“Question & Answer”

Question:

What is Isaiahs’s demand for social justice?

Answer:

Isaiah was a prophet who demanded that the kings not just pay lip service to justice, but implement it in practice. He insisted that people should “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17 NIV: Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.). Isaiah is just as insistent in his demand for justice as other prophets such as Amos or Jeremiah. The prophetic word exposes collective, societal sins, such as denying justice to orphans, widows and the poor can’t say it enough. After announcing God’s judgment on nations and rulers, Isaiah reveals God’s vision of a just future as nonviolence (Isaiah 2:4 NIV: He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.), equity for the poor (Isaiah11:4 NIV: but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. ) and a renewed creation (Isaiah 65:17-25 NIV: “See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them. Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,” says the Lord.)