You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor…and not go about as a talebearer.”
(Leviticus 19:15-16, KJV)
You have read the King James Version of our Leviticus 19:15-16 scripture above. Look here at different translations:
-
- In the Good News Testament (GNT) it is stated: “Be honest and just when you make decisions in legal cases, do not show favoritism to the poor or fear the rich. Do not spread lies about anyone…”
- In the Contemporary English Version (CEV) the same scripture says it: “Be fair no matter who is on trial — don’t favor either the poor not the rich. Don’t be a gossip…”
- The New International Version (NIV) says, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor favoritism to the great, but judge you neighbor fairly. Do not go about slandering your people…”
Again God is working on and in me to truly serve Him and help others. Has anyone but me ever enabled someone or become co-dependent thinking ‘I was helping that person…’? It probably made me feel good at first, but later came a variety of feelings: used, weary, frustrated! If you know me, you know Father God showed me that frustration meant I didn’t fully trust Him to deliver, redeem, reveal and show the person I was praying for His truth.
“The word does not go out void but will accomplish what He sends it to do.” (Isaiah 55:11, NKJV) Each of us is being matured and perfected into His image. It cannot be done without each of us choosing to spend time alone with Him! Daily, we become more aware or intimate with Him as we read the Word, listen to His voice and get to know Him personally, by doing His will.
Ecclesiastes 3 says, “To everything there is a season… and a time to every purpose under heaven.” The season of my life at this time is an eye-opening one where I am suddenly seeing deeper meaning in Jesus’ parables. Here’s an example:
A youth director prepared his church’s meal and program for one of our Veteran’s lunches. His teens were to provide music and help with food prep and visits. But his other job called, which meant things would not be done as so carefully planned. In his frustration, all he could do was hurriedly grab some take-out food and come without the kids to quickly deliver his message, the parable in John 5:1-9: The Man at the Pool at Bethesda. The paralyzed man had lain for 38 years beside the pool, praying for someone to put him into the waters for healing. Jesus asked him, “Do you want to be healed?” The man replied, “No one will help me.”
Jesus said, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” When the man did, he was cured at once. What a message! (Notice that Jesus never said, “Be healed.” Later, I read this in several Bible translations and indeed, he never said it.) Jesus wanted action, something to change the rut in which the man was stuck. Jesus wanted to change not just the physical rut, but the spiritual, mental and emotional ones too. Once the man quit focusing on his own helpless, disappointed-that-life-didn’t-turn-out-the-way-he’d-planned mindset, and instead, believed his Lord and Savior’s plan for him, he simply got up and walked.
We all have a tendency to throw a ‘pity party’ when our plans don’t work out. We all get disappointed and take up those ‘poor, pitiful me’ attitudes. We become discouraged and lose faith because God isn’t giving us what we think we should have. We are depressed because we are so focused on our own misery, that we can’t see how much MORE God has planned for us. God didn’t want that paralyzed man sitting in the pool at Bethesda. The Almighty wanted that man up and walking around town. Wow! I’ve been that short-sighted. I’ve also worked with physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually paralyzed people who have learned to drag out their misery by focusing on themselves and their own ideas of happiness rather than God’s better plan.
That day, I saw the deeper point of the parable. There were other teens in the building helping and I got to watch their intense reactions as they, too, learned a new thing. The youth director saw much more impact from the lunch that followed God’s plan. The veterans and lunch guests are still talking about it. For over three weeks God kept leading me to see the same message in different parables during my daily Bible readings. For example, John 9:1-7 is the story of Jesus healing a blind man. To him, Jesus said “GO!” – Not ‘be healed’.
When the man obeyed, he came home seeing. Another parable, Mark 2:3-5, told of friends lowering a man down through a roof right in front of Jesus, who did not say to be healed. Jesus stated that it was their act of faith that made the man whole again… Now I see this everywhere I look. So this has become my ecclesiastical season of ACTION — acting on my faith that God has a better plan than I can imagine if I will release my limited vision and plans to focus on His.
There is more to come. Please check these scriptures in your Bible and other translations. In Jesus’ name, ask Father God and His Holy Spirit to open your eyes, mind, and heart to new revelations to rise and come up higher… starting today!