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Series Theme: Judgments of God This Page: Part 2: Studies 2.1 - 2.7 - About Judgments |
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PART 1: About God
PART 2: About Judgments
PART 3: Judgments in Genesis
PART 4: Judgments in Exodus & Leviticus
Part 5: Judgments in Numbers
Part 6: The Struggle for Canaan
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.1 The Concept of Indirect Judgment
Rom 1:24, 26,28 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another….. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones….. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
Perhaps to clarify where we are going we may describe the end activities of God dealing with wrong attitudes or wrong behaviour as follows:
As an alternative way to views these things we may consider them as
We now move away from considering the nature of God to the different ways He brings judgments. In this meditation we will consider what I am going to call ‘the concept of indirect judgments' where God uses people to bring the judgment. (Direct judgments are where God does something directly Himself).
In Romans 1 (see above) we find the apostle Paul explaining this concept. Three times it says that “God gave them over” to some perverted behaviour or perverted thinking. What does that mean?
It suggests that so much of the time, in some way or other, God restrains human sinfulness. I can only assume He does this by speaking into our minds either directly or through His servants. The result is restrained sin. Thus far and no further. But then there comes a time when a people or nation so set their hearts on going away from God and from His laws, that He says, “Very well, if that is what you want, go for it,” and He lifts off His hand of restraint, if you like, and allows society to ‘do its own thing'. That doing its own thing is a form of judgment. It is self-imposed but it is nevertheless judgment. God is bringing discipline on a people by allowing them to experience the folly and pain of going their own way. It is what our own society is going through today.
The object of such a course of action is, as we have just said, to bring a people to their senses and realise their folly and turn back to God. Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-24) shows this perfectly. The son wants to turn away from the father (God) and so the father allows him to do that. The son goes away and lives a dissolute life until he reaches rock bottom and realises his folly and returns in repentance to his father. That epitomizes this strategy perfectly. But notice the almost gentle bringing of pain to the son. It happens gradually and it happens because he brings it on himself.
We see this concept of indirect judgments most obviously in the book of Judges. in chapter 3 of Judges: “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. The anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim, to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them a deliverer.” (Jud 3:7-9) Observe the process:
Note the expression, “sold them into the hands” which is not explained and yet is a clear indication of the Lord's work, but whether by lifting off His hand of restraint or by allowing Satan to whisper words of malice against Israel into the minds of the invader, is unclear.
The cycle is soon repeated again and again in the book; for example,: “Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel . Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel , and they took possession of the City of Palms . The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer.” (Jud 3:12-15) Again the process is clear:
This time the expression, “the Lord gave Eglon power over Israel ,” is unclear in its operation but again gives the clear picture that Eglon's activity was enabled in some manner by the Lord.
Now, as we said above, this cycle is observable again and again in Judges and the objective of the Lord is very clear – to bring Israel to the point of realizing their folly and of returning to the Lord. Indeed as the Bible testifies again and again, God would far rather have repentance than death and destruction. Because we live in a fallen world where Sin prevails and Satan provokes, in order for human beings to be brought back to their senses, God often uses this strategy, and it often involves Satan, which we'll see in the following mediation.
What we have seen in these examples are times where individuals are allowed to go into deeper trouble until they come to their senses but, of course, that will not always happen, as we see if we look at Pharaoh who opposed Moses (Ex 5-12). What is incredible about the plagues, (direct judgments) apart from the fact of them, is that they gradually intensified and became worse and worse thus making the recipients of them gradually aware that this is the hand of God and it was going to get heavier and heavier until they repented. Pharaoh appeared to do so and then backtracked and ended up dying – but it was his choice! Thus this form of disciplinary judgment allows the individual to face what is happening and come to repentance in a gradually worsening situation. If they harden their hearts, as Pharaoh did it moves from a disciplinary judgment to a destructive judgment.
What we are shown is how God uses the ungodly to deceive the ungodly – and yet is very blatant about it – to bring judgment. In allowing the judgment of the world to fall upon the shoulders of His own Son, God allowed ungodly men to rise up and bring that judgment: “ This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” (Acts 2:23) We will see more of this strategy in the next meditation.
