Friday, November 6Justice
The Borrowed Bench
Ye shall not respect persons in judgment; but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; for the judgment is God's: and the cause that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.
DevotionalFriday, November 6
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Moses is an old man on the plains of Moab when he says this. He is retelling the day, forty years back, when he admitted he could not carry the people alone and set judges over them. The King James is gentler than the Hebrew. What he told them was closer to do not recognize faces. A breath later: do not be afraid of the face of man. The verse is crowded with faces, and the warning is the same both times. The face in front of you will try to decide the case before the truth gets a word in.
Sit with that before you leave the house. You have probably never done anything a court would call corrupt. Let the inventory go lower than that.
Think about whose call you return within the hour and whose waits until Friday. The voice you use with the partner, and the one you use with the man who empties the trash in your office. The mother outside the courtroom whose question you answered over your shoulder. The young person whose file you read so thoroughly that by the time he sat down, you were done listening. Your own son gets the benefit of the doubt. Somebody else’s son gets a record.
Most of this happens faster than thought. The mind sorts a face in an instant and hands you a verdict, then hands you a story about why the verdict was fair. That is how decent people run unjust rooms. Nobody chose to be unfair. Nobody chose anything. Jeremiah said the heart is deceitful above all things, and part of the deceit is how reasonable it sounds.
Then the second face. Think of the meeting where a decision about someone small got made, and you knew it was wrong, and the person who signs your evaluation sat at the head of the table. You said nothing and called it wisdom. It was fear wearing a tie.
Be honest about the other column too, because God is. There was the night you stayed late with the family nobody else would explain things to, and the call you made that cost you standing. That was real. It was the Spirit at work in you, and God is not unrighteous to forget it.
Now notice the reason Moses gives: for the judgment is God’s. Every bench is borrowed. The judge’s, the principal’s, the supervisor’s, the parent’s at the kitchen table. You hold a little of God’s authority over somebody today, and he will ask what you did with it. Moses kept his own rule. When the five daughters of Zelophehad came with a claim the custom had no room for, he did not wave them off. He carried their cause before the Lord, and the Lord said, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right.
Follow the faces to Jerusalem. The one Judge who has never been fooled by a face stood before a governor who was afraid of a crowd. Pilate, Mark says, was willing to content the people. The Son, to whom the Father has committed all judgment, let that sentence fall on himself, for people like us who have recognized faces our whole lives. The judgment is God’s, and God’s Son has borne it. There is no condemnation left for you to fear, which means nothing left to protect by flattering the great or ignoring the small.
Somebody small has a case before you today. Hear them like the bench is borrowed. It is.
Pray
Lord, I recognize faces. I hurry for the people who can help me and make the small ones wait, and I call it being busy. I have stayed quiet in rooms where I should have spoken, because I feared someone's face more than I feared you. Forgive me. Thank you for the times your Spirit made me listen; that was your work, not my goodness. Jesus, you were sentenced by a man who wanted to please a crowd, and you carried the judgment I earned. Since the judgment is yours and you have already borne it, free me from flattering the great. Give me ears for the small today. Amen.
Practice
Before noon, return the call, email or text you have been letting sit because the person can do nothing for you, and give them the same full attention you would give the most powerful person you will see this week.
Carry
Every bench is borrowed. Hear the small.