Numbers 35-36 Forgiveness and Justice

February 26th, Numbers 35-36

       A couple of issues related to justice found in these chapters today. The first topic is Cities of Refuge. A City of Refuge was a place to go if you accidentally took the life of another. When you take the life of another human being, a family member of the victim has the right to take the life of the murderer. In order to save yourself in case of an accident you must flee to one of these cities. If your found guilty, it won't help but if it's determined to be an accident, your safe as long as you are in the city limits. There's a lot of clauses in the chapter... in the end, we all want justice.
       It's always an interesting topic when we combine justice and forgiveness. When do we do either, how do we decide? I can't imagine anyone is truly a proponent of all judges and courts pronouncing forgiveness for every party that comes through. That we would simply forgive every criminal for every deed. Open the doors of every prison and simply forgive the pedophile and let them work at an elementary school. That would seem more like injustice. Forgiveness might solve issues inside of me, but it would not take care of wrong in the world.
       I've noticed that justice feels bad to the one doing wrong, and injustice feels bad to the one who has done right. It's always an appeal to a feeling rather than a standard by which things are measured. People choose random standards by which they claim justice/injustice. If they are believers injustice is followed by "you have to forgive me."
       Suffice it to say these issues get intertwined and I could go on and on with scenarios about how confused people are in the midst of their interactions about the issue of justice and forgiveness. Parents raising children are at the heart of this. It would be well worth our while to sort out these matters. Even better to ask God for wisdom in the midst of life lived at full speed. It's no wonder Solomon asked for wisdom. A baby about to be cut in half will sort out the real mom(forgiveness, release) from the imposter(I lost mine, I don't care if you lose yours).      
         Enough of my rambling... how do you sort out issues of justice and forgiveness in your context?