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.2 Judgments – involving Satan
Judg 2:12-14 They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 1 Kings 22:19,20 “Micaiah continued, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, `Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and goin g to his death there?”
In the previous meditation I spoke of direct and indirect judgments and suggested that indirect ones were those where the Lord Himself did not do it but allowed the sinfulness of mankind to rise up unrestrained so that man would bring judgment on man. But it is often more complex than that so that when we examine it we come to see that Satan was also involved. If it is not Satan, it is certainly the Sin of mankind. Here we are going to examine four instances of this in the Bible.
1. In Judges. In the first set of verses above, which are very similar to the ones we considered in the previous meditation from chapter 3 of Judges, if we again focus on the words, “He sold them to their enemies” and, “the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them,” we might ponder on just how this worked. Now did the Lord make the raiders plunder them? No, He simply stepped back and allowed their natural sinful tendencies free rein. It was the sort of thing they normally did and so when the Lord stepped back it gave them opportunity. One might ask how, therefore, would the Lord have restrained them previously and I think it would very simply by Him speaking into their minds negative words that would put them off, without them realizing it.
The question of how the Lord restrains peoples is a key one. Sometimes it is obvious in Scripture that the word spread about what happened and so, for instance, at one point Moses was able to say about the peoples ahead of their invading army in the run-up to the taking of the Promised Land, “They have already heard that you, O LORD, are with these people and that you, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that your cloud stays over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.” (Num 14:14) Rahab was able to say to the spies, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below.” (Josh 2:8-11) Now in that instance it may have been simply the news coming that made them feel like that or it may be that the Lord spoke doubt and fear into their minds. Both are likely.
2. In the story about Job. (see Job 1 & 2) There we find the Lord giving Satan permission to move against Job. Job is about to go through the biggest trial of his life and so Satan is allowed first of all to touch Job's family and goods. In what follows we first see the Sabeans (Arabs from the south probably) stealing all his oxen and donkeys. The heart of his business was undermined. A while later we hear that the Chaldeans (probably Bedouins from the south) stole all his camels.
Now you might say that God did this because He allowed it. Or you might say that Satan did it because he was given permission to attack Job's possessions, but the reality is that two different groups of people attacked and stole his goods. We know how Satan was released to do it – because of his conversation with the Lord – but we aren't told how he stirred up those two groups. I suggest, very simply, as he has always done and still does today, by whispering the temptation into the minds of those people who found their attention focusing on Job's wealth and then on the possibility of taking it.
3. The prophet Micaiah. Now in the second set of verses at the top of this meditation we find reference to a situation where the Lord wanted to bring punishment to ungodly king Ahab. Ahab's prophets of Baal had been falsely prophesying peace. Jehoshaphat of Judah, who was riding with Ahab, demanded a prophet of God and so they brought in Micaiah who first of all agreed with those prophets but is clearly being derisory, so he is told to prophesy properly! He declares, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, `These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.” (1 Kings 22:17) but he doesn't stop there; he explains what is going on in the spiritual realms: “I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, `Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and goin g to his death there?” (1 Kings 22:19,20).
As in the picture in Job 1 where Satan was in the Lord's presence, Micaiah sees other beings around the throne, including fallen angels who are invited to go and mislead Ahab and lure him into battle where he would be killed. Now we might ask why did the Lord not just strike down this ungodly king Himself? The answer has got to be because He wants us to learn something of the spiritual dynamics that sometimes go on behind the scenes. A lying spirit would go to these false prophets and they in their deceived state would accept the lie that Ahab would be safe. But note what the Lord does: He gives Micaiah this insight and allows him to speak it out so we all see it. Ahab is so foolish that he thinks he can outplay God and so goes into battle disguised but is still killed by a ‘stray' arrow.
