Deu 16:19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.
Bribery is in the news today – at least in news sources that want to expose it. We are seeing this evil at the highest levels of our nation. Payoffs. Hush money. Selling out national security for personal gain. The justice system being bought.
This is nothing new however. If you take a concordance or your computer Bible program and do a simple search for the word “bribe,” you will be surprised how often this wickedness is addressed by the Lord. For example:
Deu 10:17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
Deu 27:25 “‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Psa 15:5 He who walks blamelessly….who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
Psa 15:5 who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved.
Pro 17:23 The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.
Pro 17:23 The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice.
And on and on we could go. Bribery, I am sure we can say, is an evil that permeates our nation and the world. By definition it negates justice. It denies the rights of victims and enables the wicked. Bribery is the selling of souls. It is sacrificing the oppressed on the altar of greed.
How does this evil come into play when it comes to the oppression of abuse victims? The answer is plain – money changes hands in the justice system. If not literal cash, certainly for favors conferred. Justice is supposed to be blind (think of the justice statue with the balances – she is wearing a blindfold).
I wonder. On the day when Christ comes and judges the secrets of men, how many judges and other officials and politicians who are supposed to be giving justice to the oppressed…how many of them are going to have their secret acceptance of bribes put right up on the big screen for all to see? How much cash and how many benefits are being exchanged every single day which buy favor for the wicked and sell the rights of their victims? I suspect the answer will be astonishing.
Bribery disguises itself under various “acceptable” terms. Lobbying. Favors. Riders on proposed legislation. Business expenses. But at its heart it is always the same evil. It is the purchase of “justice” for the wicked. The one with the wealth can buy it while the poor are denied.
How many local churches and their leaders are bought in this way so that instead of defending the oppressed, they favor the wicked?
Jas 2:1-4 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. (2) For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, (3) and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” (4) have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
And again-
Jas 5:4-6 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. (5) You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. (6) You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The day is coming. Justice is coming. Jesus is coming – and those who have sold justice by taking a bribe, who have oppressed the widow and orphan, are going to pay. There will be no mercy found for them. Only perfect and holy justice.
Dee
Thank you, Pastor Crippen! In the city of Chicago it seems to be every where I look, first and foremost in the condominium complex that I live in. Even I have been offered bribes. Nothing gave me more pleasure than shutting the door in each of these individuals faces. My soul is not for sale for anybody. They are so used to lowlifes bowing down to them and their cash that they simply take it for granted that everyone will oblige them. You better believe that when one of us who walk in the light of Christ enters a room of them, their demons get so restless, they literally cannot contain themselves. As always, your timing is perfect. Peace and blessings to you in this new year and always.
Kaye
For our family it comes in the forms of gifts and acts of service. As you have said, it negates justice and enables the wicked. If a family member has done verbal damage to another all is right with the world if they slather a favor or a gift over the offense/wound. Gifts take away all rights it seems of the person who would speak up and say, I don’t like how you are treating me.
If a person in an abusive family chooses not to participate in “guilt giving” look out. You will now endure the “I’m sorry you feel that way but I just wanted to spread some Christmas cheer/I think we should agree to disagree….. etc…” backhanded way of saying I do not value your feelings and why don’t you go with the program and let us gloss over all of this with “Christmas cheer”. No thanks. I may be scum to my family for calling out abusive behavior and not allowing a gift to be bribery for fake peace…..but I’m a free scumbag, lol..woo hoo.
Jeff Crippen
“Free scumbag”. Yes!!! 👍
true
This hit home. The abuser hired at least 1 high profile criminal attorney….who had links to the very ones who were supposed to have represented the one he horribly abused….. and ultimately the abuser walked…. again….professing his Christianity the whole time…..
Jeff Crippen
A perfect example of this evil. And very very common.
Z
Exactly what happened in the legal case I and my husband brought against my ex-family for a weapon attack on us. My ex-father lied as a “witness” (he was part of the prepared conspiracy to attack us!) & he got my husband arrested falsely along with my ex-brother, the attacker. The whole ex-family helped hide the weapon from the police & they already had their lies against us coordinated. The police told us they knew they were lying! But they “had to” arrest my husband the victim. Not true of course. They were just lazy & wanted to pass it off to the courts. They pretended they couldn’t get a search warrant for the weapon they clearly knew was used on my husband. It was outlined on his face! The police said “It’s Christmas so we’ll never get a judge to sign a warrant. They don’t want to be bothered on Christmas.” We were afraid to make things worse for ourselves by arguing with the police about their dismissiveness of known lies by the attacker & his family of allies as well the hidden weapon. So we pushed the police to do their jobs but didn’t push harder.
We hired an attorney who used to be a prosecutor-thinking he’d be more likely to know about the slimey tactics and lies of abusers.
The defendant hired a local politician who is also a lawyer. A known corrupt politician in a very corrupt state.
Turned out our lawyer and the defendant’s lawyer knew each other. Our lawyer had just won his race for the same group of state politicians the defendant’s lawyer has long been part of. And they BOTH knew the judge!
Well, no justice was served that day. Our lawyer made a deal (very likely for a future favor for HIMSELF from the more “experienced & connected” corrupt politician) that was not in the best interest of his clients-us-the victims.
We had clear evidence with pictures of my husband’s bludgeoned face with the outline of the particular weapon clearly on his face and of the attacker without a mark on him. Did our lawyer ever show that evidence to the judge? Nope.
We had the written statement by my ex-father as a false witness that had his blatant lies right in it! Contradicted himself throughout. Did our lawyer show the judge so she could dismiss the clearly false charges my husband faced? Based on a liar’s lies? Who aided and abetted the crime & obstructed after the fact by hiding the weapon in his house & writing out a false witness statement? Nope.
His reason? She’s well known to ALWAYS been known to want to force a deal. Or else she keeps BOTH sides’ charges in place. We asked, “Even with all the evidence we have?” He said, “You can’t afford to take this to trial. And that’s the only way the judge will get to see & hear your evidence.” Not true. The evidence could have been presented that day! That was the purpose of the hearing! We were disgusted. My husband had no choice but to agree to his attacker’s charges being dropped in order for his own false charges to be dropped. He didn’t want those charges on his spotless record. What a sham. And a shame. We were played by our ambitious political animal lawyer. No one cared about the serious injuries my husband suffered at the hands of a maniac & his family of abusers as his allies.
This kind of additional abuse by the police & the lawyers & the judicial system never stops haunting victims. We PAID BIG MONEY to a self-serving lawyer to sell us out. And he used the fact that we couldn’t afford to take it to trial as leverage to force us to “play ball” so HE could get what he wanted. Future favors in his political career from the other corrupt lawyer/politician.
Then we got shunned by all our relatives and friends and church friends for calling police on “family”. Lifelong abusers, known as such by all those enablers since my childhood abuses. A violent maniac “family”. And they all ran to their sides.
Trauma after trauma after trauma….
CPTSD is real & it’s so hard to overcome.
Thank God for Jesus to have walked with us every step of the way. He is still often carrying us when we can’t stand from the weight of it all.