to lead that justice to victory. I don't know about you, but there are a lot of things that I haven't asked for, that I've been handed. You might not have asked to be forgotten, to be forsaken. You might not have asked to be molested or fired if a door slammed in your face or problems that you faced throughout your life. And if you didn't ask for that, and I believe you didn't, do you know what that means? Justice is waiting for you. There is a settlement kept in heaven waiting to be received. It's in an escrow account waiting for you to reach out and grab it. If you're living the faith, if you're walking in truth, if you're loving others, if you're trusting people, trusting them, loving them, shepherding them, guiding them, befriending them, and they turn their back on you, that is an injustice. Therefore, that requires a settlement. Yahweh will restore what the enemy has taken. I said Yahweh will restore what the enemy has taken. It tells us, I will restore to you all the years the locusts have eaten, the canker worm, the caterpillar, the palmer worm, all the years, all the years wasted before you were born again. Guess what? He's going to restore to you. And all the years since then, all the time since then, when you've been attacked by the enemy, he's going to restore to you. Even when you've been attacked for doing righteousness, blessed are you when people persecute you, when they talk evilly about you, when they speak about you. Blessed are you. Why are you blessed? Because there's a bank account set up for you, and I'm not talking about money here. Maybe money. It tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 12, that all men that live, it says godly, or we could say with Shabbat guarding piety, shall suffer persecution. If you live in righteousness, you will suffer persecution. But what does it say in Matthew chapter 5? You will be blessed. Why will you be blessed? Not because they're beating you and tearing you down, but because you understand justice, and you're going to receive justice. Yahweh's scales of justice are balanced. Do you believe that? He is good. He is balanced. So do you know what that means? That means if you get a small attack, you get a small anointing. When you get a bigger attack, you get a bigger anointing. When you get a large attack, guess what? You get a larger anointing. We all want anointing without attack. But what does that do? It causes the scales of justice to be imbalanced. We become prideful, and when pride sets in, guess what? The enemy goes crazy. Justice provides settlement for our pain and injury. Yahweh is Yahweh Mishpat. He is Yahweh of justice. He is the judge. Those who do evil bring a mockery to his name. Do you understand that? His name is Yahweh Mishpat, and when people do evil, they bring a mockery to his name. When people do evil against you, they are bringing a mockery to his name. We are to pray that Yahweh will act on our behalf and bring about justice. Here's the key, though. You've got to catch the thief. You have to bring him before the judge. We all say, oh, the enemy's been attacking, right? He's been getting me. And we don't even like to profess that because we don't want to give him any glory, but yet we know that we've even said, well, if the enemy's attacking, we must be doing something right. That's fine, but do you understand that's just slapping him on the wrist? That's saying, yeah, he's guilty. There he goes. He's attacking me some more. We have to bring him before the judge. It tells us in Exodus chapter 22. It says, if you catch a thief, he shall repay you. Exodus chapter 22, Shemot 22, is one of those chapters that we skimmed over. You know, in the church, we never read Exodus anyway. That was for the Jews. But as believers, that this is all for us, we kind of skim over it. It's all about when you catch a thief, what to do with him. And for some instances, it says he's going to repay you two times, sometimes four times, sometimes five times, sometimes seven times. Yeshua talked about a hundredfold return. But it tells us very clearly, according to the offense, that thief has got to pay you back. So if he has stolen your health, he's got to pay you back. But you've got to bring him before the judge. If he's stolen your future, if he's stolen your life, if he's stolen your feelings, your family, your ministry, you've got to bring him before the judge. Here's an interesting verse there. Exodus chapter 22, verse 6. If a fire breaks out and spreads to thorn bushes, so that stacked grain or the field itself is consumed, he that started the fire shall make restitution. And yet we know in the book of James, what is the tongue called? A fire set aflame by hell itself that cannot be quenched. So let's put the two verses together. If a fire breaks out, if lashon hara breaks out, if words break out against you and they spread, where are they spreading? To thorn bushes. What? Dry, right? People on the outskirts. So that stacked grain, what is stacked grain? That's something that you've got for you for later. That's to feed you with. Even if stacked grain catches on fire or it says the field itself, that's a picture of your family, of your life, of your circumstances. Even if your world is caught on fire by the evil words of others, even if it's consumed, praise Yahweh, it says, Exodus 22, 6, he that started the fire shall bring restitution. That's shouting time because that tells us who's starting the fire. Yeah, it might have been Joe that set it, but who really started the fire? We were not against flesh and blood. Is Yahweh going to deal with Joe? Is he going to get judgment