Isaiah 59: 12 - 14 Justice stands far off
| Isaiah 59: 12 - 14 ( King James Version ) |
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| Verse 12: For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us, for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; |
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| Verse 13: In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, speaking opression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. |
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| Verse 14: And judgement is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. |
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| Isaiah 59: 12 - 14 ( New International Version ) |
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| v. 12 > For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are even with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities: |
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| v. 13 > rebellion and treachery against the Lord, Turning our backs on our God, formenting oppression and revolt, uttering lies our hearts have conceived. |
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| v. 14 > So justice is driven back and righteousness stands at a distance, the truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty can not enter. |
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| Text Quoted in Spirit of Prophecy |
| Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are actuated by desire for gain and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded the faculties of many so that Satan has almost complete control of them. Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded. Drunkenness and revelry, passion, envy, dishonesty of every sort, are represented among those who administer the laws. "Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Isaiah 59: 14. Great Controversy, page 586.1 |
What is the condition in the world today? Is not faith in the Bible as effectually destroyed by the higher criticism and speculation of today as it was by tradition and rabbinism in the days of Christ? Have not greed and ambition and love of pleasure as strong a hold on men's hearts now as they had then? In the professedly Christian world, even in the professed churches of Christ, how few are governed by Christian principles. In business, social, domestic, even religious circles, how few make the teachings of Christ the rule of daily living. Is it not true that "justice standeth afar off: . . . equity cannot enter. . . . And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey"? Isaiah 59:14, 15. {MH 142.3}
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| The enemy has succeeded in perverting justice and in filling men's hearts with the desire for selfish gain. "Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Isaiah 59:14. In the great cities there are multitudes living in poverty and wretchedness, well-nigh destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; while in the same cities are those who have more than heart could wish, who live luxuriously, spending their money on richly furnished houses, on personal adornment, or worse still, upon the gratification of sensual appetites, upon liquor, tobacco, and other things that destroy the powers of the brain, unbalance the mind, and debase the soul. The cries of starving humanity are coming up before God, while by every species of oppression and extortion men are piling up colossal fortunes. {9T 11.4} |
| This is a picture of what exists today. "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey." Isaiah 59: 14, 15. {9T 91.2} |
| Isaiah 59: 19 is under construction |
| Thus "when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." Isaiah 59:19. {GC 599.3} |