GOD PRONOUNCES JUDGMENT- Part 1

WHAT IS JUDGMENT?

Judgment can be defined as a calamity or a misfortune or a divine punishment due to an offence against a fellow brethren, an organization, a nation, a society or an offence as human beings we do against our maker. Judgment can also be defined as the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions concerning a matter of a law court. God is the judge of all the earth; His judgment which is always right began with man’s first sin. Because none of us lives up to God’s righteousness standards, judgment always hangs over our head. The Bible tells us that God expressed His anger in judgment in order to punish sin, to reveal Himself as God, to drive His people to repentance, and to purify them. Yet, God’s judgment always includes elements of both justice and grace. Beloved, we must remember that judgment is not God’s last word to those who believe in Him, for mercy wins out over judgment. The Bible also speaks of God’s final judgment, entrusted by the Father to the Son. Some think the Bible refers to several judgments done by Christ in the end times; others think that there will be only one. In any case, at the last judgment all will have to give an account, and all will be judged according to what they have done in this world. Through the final judgment those rejecting Christ will be punished eternally, and believers will be saved, though some will suffer a loss of reward (1 Cor. 3:15), “If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

HOW DOES GOD PRONOUNCE JUDGMENT?

Moab was a very proud nation. It had taken part with the Chaldeans against Judah. But God pronounced judgment against it through His servant Jeremiah the prophet thus, “No more praise of Moab. In Heshbon they have devised evil against her; ‘Come and let us cut her off as a nation.’ You also shall be cut down, O Madmen! The sword shall pursue you” (Jer. 48:2). Nebo was a mountain and town of Moab. It would be destroyed, Kirjathaim, another city of Moab, would be captured. Heshbon would be captured, and from there an attack would be mounted against the rest of the nation. Because of her trust in her own achievements and wealth, Moab’s cities would be destroyed. No city would escape. They would no longer receive praise their mighty warriors and their victories in battle. The choicest young men would be killed while trying to defend their cities. This was God’s judgment on the nation for their sins against Israel, whom they had made a laughingstock. “Come down from your glory,” cried the prophet (v. 18). Instead of praise, there was humiliation and shame. The Psalmist states, “The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy” (Ps. 145:20).

JUDGMENT AS A THEME OF EXODUS

God pronounces judgment of the fathers against their children to the third and forth generation. Therefore, my beloved brethren, put in mind that whatever wickedness you do today, it will affect your innocent generation; as some of us do suffer innocently for the wickedness of our fore fathers, not unless the curse is broken. (Exod. 34:7), “The Lord keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” We cannot ignore the theme of judgment in the book of Exodus. Because of Pharaoh’s sinful oppression of the children of Israel and his persistent refusal to obey the command of God to let them leave, God sent the ten plagues, culminating in the death of every firstborn Egyptian son ;(Exod. 12:29-30), “And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was on the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. So Pharaoh arose at night, he, all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead,” later God drowned the entire army of Pharaoh in the Red Sea (Exod. 14:28-29), “Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came to the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained. But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a fall to them on their right hand and on their left.” But God also judged the Israelites when they worshiped the golden calf: (Exod. 32:27-28, 35), “And Moses said to the Israelites, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel; ‘Let everyone put his sword on his side, and go in and out from entrance to entrance throughout the camp and let every man kill his brother, every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’” So the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, three thousand were killed by the Levites at Moses’ command and more died when the Lord struck the people with a plague.”  It is little wonder that the Israelites developed a wholesome fear of the Lord. God’s anger and judgment is always related to sin and disobedience; (Exod. 20:4-5; 23:7), “You shall not make for yourself a carved image- any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me;” (Exo, 23:7-8), “Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and the righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. And shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the word of the righteous.”  Beloved, today He calls us like the Israelites, to obey His will. Let’s not harden our hearts.