4. The Corinthian Sinner. It is this strategy that is behind the apostle Paul's instructions to the Corinthian church in result of a man committing sexual immorality: “hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor 5:5) i.e. put him outside the protection of the church, leave him to the ways of the world and the enemy until he comes to his senses and repents (which 2 Cor shows us he did).
The thought of the Lord using the enemy for His purposes may surprise or even shock some of us but Scripture is clear that the Lord does use Satan for His purposes. Note, therefore the following way the Lord uses Satan:
1. To reveal men's hearts Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel (1 Chron 21:1 ) He was to reveal David's underlying sin of pride 2. To bring judgement on unbelievers They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon. (Rev 9:11 both names mean “Destroyer”) 3. To bring discipline to believers hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord, (1 Cor 5:5) by putting this sinful believer out of the church's protection, it enabled Satan to come against him and humble him and bring him to repentance 4. To subjugate unbelievers the whole world is under the control of the evil one (1 Jn 5:19b). Satan is allowed to rule where there is unconfessed sin, i.e. over unbelievers 5. To maintain humility in our lives I have received wonderful revelations from God. But to keep me from getting puffed up, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from getting proud. (2 Cor. 12:7) 6. To develop faith & righteousness in our lives These trials are only to test your faith ( 1 Peter 1:7) See also 1 Peter 5:8-9 and 2 Peter 1:4-8 7. To bring about trials whereby we can be rewarded God blesses the people who patiently endure testing. (James 1:12) These trials, that involve Satan, make us rely upon God, His word and His Spirit and so the outcome of the battles we fight is that we appreciate Him, His word and His Spirit more and more. 8. To teach us how to fight These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience) (Judges 3:2). As we face such trials we learn how to overcome 9. To demonstrate God's power over the enemy His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms (Eph 3:10) We need reminding who is who in the battle. Jesus IS Lord! As we triumph God is glorified in the heavens (observe Mk 1:21-27 Acts 13:6-12)
Thus both judgments and discipline may involve the Lord using Satan or his agents. Get the big picture!
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.3 Judgment. Was it God?
Ex 25:10,11,22 Have them make a chest of acacia wood--two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold moulding around….. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.
Remember, in these first two Parts we are simply looking at various things that pertain to God and to judgment and are not really looking behind individual judgments to see the why; that will come in the later Parts.
Deaths appear, dare we say it, almost casually or without little further comment sometimes. Consider the following three examples:
1. Judah's son, Er. “Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah 's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death ,” (Gen 38:6,7) 2. Lot 's wife. “But Lot 's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt,” (Gen 19:26) 3. The bad reporters. “So the men Moses had sent to explore the land, who returned and made the whole community grumble against him by spreading a bad report about it-- these men responsible for spreading the bad report about the land were struck down and died of a plague before the LORD. Of the men who went to explore the land, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh survived.” (Num 14:36-38)
Remember, here we are not so much interested in the ‘why' but the ‘how'; the ‘why' will come later. • In the first of these three examples the death is attributed to the Lord but we are not told how Er died. • In the second case Lot had been warned about this by the Lord but when his wife looked back and turned to a pillar of salt we are not told that it was the Lord, merely that it had happened. There are those who suggest that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah had been carried out by the equivalent of a nuclear explosion or something similar. Lot's wife ‘looking back' may be shorthand for her pausing some time to watch what happened and therefore remained in the blast range and was burnt to a pile of chemicals. • In the third example, the ten spies died from plague and although the text does not expressly say it was God who did it, it is implied. So in these three examples we have one unknown cause, one speculative ‘natural' cause, and one clear ‘natural' cause. We have used the word ‘natural' to describe a physical phenomena. However, rather like miracles, judgments like this are things out of time or out of nature, things that get attributed to God simply because they happen when He said they would happen and they happen within certain limitations (in the last one the ten unbelievers died and the two believers lived).
