Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, and therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; how blessed are all those who long for Him. (Isaiah 30:18)

Harkening back to Exodus 34:6-7 where God showed Moses His glory in the cleft of the rock, we again see Yahweh revealing Himself to be gracious, compassionate and righteous. In fact, He is “The LORD, God of justice.” This is great news for all of humanity. For some, the greatness of this is good news, in that He will vindicate the innocent; but to others the greatness of this is bad news, for He will punish the guilty.

As for Israel, whom the Lord addresses through Isaiah here, there is coming a time when God will hear their cry over being oppressed, destitute and famished. The land once destroyed would again become plentiful and well-watered (important for an agrarian society). They will recognize that these things are not provided by the provincial gods they were continually tempted to worship, but come from the hand of Yahweh, God of justice (Isaiah 30:19-26).

But for the guilty, the prophet writes:

Behold, the name of the LORD comes from a remote place; burning is His anger and dense is His smoke; His lips are filled with indignation and His tongue is like a consuming fire; His breath is like an overflowing torrent, which reaches to the neck, to shake the nations back and forth in a sieve, and to put in the jaws of the peoples the bridle which leads to ruin. (Is 30:27–28)

“Justice” is a major theme of the book of Isaiah: the word itself occurs 26 times, and “righteousness” comes in 68 times in our English Bible (NASB). God is concerned about injustice by other nations against Israel, but also injustices within Israel. Early in the book, he wrote of Jerusalem, “How the faithful city has become a harlot, she who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, but now murderers” (Is 1:21). For, “He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; for righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress” (Is 5:7).

Yes, He is Yahweh, God of justice, and He requires us to be just in our dealings with others also. The prophet Micah intones this as well:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

Lord, since justice is so important to You, help me to mirror that characteristic toward others.