“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
God is not speaking here. This is Abraham, using God’s role and attributes against Him, against what He has proposed to do, in destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”
It’s not a wrong question, though it almost seems to be a tautology. You see, what is justice? Who decides what is just? It must be some high authority, like a supreme court or something. No, it must be even higher than that, since the supreme court disagrees with its own self, as does every human authority structure. Opinions change.
But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it. Because when we ask about the source of “true justice,” then it must be based in something that does not change. It is based in God Himself. And here He is called “the Judge of all the earth.” He doesn’t give an opinion about what is truly just. He determines the very nature of justice. And that nature of justice cannot change because the character of God cannot change.
It seems abhorrent to Abraham that the wicked cities of the plain should be destroyed if there were even ten righteous people living there (and, there weren’t even ten). But what seems abhorrent to a particular person does not make it unjust. What is unjust is that which is contrary to the character of God.
We are in the middle of a fifty year firestorm in our country regarding the “justice” of abortion. It seems abhorrent to many that infants’ lives are snuffed out as though they have little value. It seems abhorrent to others that women are caught in a situation which compromises areas of life for the sake of the care of an infant. It is as though there are two parties listening to two different gods and deciding on two different justices, the one of which cripplingly damages the other.
God knows what is just. He knows what is right. The Bible reveals God as the Giver of life, and we are bound to defend life, especially in its weakest, indefensible forms. This would certainly apply to infants in the womb. Yes, God cares about the economic concerns of a woman pressed hard by another mouth to feed. God cares that other, older children may not eat because this mother cannot work. But God is just. He is judge. His good gift, the gift of life, must be protected. We must stand for justice, and, we must care.
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