Now when we come to the history of the ark of the covenant, which commenced in our starting verses above, we see various things happening. The ark was supposed to be holy and, as the verses above indicate, was the place (modern sci-fi would say ‘the portal') where God would meet with His people. Thus it was behind a heavy curtain in the Tabernacle where only the high priest ever went and that with great caution and appropriate procedure. However by the time of 1 Samuel the spiritual state of Israel had fallen and so when they went to battle against the Philistines they took the ark with them as a good luck charm. Now we don't know whether they covered it up as it travelled but one way or another they were doing wrong – which is probably why they lost the battle and fled, losing the ark to the Philistines. This is where it gets interesting!
“After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod . Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the LORD! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained.” (1 Sam 5:1-4) When this happened they fearfully moved the ark to Gath but there “He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours” (v.9) They then moved it on to Ekrom and we find, “death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours.” (v.11,12) They eventually send it back to Israel .
Now the point here is that both Israel and the Philistines were tampering with the property of God and because of what it was, it was supposed to convey the sense of the holiness of God, and you did not mess with that. We say this as an aside that we'll repeat when we come to ‘why' or ‘causes'. But the forms of judgment are worth noting. In Israel people died in a battle defeat. In the Philistines (whose knowledge of the Lord and of His expectations were limited) they first simply suffered a broken idol, then tumours and then presumably plague (and death?), as well as tumours.
Now compare this with something that happened a number of years later. David and his men had been casually taking the ark up to Jerusalem from where it had been ever since, in another part of Israel , we find, “When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.” (2 Sam 6:6,7)
Now desperately trying to overcome the temptation to consider the ‘why' we hold to our search of ‘how'. How did Uzzah die? Did he have a heart attack or what? Again we have something attributed to the Lord but not explained. It happened. End of story. But of course it is not the end of the story because we and David are left wondering ‘why?' and the answer will mean a change of attitude and a change of behaviour.
What is strange about these accounts of the dealings with the ark are the different judgments that came – death in battle, broken idol, tumours, plague and instantaneous death. Now is this purely an academic exercise or does it teach us something? THE point must be – and it comes out very clearly in this last group of illustrations – that judgments have a reason, why they occurred in the first place, and that reason is linked to an intended outcome, what the Lord wanted them and us to learn through it. A judgment like the last one we noted here, is devastating at first sight for the individual concerned (and his family) but its impact in history is enormous, and that is what this is all about, and what we must learn and consider further.
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.4 The Corrective Elements of Judgments
Acts 5:4,5 You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.
We have just been making the point that every judgment has a point or, if you like, there is a reason that so often goes beyond mere punishment. Because of our negative attitudes on life, often formulated through our family experiences, or through legalistic and judgmental preaching in our churches, so often Christians look on judgments and all they can see is punishment but, I would suggest, that with every such judgment there will be at least one additional reason, if not two.
If the judgment involves the death of someone then we might say that for that someone it is too late for them to learn anything; they are gone. Yes, but look at the effect of their death on those who are left. Let's look at some instances of this.
First of all let's consider the one we focused on at the end of the previous mediation, that of Uzzah who died touching the ark. The effect of this is seen immediately in David's responses: “ Then David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, "How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?" (2 Sam 6:8,9) David's initial response was one of anger which, I suggest, verged on resentment – why did God do that? That was unfair! But then came fear as he realised that he was messing with a holy God. Initially he dumps the ark with someone else but when he finds that the Lord is blessing that man, he thinks again and comes to his senses and goes to bring the ark up to Jerusalem a second time, but this time he does it with reverence and very much in accord with the Law. David has learnt something and that would have been communicated to the people around him as well.
Let's go into the New Testament for another example to the situation shown in our verses above (Acts 5). The new Church is being blessed and so people are selling their spare property to provide funds for the needy. Now Ananias has property and sells part of it and comes and brings part of the money to the apostles. He makes it seem as if he is giving all the money and the Holy Spirit gives Peter a word of knowledge to the effect that this is a lie. Peter scolds Ananias publicly and he drops down dead. Now we don't know if this was a heart attack but it would appear to be a direct intervention of God, especially in the light of what follows.