for what he's done? Yes, he does not leave the guilty unpunished. However, we don't go to Joe and beat him up. We deal with it in the spiritual realm. Just saying you are under attack is not enough. We've got to bring the thief before the judge. And here's the great part. To the degree that we are innocent, Yahweh is able to act on our behalf. To the degree that we are innocent, Yahweh is able to act on our behalf. And part of our settlement, let me tell you what part of our settlement is. Part of it is greater wisdom, is greater anointing, is greater understanding, is greater favor, is greater blessing. But we must accuse the accuser instead of slapping him on the wrist and say, I rebuke you, devil. Come on. Repent first. We are to repent, to remove judgment from ourselves, and then we are to do what? To pray. Turn with me to Luke chapter 18. We're finishing up. Luke 18. This is a life-changing message for us. This will change the way we pray. In Luke chapter 18 in verse 1, this is one of those verses we love to hear from those intercessory prayer teachers on TV. It says, and he spoke a parable to them saying this, men ought always to make prayer and not to faint, right? That's good advice. Always pray, don't faint. Always pray. We're told to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Pray until your face turns blue, right? Pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. What are you to pray about? How are you to pray? And it tells us verse 2, there was a city in the city a judge, a shofet, who feared not Yahweh, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, do right to me according to my adversary. You see, as I read earlier from Isaiah chapter 1, justice is directly linked to widows. It's directly linked to poor people. It's directly linked to those who are in need of Yahweh as their husband. Do you understand that's what a widow is? A person without a husband. Who are we? The bride of Mashiach, right? Is Yahweh with us right now? Are we in the millennial kingdom? No. So whenever you see widow, that means the body of believers. We are the bride of Mashiach. Here's a widow going to a cruel judge and saying, help me. Do right to me according to my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he would. He said to himself, though I don't fear Yahweh, nor regard man, because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her. Lest her continual coming to me wears me out. And Yeshua said, hear what the unjust judge said. Hear this. And shall not Yahweh do good to his own elect who cry day and night to him, though he bear long with them. This is contrasting. Yeshua is not telling us. Yeshua is not saying Yahweh is that mean old judge who won't grant you what you need. Yahweh is contrasting. Yeshua is contrasting Yahweh to this judge. He's saying this judge is bad. He doesn't even fear Yahweh and he won't even do what's right. But how much greater will the heavenly judge of Yahweh who sits on the throne, whose throne is made of justice, it says, do for you when you come to him the first time. We don't have to beg him and beg him and beg him and beg him and wear him out for justice. We come one time and we say, avenge me of my adversaries. Shall not Yahweh avenge his elect, it says in the King James. If you've been hurt, if you've been ripped off, if you've been lied about, stolen from, talked about, feel like Yahweh isn't doing anything, it's probably because you've not asked him to do anything. Yeah, we said rebuke the enemy. Yeah, we said we bind those words. But Yahweh says, ask for justice. Ask for justice. Turn with me to Job, the book of Job. Job in Hebrew, chapter 22. Ask for justice. Men are always to pray regarding what? Justice. Every day we need to be asking Yahweh for justice regarding something. Don't ask for everything. Oh Yahweh, give me justice for everything in my whole life because it'll overwhelm you. What does the word say? He won't give you more than you can handle. Turn to Eov, chapter 22. Or as my six-year-old says, the book of Job, chapter 22. Write it down. Remember it. Keep it before your eyes. This is good. Agree with him and serve him and be at peace. Be at shalom. Thereby good shall come to you. So what does that say? Agree with Yahweh and serve him. What is that? That's called repentance. That's teshuvah. Agree his way is right. Turn from your wicked ways and good will come to you. Yeah, it may have some hard times, but good will come to you. Verse 22. Receive, I beg you, the Torah from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. Now again, what's Torah? How do we usually translate Torah? Law. So what are you telling us? He says agree with him and serve him. Receive, beg you, the law, the judicial system from his mouth. Lay up his words in your heart. Verse 23. If you teshuvah to the Almighty, you shall be built up. You hear this? Let your spirit hear this. You shall be built up. You shall put away iniquity far from your tents. Praise Yahweh. When we take a stand for justice, when we take a stand for righteousness, Yahweh shall put iniquity, what is that? Sin, transgression of the word, far from our tents, far from our dwelling. Then, verse 24, you shall lay up gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Yes, the Almighty shall be your defense and you shall have plenty of silver. For then shall you have your delight in the Almighty and shall lift your face to Elohim. You shall make your prayer to him. He shall hear you and you shall pay your vows to him. You shall also decree a thing and it shall be established to you and the light shall shine on your ways. The light shall