Day 184 Isaiah 8:1–11:16



He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;



This section of Isaiah is largely familiar to Christians because of the large role it plays in our Advent season, the season before Christmas. For unto us a child is born. It’s also familiar because of Handel’s Messiah. After we hear all of the familiar parts about the wonderful counselor coming, the passage continues with the section about the peaceable kingdom. A shoot will come from the stump of Jesse, and then the lion will lay down with the lamb, and the children will play over the adder’s nest.

After that familiar bit, we get this gem. This Prince of Peace will not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear. Rather, he will use righteousness and equity to deal with the poor and meek. I like this because it separates the senses most of us tend to use when making judgment – eyes and ears – from the more intuitive and internal tools of discerning righteousness and equity. It’s as if righteousness and equity do not come from eyes and ears, they don’t come from the tools we normally use when making judgements.

I would love to suggest we just need to be more like Jesus, and judge with that internal sense of righteousness and equity to make good and proper judgments. The problem is that I’m not sure how two different people can approach the same situation and end up coming up with the same righteous and equitable judgement. I base my understanding of what’s equitable and righteous on what I’ve learned, my upbringing, my nature, my nurture, my whole self. Everyone does the same thing, and since my whole self is unlike anyone else’s, my conclusions are likely to be unlike anyone else’s too. Perhaps we can get closer if we all use the same source – Love God. Love your neighbor. But even that leaves so much room for discord and disagreement. So not only can we not rely on our eyes and ears, neither should we presume that our internal sense of righteousness and equity is spot on. Only God’s is. Maybe we should leave the judgment to God.