judges

• judges

72:2.1This con­ti­nen­tal na­tion now has a rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment with a cen­trally lo­cated na­tional cap­i­tal. The cen­tral gov­ern­ment con­sists of a strong fed­er­a­tion of one hun­dred com­par­a­tively free states. These states elect their gov­er­nors and leg­is­la­tors for ten years, and none are el­i­gi­ble for re-elec­tion. State judges are ap­pointed for life by the gov­er­nors and con­firmed by their leg­is­la­tures, which con­sist of one rep­re­sen­ta­tive for each one hun­dred thou­sand cit­i­zens.

132:4.8Meet­ing a poor man who had been falsely ac­cused, Je­sus went with him be­fore the mag­is­trate and, hav­ing been granted spe­cial per­mis­sion to ap­pear in his be­half, made that su­perb ad­dress in the course of which he said: “Jus­tice makes a na­tion great, and the greater a na­tion the more so­lic­i­tous will it be to see that in­jus­tice shall not be­fall even its most hum­ble cit­i­zen. Woe upon any na­tion when only those who pos­sess money and in­flu­ence can se­cure ready jus­tice be­fore its courts! It is the sa­cred duty of a mag­is­trate to ac­quit the in­no­cent as well as to pun­ish the guilty. Upon the im­par­tial­ity, fair­ness, and in­tegrity of its courts the en­durance of a na­tion de­pends. Civil gov­ern­ment is founded on jus­tice, even as true re­li­gion is founded on mercy.” The judge re­opened the case, and when the ev­i­dence had been sifted, he dis­charged the pris­oner. Of all Je­sus’ ac­tiv­i­ties dur­ing these days of per­sonal min­istry, this came the near­est to be­ing a pub­lic ap­pear­ance.

128:6.7The morn­ing fol­low­ing their sec­ond day in prison Je­sus ap­peared be­fore the mil­i­tary mag­is­trate in be­half of Jude. By mak­ing apolo­gies for his brother’s youth and by a fur­ther ex­plana­tory but ju­di­cious state­ment with ref­er­ence to the provoca­tive na­ture of the episode which had led up to the ar­rest of his brother, Je­sus so han­dled the case that the mag­is­trate ex­pressed the opin­ion that the young Jew might have had some pos­si­ble ex­cuse for his vi­o­lent out­burst. Af­ter warn­ing Jude not to al­low him­self again to be guilty of such rash­ness, he said to Je­sus in dis­miss­ing them: “You had bet­ter keep your eye on the lad; he’s li­able to make a lot of trou­ble for all of you.” And the Ro­man judge spoke the truth. Jude did make con­sid­er­able trou­ble for Je­sus, and al­ways was the trou­ble of this same na­ture—clashes with the civil au­thor­i­ties be­cause of his thought­less and un­wise pa­tri­otic out­bursts.

97:5.5Micah de­nounced “the rulers who judge for re­ward and the priests who teach for hire and the proph­ets who di­vine for money.” He taught of a day of free­dom from su­per­sti­tion and priestcraft, say­ing: “But ev­ery man shall sit un­der his own vine, and no one shall make him afraid, for all peo­ple will live, each one ac­cord­ing to his un­der­stand­ing of God.”