shine on your ways. Didn't we just read earlier? What does it say every morning? The light of justice shines. Now it says the light shall shine on our ways. But go back here to this verse. It says that we are to do teshuvah. We are to repent. We are to keep the law or the judicial system in our mind and in our lips. And it says that Yahweh, verse 23, will put iniquity far from us. Even the attack to the enemy, he's going to learn to stop attacking because he's going to learn it's egg in his face. That's my prayer. I don't want iniquity anywhere near my tent. Praise Yahweh, right? But look at what's next. Not only does he remove iniquity, because that's what we want. We want the sin to be removed, whether it's ours or others against us. But it says, you shall lay up gold as dust. Dust is something that just happens. Not gold dust, but I'm talking about just dust, right? Dust is something that just happens, right? It just appears. It just appears. And many times we just wipe it off. We don't need it. Nobody goes to Walmart and buys a, you know, a bag of dust, right? Gold will be laid up as dust. What does that mean? You don't really see dust until it accumulates to you. What this means to me is that gold or righteousness or all of our needs will be met. And we might not see it as this big old, oh, you get a million-dollar check in the mail. But continually, every day as we bring the thief before the judge, he's going to meet our needs over and over and over. And we're going to have everything we need, not only that, but we're going to be blessed more abundantly. Why? Because the enemies come against us. And to the degree that he's come against us and accused us of injustices, we have settlements. Now, I'm not saying your bank account's going to have a billion dollars tomorrow. Don't think that way. It may. It may. We'll share. Praise Yahweh. Look at this also. It says, you shall decree a thing and it shall be established. It says, you shall decree a thing and it shall be established. You shall decree what? Justice, healing, power from Yahweh, blessing, and it shall be established. Notice it doesn't say, Yahweh will use your mouth to decree a thing. It says, you shall. When we walk in understanding of his justice, when we have justice from the adversary, Yahweh begins to use us to decree things and they begin to happen. When others accuse you, when they hurt you, when they use you, then, when? Then will the judge will and can act on your behalf. The greater the injustice, the higher Yahweh will raise you up. And it says here that he will make you shine. It's time we understand justice. Solomon said, give me wisdom of heart that I may understand justice. That's my prayer. I'm going to pray it every day. I don't care if I get a bottle to rub and a genie to pop out. I'm going to pray it every day and believe it because I ask, I'm going to have it. Start asking for justice for yourself, for your ancestors, because what's happened? If something's happened to you, something's happened to your grandfather, maybe your father, injustices that have occurred, but that settlement remains if he didn't receive it. We've called them generational curses. What about generational blessings? If you've had an issue or a sin in your life and you know your father, your mother, your sister, your grandfather had it before, guess what? That's probably an injustice the enemy keeps perpetrating against you. And there's a settlement for you. And for others. If you could ask for anything in the world, what would it be? I pray we would ask for understanding justice, that we could begin to pray for it. We could begin to live it and act on behalf of the injustices in the world. Did you know this? When you pray for the sick, when you pray for the poor, when you pray for the hurting, you are acting on their behalf. You are enacting the judicial system. You're bringing the thief before the judge. You are enacting justice because the Hebraic term or the understanding of justice always goes along with the poor, with those who are impoverished. It says this, Psalm 146, verse 7 and 8. Psalm 146, verse 7 and 8. It says, Yahweh executes justice. Get this now. Who does it? Not Daniel. Yahweh does it. Because if Daniel does it, I'm going to, you know, seek vengeance. It says, Yahweh executes justice. Who? For who? It says, Psalm 146, verse 7 and 8. Yahweh executes justice for the oppressed. He gives food to the hungry. He sets the prisoner free. Feel oppressed sometimes? Are you hungry for righteousness? Hungry for food? Feel like you're a prisoner, but all you do is just battle off the adversary sometimes? It says, Yahweh executes justice for you. What's interesting is this is very simple, similar to some words found in the book of Luke, chapter 4. Yeshua said, the spirit of the sovereign YAH is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the best of roads to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set liberty those who are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the master Yeshua. And guess what? If he's anointed Yeshua, he's anointed us, because it tells us in 1 John, chapter 3, that as he is, so are we in this world. And that the same anointing that was upon Yeshua is upon us, it tells us in the same chapter. And if Yeshua has anointed, Yahweh has anointed Yeshua to proclaim liberty to the captives, which is what? Justice. Isn't that what it says in the Psalms? Yahweh executes justice for the oppressed. Our gospel, our message is a message of justice, not just mercy. There cannot be mercy until there is repentance. Do you know that? Yahweh doesn't forgive