JUDGMENT AS A THEME OF SECOND KINGS

Because every king in Israel and twelve out of twenty kings in Judah were wicked, much of second Kings describes judgment, (2 Kgs. 17:22) “For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which He did; they did not depart from them.” Using Jehu as His agent, God completely annihilated the dynasty of Ahab, who had led the Israelites into the worship of Baal (2 Kgs. 9:7-10), “You shall struck down the house of Ahab your master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab all the males in Israel, both bond and free. So I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. The dogs shall eat Jezebel on the plot of ground at Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her;” (2 Kgs. 9:30-33), “Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head, and looked through a window. Then, as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, “Is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master?” And he looked up at the window, and said, “Who is on my side? Who?” So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. Then He said, “Throw her down.” So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her underfoot.”  My beloved brethren lets continue to see, how God pronounced judgment against Ahab and his wife Jezebel; and destroyed the entire generation, even the innocent ones. It’s my prompt prayer that we are getting some knowledge from this; it is again my plea beloved, that we adjust our ways if really we care for our generation to come. (2 Kgs. 10:6-17),”Then He wrote a second letter to them saying; “If you are for me and will obey my voice, take the heads of the men, your master’s sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow. Now the king’s sons, seventy persons, were with the great men of the city, who were rearing them. So it was, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons and slaughtered seventy persons, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel. Then a messenger came and told him, saying, “They have brought the heads of the king’s sons.” And he said; Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until morning.” So it was, in the morning, that he went and stood, and said to all the people, “You are righteous. Indeed I conspired against my master and killed him; but who killed all these? Know now that nothing shall fall to the earth of the word of the Lord which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord has done what He spoke by His servant Elijah.” So Jehu killed all who remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men and his close acquaintances and his priests, until he left him none remaining. And he arose and departed and went to Samaria. On the way, at Beth Eked of the shepherds, Jehu met with the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah, and said, “Who are you?” So they answered, “We are the brothers of Ahaziah; we have come down to greet the sons and the sons of the queen mother,” And he said, “Take them alive!” So they took them alive and killed them at the well of Beth Eked, forty-two men; and he left none of them. Now when he departed from there, he met Jehonadab the son of Rechab, coming to meet him; and he greeted him and said to him, “Is your heart right, as my heart is toward your heart?” And Jehonadab answered, “It is.” Jehu said, “If it is, give me your hand.” So he gave him his hand, and he took him up to him into the chariot. Then he said, Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord.” So they had him ride in his chariot. And when he came to Samaria, he killed all who remained to Ahab in Samaria, till he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to Elijah.”

ON NOT TOLERATING EVIL

Paul the Apostle reminded us that we should not be deceived, “Evil Company corrupts good habits.”  Apostle Peter, John, Jude, the psalmist, the preacher etc. warned against this. Can you imagine, the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah were very innocent, and their grand-father Jehoshaphat had walked righteously with God, and because they allied with the house of Ahab; they too perished together with the house of Ahab! Jehu had been raised up by the Lord to get rid of the apostate dynasty of Omri, Ahab and Jezebel. Among other things, these backsliders had introduced into the life of Israel worship of the pagan god Baal on a massive scale. Seventy descendants of Omri and Ahab remained. The townspeople, rather than chose one of these seventy to defend them, submitted to Jehu’s ultimatum that these survivors be executed. But for so doing they were not murderers, or guilty, but “righteous” or as the Hebrew word translates literally, “just.”  In this context, to be “righteous” means to oppose aggressively all forms of evil. Whatever Jesus meant by letting the tares grow together with the wheat, He certainly did not mean that believers should adopt an attitude of passivity toward evil, or learn to tolerate contentedly all manner of sin and vice. It is so dangerously easy for Christians to accept and justify the status quo. When that happens the voice of compromise has muted the voice of protest. Thus we open the gates for Satan to have his day. Jehu was used by God to annihilate the entire house of Ahab, yet he himself continued the worship of the golden calves and his dynasty fared no better. During the next fifteen years, the royal family in Israel changed four times, until finally God punished the entire northern kingdom for her idolatry and disobedience by the destruction of Samaria. And even though two of Judah’s later kings, Hezekiah and Josiah, were the best kings they had had, God judged Judah as He had prophesied, because of the lengthy idolatrous reign of Manasseh. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land and besieged Jerusalem, broke through its defenses, destroyed the temple and carried the people into captivity. Sin can never remain unpunished before God my beloved brethren.

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph.5:8).

“Grace to you and Favor from God our Father and the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen and Amen and Amen.”