Asher Sisneros

            Today, I completed the Biblical section on Western literature. We covered a lot of material, and I wrote five essays on Biblical literature. They covered the Garden of Eden, Noah, the flood, the tower of Babel, the sanctions in Psalms, and all Proverbs. Those pieces of literature provide a sturdy foundation for insight into Biblical ethics. All my previous essays included the theme of ethics and sanctions. Those ethics addressed individuals, for the most part, and how it impacts our lives. However, the same truths found in those Scripture passages apply to nations in history too. The Bible’s teachings about personal and familial sanctions aren’t disregarded when addressing countries. For this essay, I will address what the Bible considers the standard for justice to be, and how that affects history.

            It’s noticeable how consistent the Bible is. Unlike some Greek religious literature that has inconsistent messages and rewards behavior that was previously condemned, the Bible is consistent. Even in the few instances when two things appear contradictory, that’s usually a misinterpretation; the text itself is whole and consistent. That makes the Scriptures relatively easy to understand. While that doesn’t negate how deep the Bible can be, the overarching points and themes are easy to understand. They include (1) God’s sovereignty, (2) man’s stewardship over creation, but in submission to God, (3) the fear of God’s wrath is the beginning of knowledge, (4) blessings for the righteous, (5) curses for the wicked.

            All of those Biblical themes have one simple takeaway. Genesis states that God is the creator of everything. In addition to making material things such as humans, mountains, the ocean, the stars, and everything around us, He also made immaterial standards for righteousness. The human intellect can’t create that for a few reasons.

            First, men change, and so do their standards of right and wrong. But justice cannot just change. It must exist without us. If justice can change then it isn’t justice. The standard for right and wrong must exist apart from human intellect; it must come from a higher power.

            Secondly, how can men use their minds to create a perfect standard that governs all creation, when we barely understand how our bodies function? Einstein famously said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” Over time, that quote became an adage because of its truth. All that to say, we can’t be the standard of justice. The Bible argues that God is the standard.

            For those reasons, the Hebrews believed God’s law was infallible and uncorrupted. It was one perfect standard that didn’t change. However, what good is a law if it can be trampled on? There needed to be positive and negative sanctions. God repeatedly blessed the people who obeyed His law and cursed the disobedient. After the flood, Noah was blessed for obeying God by building the ark, and he was also blessed through his family’s preservation. Everyone else was killed. Why did God warn Noah about the flood? Noah feared God and kept His laws. The same thing was true of Jacob and his son Joseph. Unlike his brother Esau, Jacob listened to God’s laws and his descendants became the nation of Israel. Joseph was righteous by God’s standards, and he became the Egyptian pharaoh’s righthand man.  Similarly, David kept God’s laws, and was promised that one of His sons would reign forever (Christ). On the other hand, Adam broke the law and was cursed. If he kept the law, God was going to give him eternal life, but instead, he received hard work. Saul broke God’s law and disinherited the throne. Jezebel persecuted God’s prophets and she was thrown off a tower, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs. Goliath, who cursed and blasphemed God was beheaded by a boy. The list of blessings and curses continues. There is a common denominator in all those examples. The obedient are blessed, but the rebellious are cursed.

            The theme of God’s blessings and curses can be applied to nations as well. It happened repeatedly to Israel. When they obeyed the law, they were blessed. When the nation disobeyed, they were judged. Such is the simple pattern that all nations in the Bible—not just Israel—were subject to. Nations come and go. The death of one empire is the birth of another nation. But kings can rest assured. There is one consistent rule of law. Our history isn’t written with the blood of fallen soldiers; bravery only gets us so far. Our fate, like all the empires before us, is in the hands of ethics and our response to the Biblical rule of law and standard of justice.