But note the instant result: “And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.” (Acts 5:5b) But then his wife turns up not knowing what had happened and perpetuates the lie. Peter then pronounces a similar judgment on her and she drops down dead. Note now the outcome again: “Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.” (Acts 5:11) A sense of the holiness of the Lord is felt and suddenly everyone is being just that bit more careful. To make the point, Luke notes twice that fear came on the church. I remember many years ago being in a small church that had invited a prophet to come and speak. His reputation preceded him. This man knew things, and suddenly we were all checking up on our lives. When the fear of the Lord comes, people start cleaning up their lives!
But sometimes it happens in such a quiet and subtle way that it needs a leader to point out what is going on. In the church of Corinth we find this: “A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor 11:28-30) This church was taking communion, remembering Jesus at the Lord's Supper, but were being careless and casual about the way they treated that which should be holy, and as a result a number had died! Some of them had been acting really badly in respect of this sacrament and the outcome was they were dying! It took Paul to point this out. Now we aren't told how they responded to this but I would suggest they suddenly sharpened up how they treated the Lord's Supper.
So yes, there may have been a punishment element to these things but it would seem that the bigger issue was that the Lord was using these things to teach His people about holiness and was working to bring change in them. We should note in passing that sometimes the judgment of God, perhaps seen as discipline came on people before they actually died, to give them opportunity to repent. Such was the case with Hezekiah: “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover .” (2 Kings 20:1) Now Hezekiah a good example of a man who understood something of the principles of repentance. He immediately called on the Lord in what was clearly an attitude of repentance and so the Lord told Isaiah to go and declare healing for him and an additional fifteen years on his life span.
This has taken us into the realm of those judgments or disciplines that are being applied to people so that they will repent; they are not terminal judgments. These will form the basis of our next meditation. |
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.5 Discipline = Correction & Change
Heb 12:10,11 Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
We concluded the previous meditation by saying that we have moved into the realm of those judgments or disciplines that are being applied to people so that they will repent; they are not (necessarily) terminal judgments. We saw that in the case of Hezekiah whose repentance opened the way for him to be preserved. Some people wisely respond to God's disciplinary judgments and others foolishly harden their hearts against them.
Pharaoh was an example of the latte, rejecting the warning of the ten plagues (Ex 8-12), which we sometimes forget occurred after Pharaoh rejected two miracles that Moses had performed, and which came in such gradual intensity that it is quite clear that God's intent was that the Pharaoh be given every opportunity to repent – yet He knew from the start that he was so proud and hard hearted and caught up with the occult, that he would never do that – but the opportunity WAS there! We know from Ezek 18, that we have considered before, that God would much prefer people repent and be saved than remain hard and die.
We have already seen this form of judgment-cum-discipline in the book of Judges where a cycle of events can be observed again and again: faithfulness, drifting away from God, vulnerability and then incursion by surrounding enemies, crying out to God, and then the Lord sending a deliverer. The crucial bit, the ‘vulnerability and then incursion by surrounding enemies' conforms to the judgment style spoken of by the apostle Paul in Romans when where he says three times, “God gave them over to….” (Rom 1:24,26,28) It is as if He lifts off His hands of restraint and lets the enemies have freedom to run rampant.
There was also a time when Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses and the Lord holds them to account so that, “When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam--leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy; and he said to Moses, "Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.” (Num 12:10,11) Leprosy appearing on Miriam brings instant repentance in Aaron.
Leprosy appears to have been used a number of times to chastise individuals. For example Elisha's servant, Gehazi, lied to Elisha about taking from Naaman and so we read, “Then Gehazi went from Elisha's presence and he was leprous, as white as snow .” (2 Kings 5:27) There is no record of him repenting or of being healed, but perhaps both were possible.
Similarly in respect of king Azariah who continued to sin, we read, “The LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, and he lived in a separate house. Jotham the king's son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.” (2 Kings 15:5) Again his reign was curtailed because of the Lord's disciplining, perhaps more as a visible ongoing warning to those who followed.
There is a similar account of King Uzziah: “Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the LORD's temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had afflicted him. King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house --leprous, and excluded from the temple of the LORD. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.” (2 Chron 26:19-21) Again his life was curtailed by the Lord's disciplining.
