Wisdom and Righteousness – The Kingdom Curriculum IX (4)

Wisdom and Righteousness

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16

“You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment. You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.” Deuteronomy 16:18, 19

A Rule of Wisdom and Righteousness

Parents are sometimes accused of “playing favorites” by their children (think: Tommy Smothers–“Mom always liked you best”). This can happen when parents try too hard to be their children’s “best friends” or when they try to get them to do what they want by granting special favors. Parents who relate to their children in such ways may justify their actions by insisting that they make the children obey. In fact, what is happening is that children, by their behavior, are bribing their parents and manipulating them, making parents respect and honor their wishes, rather than the other way around.

Public officials are just as susceptible to these ploys as are parents. In the last phrase of our text we find the qualifications for office-holders. They were to be wise and righteous. Wisdom–which means, literally, “skill in living”–relates to the proper application of God’s Law to specific situations in life. A person could not be considered wise, therefore, who was ignorant of God’s Law or who did not have long experience practicing and living according to that Law. Those elected as judges and officers in Israel were also called elders. They had simply been at the study and application of God’s Law longer than most other people.

But wisdom was not enough. Civic authorities were also expected to be righteous, and this goes beyond what we see on the outside to what is in a man’s soul. A righteous man is one whose heart is pure. His mind entertains clean and wholesome thoughts. His conscience has as its first priority pleasing God in all situations. When you go to elect public officials, don’t hesitate to ask them about what’s in their hearts and minds, and what are their primary values. And look to the record of their lives to see if wisdom has been consistently present. Only the truly wise and righteous will be able to resist the ploys of a manipulative public and stand consistently for the truth of God.

Daily meditation in God’s Law is the mark of a righteous person (Ps. 1). Order your copy of The Law of God today, and begin to discover the beauty, goodness, and truth of God’s Law for yourself. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry ave appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.