Justice delayed is justice denied. This adage is self-evidently true in the Christian world-view where justice involves restitution to victims, the damaged, and the hurt. The longer justice is delayed, the longer the damage borne. Therefore, to delay justice is to deny it for those to whom it is due.
In modern Athens access to the courts has become increasingly difficult, with many impediments—amongst which the greatest is cost. Justice has become the preserve of the rich or at least those wealthy enough to fund a prosecution or court hearing. A second significant impediment is the work load on the court system: overloaded dockets, with too few magistrates, coupled with an overly prescriptive and bureaucratic procedure mean that court operations are unduly complicated and delayed.
The ideals of justice are portrayed vividly in the account of Solomon's court. Solomon, being the king, was the Chief Justice and the highest court of the nation of Israel. This vignette represents the working of justice within Jerusalem at its best. We read in I Kings 3:
Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him. And the one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. And it happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on it.
“So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.” The the other woman said, “"No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son." But the first woman said, "No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." Thus they spoke before the king.
Then the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one'; and the other says, 'No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'" The king said, "Get me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king. The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."
Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him." But the other said, "He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!" Then the king said, "Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother."
When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.
Firstly, note that this is a civil case, where two citizens are in dispute—in this case, over a child. Yet the case also has criminal overtones since the one woman was endeavouring to steal a child: kidnapping is a criminal offence. The vast majority of cases that ought to be heard by judges or magistrates are civil cases—arising from a conflict or disagreement between citizens. The more emphasis, focus, and provision paid to civil cases and hearing disputes between people, the more biblical the system of justice becomes. A high priority placed upon civil cases helps preserve the accessibility of justice for all people—which, as we have argued, is fundamental to justice itself.
Athens has reversed this priority. In modern Unbelieving Athens the state is the most important entity of all. Its prerogatives and rights are virtually without check, since politicians occupy the highest court of the land. Within the Athenian model of justice criminal matters are far more important than civil matters. Justice is preoccupied with the prerogatives of the State. Offences against the State are to be prosecuted with vigour and the apparatus of justice focuses upon and centres around criminal justice. Civil actions have limited place—and in modern Athens are generally preserved for property disputes between larger businesses, or between corporations and government (either central or local).
Jerusalem pays far more attention to civil matters since this not only means that justice is accessible to all, but comprehensive civil justice helps nip matters in the bud before they escalate into full-blown criminal acts. The matter before Solomon is a case in point.
Secondly, the accessibility to the courts of justice for everyone—particularly the poor, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged—is underscored by the fact that these two women were prostitutes. Within Israel their social standing would have been parlous, to say the least. They were shunned and outcast from society. Yet the king, the highest judicial official, is open to hear their case. Within Jerusalem even the lowest, the most despised, and the outcast is to have access to justice. Everyone has a right to be heard and judged fairly. Solomon in all his glory did not consider it beneath his contempt to hear a case such as this. Rather, his glory is manifested in his insistence upon hearing and judging just such a case. It is glorious indeed that prostitutes and the child of a prostitute are dealt with so gravely and so carefully in the court.
Thirdly, the case shows that intrinsic to justice is discernment—of the facts, and between good and evil. This is what Solomon prayed for, when he said: “And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou has chosen, a great people who cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. So give Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Thine.” (I Kings 3:8—9)
Get the facts and discern hearts. That is an essential prerequisite of justice. Solomon's command to kill the child, dividing him between the two women was employed to discern the hearts. True motherhood showed itself, as did malicious envy, by means of this test.
If justice is to be accessible to all, the doors of its courts must be nearby for everyone. This necessitates an extensive system of lower and higher courts. Thus we should understand that the case of the two prostitutes and the disputed baby came before Solomon because it was a difficult case, that could not be resolved by the lower courts. When Moses, the lawgiver of God's people, established Israel's judicial system, it replaced Moses as the sole judge.
The account in Exodus reads as follows:
It came about the next day that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from the morning until the evening. Now when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand about you from morning until evening?" Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a (T)dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws."The civil courts in Israel went as low as a judge appointed for every ten families. That means that justice was extensive and accessible. The next highest court was a judge who presided over fifty families. Contrast this with the judicial system in Athens where courts are now distant, expensive, delayed, and practically inaccessible. Moreover, in Athens because the State has become so intrusive, and has broken its boundaries and moved way beyond its sphere of competence or delegated authority, the law has become inordinately complex and the domain of specialists, accessible only to the monied.
Moses' father-in-law said to him, "The thing that you are doing is not good. You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone. Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people's representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God, then teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.
"Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace."
So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens. They judged the people at all times; the difficult dispute they would bring to Moses, but every minor dispute they themselves would judge.
Exodus 18: 13—24
Therefore Athens is an intrinsically unjust society and implicitly bent towards a tyranny of systematically denied justice—an indictment which will grow more pointed and urgent as time passes. Justice in Athens is removed, expensive, bureaucratic, and complex. Justice in Jerusalem, the City of God, is close, inexpensive, direct, straightforward and accessible. Therefore, Jerusalem is rightly called the City of Peace. Athens, however, is a ceaseless tumult of the bitter and the angry.
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