Justice Will Roll Down
“Oh my love, you have grown so cold
To the world outside, to the house next door
She who has been loved much, has so much to give
Mercy is the fragrance of the broken
Justice will roll down, oh justice will roll down
From high upon those mountains with a mighty river sound
It will roll down
It will roll down
Oh my child, I will be your light
In your secret pain, in the dark of night
No enemy, no conqueror, will steal your life from me
I am your salvation, and your victory
Justice will roll down, oh justice will roll down
From high upon those mountains with a mighty river sound
It will roll down
It will roll down
Soon oh soon, when the trumpet sounds
Every knee shall bend, every heart will pound
I have made a new world, where the servant is the King
Oppression will be over, and the slave set free
Justice will roll down, oh justice will roll down
From high upon those mountains with a mighty river sound
It will roll down
It will roll down”
“Justice Will Roll Down”, In Feast or Fallow, Sandra McCracken {listen here}
In December 2019, I came across The Bible Recap — someone I attended college with mentioned it and I started it for the first time through on January 1, 2020. I won’t write much about it here since I’ve already done that. But still: four and a half years later, reading through the Bible with The Bible Recap in 2020 was a lifeline and game-changer for me!
Fast-forward to today: God’s Word is still my lifeline! Reading through the Bible again in 2021 and spending two years on it in 2022-2023, (and halfway through again this year), I have seen that being in God’s Word regularly, getting to know Him and His heart, has changed me. Irrevocably. As I see how His heart intersects with the world and its people, the more my heart aches for restoration and for His justice to roll down. Not vengeance or revenge, but His true justice.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments, I see so many stories showing the tension between scarcity and abundance. When we’re ruled by fear or live out of a scarcity mentality or a victim mentality, we miss out on the beauty and freedom of trusting God for provision and protection. We close our fists around our non-negotiables, when God calls us to hold things loosely and with open hands, and to trust Him to provide.
And while I know it’s human nature to stockpile and to fear that we won’t have what we need, the tendencies that I see prevailing among too many in this country today — and across the world — seem to be driven more by entitlement and the desire for power and control over others and less about making sure we have what we need.
Economic, political, and racial injustices… are contrary to the kingdom of God. God loves justice… social justice has been a kingdom agenda all along. Justice pushes light forward into a dark world.
— Sandra McCracken, Send Out Your Light, pp. 238 & 239
God loves justice! He delights in justice! His plan is to bring renewal to every layer of life — justice to all injustice; freedom to the captives and justice to the oppressed.
The problem is that we, His people, are flawed. We hoard and stockpile and exclude others. Scarcity makes its way into every part of us — affecting how we drive, how we vote, and how we view others. Scarcity causes us to get wrapped up in ourselves, grasping for a piece of the pie and trampling over whoever we need to in order to secure what is “ours”.
We operate out of a scarcity mindset when God has promised to provide all we need and to do so with abundance!
We are inherently tribal people. We gravitate toward people who are just like us. Our social habits are self-referential, and this is reinforced unless we experience the gospel breaking in to make us see and know one another.
God came to be one of us, to be with us while we were still His enemies. In doing so, He demonstrates love and empowers us to reach out in love toward one another. Across lines of hostility and apathy, we are invited and inspired to ask questions, to see the world through the eyes of someone else, and to be humbled by what we might discover about ourselves in the process.
— Sandra McCracken, Send Out Your Light, p. 240
So what can I do? How do I make myself operate out of a place of abundance over scarcity? The good news is that I can’t do it. Only God can change hearts — and He does! He is the Agent of every good thing in me.
Father, You are committed to justice and equality. In spite of my failures, You take my feeble efforts and my complacency and You move through me. Make me a vessel You can move and work through! Wake me up and remove my blinders. Even (and especially) when things are messy, give me Your eyes for people. Open my eyes to really see my neighbors and help me to push back against any entitlement or scarcity that creeps into my heart. Empower me not to be overwhelmed or daunted by the enormity of all that is going on in the United States and across the world. Help me to act and to do justly now. Let me love and extend mercy now. May I walk humbly now (Micah 6:8). And like the prophet Amos says in Amos 5:24, I ask You to “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream”.