What is intriguing about these accounts is that the Lord did not kill these men for their sins, but afflicted them in such a way that others would see and know and be warned. These ‘judgments' were to act as signs of the sin that had been committed and to act as warning to others not to do the same thing. In each case, we suggest, the individual could have repented and may well then have been healed, but in each case there is no mention of repentance. They failed to learn that God is a God of grace and mercy who is a “compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Ex 34:6,7)
May we not disregard the wonder of what God has said in His word so that we fail to receive all the good that can come to us, even after we have failed and got it wrong, by coming to the Lord in simple repentance (1 Jn 1:9).
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.6 Corrective Warnings & God's Reputation
Jer 16:12-15 you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. So I will throw you out of this land into a land …… However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when men will no longer say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, `As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.
We have been considering those judgments or disciplines that are being applied to people so that they will repent; they are not terminal judgments. We observed the case of Hezekiah, and the case of Pharaoh and the ten plagues, and then saw it again in the book of Judges where a cycle of events can be observed again and again: faithfulness, drifting away from God, vulnerability and then incursion by surrounding enemies, crying out to God and then the Lord sending a deliverer.
The objective of the Lord is very clear – to bring Israel to the point of realizing their folly and of returning to the Lord. Although those judgments in Judges did involve death in a relatively small measure, it wasn't the main feature of what was going on. However there is one particular major judgment in the Old Testament which really did involve death and destruction, and even more, so we had better look at it.
The most dramatic and awe-inspiring example of God's judgment in respect of Israel has to be that of the Exile when Jerusalem was destroyed in 587BC and His clear intent, as revealed through the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, was to bring about a new people of Israel coming back from the Exile whose hearts have been so moulded by the Master Potter that they will be nothing like the ungodly people who had degenerated to that state in the decades leading up to the Exile.
Initially the prophetic word was one about devastation: “ Say this to them: `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague. I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land a desolate waste because of all the detestable things they have done.” (Ezek 33:27-29)
Similar warnings had been coming in a steady stream, especially through Jeremiah, for example, “Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege. For this is what the LORD says: "At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured.” (Jer 10:17,18) and, “I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance; I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.” (Jer 12:7). Then we find, “Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the well-being of this people. Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.” (Jer 14:11,12) which is soon expanded upon, “Then the LORD said to me: "Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, `Where shall we go?' tell them, `This is what the LORD says: "`Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.” (Jer 15:1,2) The warning were very clear: because of the ongoing and worsening sin of Israel , God would bring destructive judgment.
But then we start finding words of hope where the Lord speaks of bringing His people back to the land (e.g. Ezek 34:11-16, 25-31) That latter passage concludes with, “Then they will know that I, the LORD their God, am with them and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Sovereign LORD” (v.30)
Later on in Ezekiel we find a further revelatory word: “Again the word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, ( Israel 's previous failure) they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman's monthly uncleanness in my sight. So (the Lord's action against them) I poured out my wrath on them …. I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered through the countries; I judged them according to their conduct and their actions. ( Israel 's ongoing failure) And wherever they went among the nations they profaned my holy name, for it was said of them, `These are the LORD's people, and yet they had to leave his land.' (The Lord's worry – His reputation) I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone. "Therefore say to the house of Israel, `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name , which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name , which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.” (Ezek 36:16-23)
The result of this judgment and restoration will be that the world will understand, this was the Lord! But there is more about Israel : “For (a) I will take you out of the nations; (b) I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. (c) I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. (d) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; (e) I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And (f) I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness.” (Ezek 36:24-29) i.e. they will be a transformed nation. This is to be the end product of the Exile. The work of the Exile would mean that the remnant who were not destroyed but carried abroad would have their hearts changed. This is the greatest example of this in the Old Testament. God didn't give up on Israel but carried out radical surgery. The end result was a transformed body.
