Called to be His Hands

God has chosen to have us work with Him to bring justice to victims of oppression, for we are His hands. The truth is that He calls all people to seek justice for the abused and suffering in our world. God’s people often do not understand that social work goes hand and hand with spiritual outreach. You can’t have one without the other. Jesus always combined social and spiritual outreach together. He would not only preach to the people about spiritual salvation but he would feed the hungry, heal their bodies, and pull them out of the life of prostitution, addiction, and oppression.

Reaching out to people to only help them spiritually is like seeing a person drowning in the ocean. You are standing on the shoreline with a life raft, and you say to them here is your salvation now come to me, and I will give you the life raft and you will be saved. God’s people often watch people drowning in hopelessness and they stand in the distance of their comfort zone saying I know you’re hurting, here is your salvation, Jesus; all you have to do is come to us. Or we tell them about what can save them, Jesus, but we leave them in their social situation and wonder why that person could not maintain their walk with God. They could not because we informed them about salvation, but abandoned them in the crack house, the brothel, the street, the abusive marriage, or the poverty consumed life. We rescued them spiritually but did nothing to help them socially, creating a never ending cycle of hopelessness. The moment we change our mentality and methods is the moment when we will see a world transformed.

“Learn to do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17) 

“I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezekiel 22:30)

“He has told you, oh mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8)

It is incredible that the God of the universe gives us a short list of three things that He requires of us, and that list begins with justice. The Bible couldn’t be clearer about God’s call for His people to join with Him as he brings relief to the suffering. The good news about this is that all God asks of us is that we give Him what we have. He doesn’t expect us to do miracles. He asks us to place our skills, talents, money, and influence – whatever we have – at His feet to use for His purposes. A great example of God doing just this is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand (Mark 6:30-44). Jesus had been preaching on the hillside all day. The Bible only takes into account the 5,000 men in attendance that day, but we can safely assume there were a large number of women and children present as well, adding thousands to the total number of people there. As the day wore on, the people naturally became hungry and the disciples advised Jesus to send them home so they could get something to eat, which seems like a rather rational solution to the problem. But, Jesus’ response to His disciples was, “You give them something to eat.” One can imagine the disbelief of the disciples as they explained to Jesus that it would take more than a month’s wages to feed all these people.

Again, Jesus’ response is surprising. He turned to the disciples and asked what they had. They responded that all they had were five loaves of bread and two fish, not even close to enough to make a dent in the task of feeding the throng of people before them. But, as we know, Jesus took that little amount of food, blessed it, and He and the disciples were able to feed everyone there and have more left over at the end then they originally had at the beginning. The lesson is that Jesus took the little the disciples had and used it to perform a miracle in feeding the 5,000.

God is asking all of us the same question He asked the disciples: “What do you have?” When we compare the vast need for justice in the world – 27 million slaves in the world, an estimated 1 million children are trapped into the sex trade every year – with what little we have to give, it looks so impossible, and we think that there’s nothing we can do about it.

Jesus knows the problem of injustice is too big for us to fix with our five loaves and two fish, but He wants us to give what we do have to Him. He’s big enough to use the little we have to make the impossible possible. He wants to use our gifts, talents, and resources to bring justice to those who need it urgently.

The outcome of this story in the Bible is that every single individual on that hillside was given enough to eat. The outcome of God’s people offering what they have to Him to fight injustice will be that individual lives will be freed from the bonds of oppression. The prayer of the Hope Movement is that you will give what you have to God and watch Him perform miracles with it.

Justice Scriptures

It is exceedingly strange that any follower of Jesus Christ should ever have needed to ask whether social involvement was their concern. – John Stott

Although this is in no way an exhaustive list, these verses should be helpful in studying the meaning of biblical justice and the reason why God requires His people to seek it.

Psalm 10: 18-19 – You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.

Psalm 64:6 – They plot injustice and say, “We have devised a perfect plan!” Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning.

Psalm 103:6 – The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.

Psalm 106:3 – Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.

Psalm 140:12 – I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.

Proverbs 29:7 – The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.

Ecclesiastes 4:1 – Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed— and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors and they have no comforter.

Isaiah 1:17 – Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

Isaiah 30:18 – Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!

Isaiah 51:4 – Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations.

Isaiah 56:1 – This is what the LORD says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.”

Isaiah 58:6 – Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Isaiah 59:15 – Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

Isaiah 61:8 – For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.

Jeremiah 22:13 – Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.

Hosea 12:6 – But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.

Amos 5:21-24 – I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Micah 6:8 – He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Zechariah 7:8-10 – And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.

Matthew 23:23 – Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices–mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law–justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.