Does a farmer always plow and never sow? Is he forever cultivating the soil and never planting? Does he not finally plant his seeds—black cumin, cumin, wheat, barley, and emmer wheat—each in its proper way, and each in its proper place? The farmer knows just what to do, for God has given him understanding. Isaiah 28:24-25 NL Even the stork that flies across the sky knows the time of her migration, as do the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane. They all return at the proper time each year. But not my people! They do not know the Lord’s laws (mishpat).
Jeremiah 8:7 NLT
Yahweh, the Creator, built into the world an order of things which, if followed, will produce a flourishing of life, a flourishing that grows out of harmonious relations. The Hebrew word for that order is mishpat which is regularly translated “justice” or “judgment.” While these are not incorrect translations, they are very limiting and often open to misunderstanding. Yes, if we treat one another fairly, not taking advantage of one another, not oppressing one another, we are living according to mishpat, but it is more than that. “Justice” is not stealing, not murdering, not committing adultery, not lying (about our neighbor), and not letting ourselves get eaten up on the inside because our neighbor has something we don’t. It is when we begin to say that “justice” means I have as much right to the good stuff you have as you have a right to it, whether I have ever worked for it or not, that we begin not to understand God’s order for life.
The people of Isaiah’s and Jeremiah’s day had as much trouble believing there is an immutable order of things in the spiritual world as we do. Like them, we want to please ourselves at all costs and not have any consequences for living in that way. Like them, we want to take the easy way and expect big payoffs. So each of these prophets use examples from nature to show that the order of life (mishpat) is built in and never up for renegotiation. The scripture passages are above. Jeremiah uses the migration of birds, and Isaiah uses the rhythms of farming. The bird will never migrate north in the winter, and the farmer will not keep on plowing all the time. Neither of them will “get bent out of shape” because these patterns “have been imposed” on them by some tyrannical Creator.
Called To Be Transformed 