Christian Ethics Essays (1551 words) - Bible, Christianity

Christian Ethics Exam 2, Lecture 2 We in our society are happy when we condemn other people. We as Christian cannot do it. The book of Isaiah Isaiah was trying to get the people of Israel to live exclusively according to the righteousness and justice of God. Rather than emulate the nations of Babylon, Assyrian and Egypt. Isaiah has a very clear notion of what justice is and that is the fair treatment of disadvantaged. He mentioned and the psalms mentioned this often and other prophet mentioned this and that is there are three special classes of people in Israel that are to be treated with special care, which are: the orphans, the widows and the strangers. You determine the justice of a society based on how they treat the orphans, the widows and the stranger. Now what do those three have in common? What an orphan and a widow have in common is no father, no male and no patriots. The patriot was the center of all authority and power. All inheritance passes from the patriot to the next patriot and so if you are a widow without a husband or an orphan without a father, you are not part of social power of society. You have not power because it is passed from male to male. The stranger are those people in Egypt who also came out with Moses and the Israelite in the exodus but they where not kin or decedents of Abraham, but they to were part of the protection and blessing of God from the exodus. The strangers were from a different ethical group. Everybody belongs somewhere in the world because in the book of number's it say I have access to land. The strangers had no access to any form of property, God blesses them but when they left Egypt they had no place to live. So the orphans, the widows and the stranger's do not have access to social power. They are what you call the disadvantage. Time and time again, Isaiah, the prophets and the psalms would tell us that we must treated these people fairly because according to Deuteronomy chapter 14 verse 29 (although he said Leviticus) 10% of what you have should go to the orphans, widows and strangers. This is justice. Isaiah form of justice is treating those who cannot take care of themselves fairly. Righteousness according to Isaiah is the right worship of God, which is we really recognize the uniqueness of God. That is one of the reasons why several time throughout Isaiah insults the idols. Righteousness is the right worship and the exclusive worship of God, while justice is to carry those who cannot carry themselves. Chapter 51 verse 17 The reason why Jerusalem is such a devastated and destructive place is because they wanted to emulate the other nations. They did not want to live by extreme righteousness and justice of God, so God judges them for them. Chapter 52 verse 1 This chapter talks about paradox and irony. Paradox those not mean contradiction. Contradiction is when two things don't have the same truth-values. A paradox can be both true but different. Para means aside while dox means opinion Two opinions that are aside but beside one another with different views. Redemption is eschatological according to Isaiah, which is it occurs in history but not according to historical cause. It occurs by God but not in a supernatural realm. What he describes in this chapter is that one-day Jerusalem holy city. It would be heaven on earth. Jerusalem would only become a holy city only if it is done directly by God. God those it not any other thing does it. Not another king, not another ruler, not another intuitions. This has to be done strictly by God otherwise it would just replicate the problem. Example was one of the greatest empires but now it is in ruins. So Isaiah say don't pattern yourself on something that would destroy you like the greed and the injustice but rather pattern yourself by being righteous and just and than you would become the holy city. Chapter 58 1-9 Muedfalsepiety Personal devotion should require social justice and righteousness. But the people of Israel try to manipulate God with