someone until they ask for it. Yes, Yeshua has paid the price, but it's not applied to them personally until they ask for it. Our message should be a message of mercy and justice. What does Yahweh require of you? To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with him. Jeremiah 21, 12. This is our call, Israel. It says, O house of David, who is that? Israel. O house of David, thus says Yahweh, execute judgment in the morning and deliver them that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor. Execute judgment on their behalf. Your actions, your prayers, on behalf of the poor, the sick, the needy, is a way to execute judgment for another person. When we reach out to others, when we give money, when we minister to them physically, when we pray for them, we are enacting justice for that person. We're getting them help. And greater than that, we are understanding the judicial system. We have a better understanding of it now. Mishpat. That's what Yahweh wants for us. That we should decree a thing and it should be established that we should decree justice. Bring the enemy before the judge and allow Yahweh to render his judgment. So together, right now, I want us to pray. And our prayer is going to be first for repentance. First for repentance. Yahweh would remove the sin from us, cleanse us, and forgive us. And then that he would reveal to us a couple areas where we would ask for justice. Not every area, but for a couple of areas. We would remember what it said in the book of Job. We would remember that it says in Zephaniah chapter 3 that every morning Yahweh brings justice to light. Hebrews 10.30 that Yahweh will judge his people. And that Yahweh loves justice and does not forsake his saints. Psalm 97.2, let me remind you of this. It says that righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne. If Yahweh does not bring justice to you in your circumstances and situation, then there is not a throne in heaven. How have you been hurt? How have you been lied to? How have you been misled? If Yahweh doesn't bring justice for you in a settlement, then his throne tips over and we have no mighty one. So Father Yahweh, right now we come before your throne in order to receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. We are guilty of sin. We are guilty of hurting others, of speaking evil about others, of doing evil to others. We acknowledge that. Not only do we acknowledge that, but we turn from that. We pray that you would remove that sin as far as the east is from the west, throw it into the sea of forgetfulness, so that when the enemy comes against us and says, oh, you're doing this again, oh, oh, remember that? Remember what you did back when? That we'll accept that and we'll rejoice, because now there's a settlement for us, because that's an injustice that's taken place against us. Father, we come to you and ask for the blood of Yeshua to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And Father, we've come to you as judge. We acknowledge that we've been stolen from, we've been trapped by the enemy, we've been lied to, our past has been stolen from us, our family has been ripped apart, our future father has even been destroyed, or that's what the enemy would tell us. So we ask right now that you would render a decision and render a settlement for the injustices that we have faced in our lives. A bruised reed he shall not break, a smoldering wick he shall not snuff out until he brings justice to victory. And Father, we know that every time the enemy attacks us, that it's just going to bring more justice to victory, that every time someone speaks against us, you're exalting us greater and higher and more and better. And yet it's hard. We've cried tears, we've lamented, we have seen a lot of pain over what others have caused us. They've let us down, they've sinned against us and against you. Yet in doing so, Father, we've been hurt also. Yet in doing so, Father, we've been hurt also. We know that you've been hurt. It's not your will that any would suffer or any would perish, but that all would come to eternal life through you. And we believe that that eternity starts now. So Father, right now, we bring the thief before you. That accusing attorney, we accuse him. Your word calls him an accuser of the brethren. Now we're accusing him of how he has ripped us off and used others to push us down and to hurt us. He's used others to stomp out our hope. He's used others to cause our body to have sickness and stress. Father, the enemies come against us physically and spiritually and mentally, emotionally. He's come against us in all these ways. We don't say that to bring glory to him, but to accuse him of what he's done and ask you to render a decision and a settlement. We cry out for justice now. We ask you to avenge us of our adversaries, physical and spiritual. Father, right now, show us a few areas, just one or two areas, where we could ask for justice. And we pray that you would avenge us. Thank you again for listening to the Finding Emet radio program. Please visit our website to learn more about the Emet, the truth of the scriptures. Search the Bible, submit your prayer request, or read an article on various subjects. The website is www.findemet.com. That's www.findemet.com. CD copies of this teaching are available for free by submitting a request at the website, or write to us at Emet Ministries, 1310 Trent Street, Newberry, SC 29108. That's Emet Ministries, 1310 Trent Street, Newberry, SC 29108. Thank you again for listening to Finding Emet with Daniel Rendleman. May you find the Emet, and may the Emet, may the truth set you free.