His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
-John 2v17
Today we as Christians are very zealous for good things; we are zealous for love, for grace, for gentleness, humility, patience and giving- all amazingly good things! But are we zealous for knowing the Lord's judgments? Are we zealous for knowing His justice and His righteousness? The only thing the Bible ever says Jesus was zealous for was for an act of judgement through which His temple was completely cleared of those that had made His House into a place of merchandise and the merchandise itself. The Lord, in that one act, forever set the standard by which the Church would be accountable to, and forever in that one act did Jesus ensure His people knew exactly where His heart was at when it came to the worship of the Lord, and the honour that attends, and should attend, that name.
Are we zealous for the Lord's judgments in the same way, even as King David was?
Psalm 119v7 ...'When I learn Your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep Your statutes...'
13 With my lips I have declared
All the judgments of Your mouth.
20 My soul breaks with longing
For Your judgments at all times.
30 I have chosen the way of truth;
Your judgments I have laid before me.
62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You,
Because of Your righteous judgments.
75 I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right...
137 Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright are Your judgments.
160 The entirety of Your word is truth,
And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever.
(And the scriptures above are just from 1 Psalm!)
Or do we shy away from judgment because we do not understand it? If we don't understand it, we need to search the Word to find out exactly what it is, and how He works such things. Whether in the Old or New Testament, His judgments are there, and the Lord has not stopped working according to His character, whether in either testament. Though there is grace now because of the cross, still His judgment lingers over those that haven't been washed in it (Rom 1v18 + John 3v18). And though His grace covers and washes all the sins of His people, still He reserves the right to discipline us with acts of judgment according to His good and gracious wisdom (1 Peter 4v17-19) to grow us and to keep our hearts and lives following His path.
There are so many things that are wonderful about the judgements of God. Through His judgment He purifies and renews, revives and refreshes. Through such things the world of old during Noah's time was set free, in a major sense, of a load of corrupting and polluting sin, unrighteous and all its deadly effects and consequences. Through judgments the Lord stems the tide of evil, removes and replaces rulers, renews vision, replaces hardened hearts, reminds us of His power, reveals His wisdom, sets His people free, saves the unsaved, testifies to His truth and the Word of God, reminds the world of judgment and sin, and the judgment and grace to come, and orders all things according to His good and wise will. We must also remind ourselves that BECAUSE OF JUDGMENT, grace was enabled to fully be given to us and a needy world in the first place, and that because Jesus was judged in our place, all of us that believe may go free! From this we see that judgment is often used by the Lord to set new paths and highways for His Spirit to tread, both into the inroads of our hearts and the hearts of both the great and small within nations. Judgments often bring in the greatest moves of God, and the greatest times of revival for the people of God. Judgment kept the Church practically Holy in Paul's day (1 Cor 11v30) and at it's beginning after the cross (Acts 5). And finally it is with judgment that God will usher in the end of all sin, and thus a new heaven and earth, and the permanent and visible Kingdom of God.
Yes, when learning of the judgements of God there are hard things to encounter, and sorrowful things to understand and bear also; things that bring perplexity to our mortal minds and our limited understanding, and that often offend the fleshly part of us that still tries to rise up (and our sensibilities which are so often unknowingly influenced by the dictates, fashions and reasonings of the world around us) but we shouldn't allow these things to bar the way to us understanding that in the midst of all, He is Sovereign, Just, Wise and Good; and that whatever He does via judgment, He does according to such a criteria. And so we must remind ourselves that all His acts are GOOD, HOLY, WISE, BENEFICIAL AND JUST, not just those acts that we can understand, and that we find easy to identify with and to uphold and promote. Understanding His judgment means that we will, all the more, understand just how valuable His love and His grace really is, for it is by one, that we can understand the other. We will also understand that in judging, God is still gracious, and that in being gracious, God is still just.
Lastly, it is of paramount importance that we come to, not only understand judgment, but to love it. Not because judgment often brings destruction, but because the God who judges is Just and Good, and when He judges, it is needful and beneficial, no matter the cost. We are living in a day today when the time is soon approaching where the judgments of God will be made more particularly manifest, and to a time when God will choose to judge in a more severe and particular manner than what we have known in recent times. To know why, all we have to do is to look at the society around us. If we still do not understand why, surely we are in some kind of trouble, to not recognise what sin is around us, and the awful affect it is having on the minds and hearts our nation and the nations around the world. God is coming to judge for these things, and He is righteous in doing so. When we understand judgment, and the God who judges, we too shall be able to firmly stick by our Lord and stick close to His banner, though all the world may rally to hate both Him and us, for doing such a thing. The time is coming where many, even unknowingly to themselves, will have to choose between a God who is truly loving and just, and a world that professes such a thing, and yet is so far from it. Today, our world tells us to bow to the god of tolerance, in the name of their so called 'love'. If we don't, there will soon be consequences for it, and though that is just my opinion, that much should be easy enough for any Christian to see. The time is coming where we must stick by our God, though to all the world He looks as though He is someone who hates and who doesn't accept according to their rules. And we will only be able to do that if we fully understand just how Just God's judgment is, and just how GOOD it is too. Yes, we may not be able to understand all of it, after all, His ways are so high above ours, that there will always be things that we don't understand. And yet, if we are diligent to understand what we can, the Holy Spirit will reveal just how just and good our God is, in all His judgments, and in all His ways.
God bless!
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