Exodus 22:1
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We live in an age that has forgotten what justice is for. Our modern, secular systems of justice are fundamentally about retribution, and that retribution is carried out by the impersonal, abstract, and ever-growing State. When a crime is committed, say a theft, the state declares that a law has been broken, a slight has been made against its own majesty. The victim is reduced to a witness for the prosecution, a piece of evidence. He is simply out his property, plus the portion of his taxes that go to keeping the thief in a cage where he can learn to be a better criminal. It is punitive, it is impersonal, it is statist, and it is profoundly foolish. The Bible, as is its custom, crashes into this mess with a clear-headed, practical, and righteous alternative. Biblical justice, particularly in matters of property, is not primarily punitive; it is restorative.