We are nearing the end of this Part. We have seen the Lord using judgments to terminate life and bring warning to others, and to threaten life to challenge the individual to repent. Judgments, we have said, will always have a secondary purpose of warning the onlookers not to go down the same path but to seek the Lord. Before we move on in the next Part to consider individual judgments we have one more question to ask which will appear in the final study in this section. |
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Meditating on the Judgments of God: 2.7 General Warnings
Jn 9:1-3 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”
We have been considering ways that the Bible shows us that God brings judgments but there is a real difficulty to be faced before me move on to consider specific judgments in Scripture. It is the difficulty of application. Whenever we do Bible Study, we always say that after considering what it meant to the original readers, we need to ask what it means to us today and how do we apply it, but then we come to the difficulty. It is not the difficulty of understanding the Scriptures but of saying what things that have happened in history, subsequent to the completion of the Scriptural canon, and what things today, can be considered judgments of God. In my lifetime lightning has struck York Minister, floods have come, earthquakes, tornadoes and such like have come and people – Christian people – have sought to declare, “This is God's judgment!” It may be but there are difficulties with that, and that is what this study is all about.
A case can be made from Scripture to suggest that wherever judgment is brought (i.e. destruction) it either comes to a people who are warned (e.g. Pharaoh in Exodus) or people who clearly should have known (e.g. Herod in Acts 12). Examples of this abound in the Old Testament. In the case of the folly with the Golden Calf at Sinai, and the judgments that followed, there was no way that Israel could say that they had not been warned (see Ex 19 and 20:18-20). When judgments fell on Israel in the wilderness, again there was no question of them not knowing beforehand who was with them and His requirements of them and the consequences that would follow their sins.
In the famous case that followed, of Israel ousting the inhabitants of Canaan, with the destruction that fell on them when they resisted, it is very clear, in respect of those inhabitants, that:
The warning was very clearly there.
Intriguingly Jesus never brought judgment down on unbelievers and berated James and John when they wanted to (Lk 9:54,55). All he ever did curse was a fig tree – Lk 11:13,14,20. But Jesus specifically spoke into this difficulty: “ Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them--do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem ? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Lk 13:1-5)
This teaching specifically denounces this way of thinking that so many have that wishes to attach guilt and blame to misfortunes. In so doing we ignore the sins of many others. When we focus on one misfortune and one group of people, we then miss all the other sinful people of the world. That same desire to attach blame is classically seen in the verses at the beginning of this study from John 9. The disciples were looking for someone to blame for the man being blind from birth but Jesus would not be drawn on it but insisted they looked to God for healing – now! I wonder if the Lord would prefer, instead of denouncing a people when a disaster falls, we look for a way to bless them and bring the knowledge of the Lord to them? Rhetorical question!
A much more plausible reason for natural catastrophes is that ever since the creation of a perfect world, the effects of Sin, and the presence of Satan and powers and principalities, have meant upheaval in the creation. If the last times ARE more godless days as scripture clearly suggests, then it is not surprising that the activities of the enemy are empowered by that sin and such things become more regular. In totally secular terms, if we are witnessing global warming (and there are voices raising real questions about that) and the consequent effects causing almost ‘regular' extremes of weather, then that too can be attributed to man's wrong use of the world, and from our perspective this operates as the second of God's two forms of judgment.
My personal beliefs are that the First and Second World Wars were judgments on the earth, where the Lord lifted off His hand of restraint and allowed foolish men to be even more foolish and bring about what one writer has described the two wars as ‘a Catastrophe' and ‘All Hell breaks Loose' respectively, and when you read the details of what took place you realise those are good descriptive titles! But am I sure they were God's judgments? No, but fairly certain. Did we learn from them? A little.
But when you look at Scripture you realise that judgments don't necessarily turn the hearts of mankind: “The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood--idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.” (Rev 9:20,21) One of the things we'll need to look at is the effect of a particular judgment because if it is a judgment from God, surely the effect will be something He takes into account when considering bringing it. This we'll do as we now move on to consider individual judgments found in the Bible. We will work our way through the Bible starting from Genesis.
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