“O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you" (NIV).
Unlike in America, here in Asia the verdict in court is decided by the judge, not by the jury. But our judges have limited power to execute their judgment. God as the Supreme Judge does not only give the verdict, but He also execute or implement His decision – “will you not execute judgment upon them?” (NRSV.)
We read Psalm 7:11-17:
“God is a righteous judge,
a God who expresses his wrath every day.
If he does not relent,
he will sharpen his sword;
he will bend and string his bow.
He has prepared his deadly weapons;
he makes ready his flaming arrows.
He who is pregnant with evil
and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment.
He who digs a hole and scoops it out
falls into the pit he has made.
The trouble he causes recoils on himself;
his violence comes down on his own head.
I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness
and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High. “
The psalmist declared that God is a righteous Judge and He is able and ready to enforce His verdict – His wrath accumulated daily – for the unrepentant: “He has prepared his deadly weapons; he makes ready his flaming arrows.”
And He will surely carry out His verdict in the days ahead. “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (2 Thess. 1:6-10).
Peter also wrote, “… the Lord knows … how to … hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. ...They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done” (2 Peter 2:9-10, 13).
Even in the past, as the Righteous Judge, God implemented His judgment. According to 2 Peter 2, “…God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;… he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people,… he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” (verses 4-6).
And because He is the only Judge who can execute His judgment, what “a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God” (Heb. 10:27)! We also read in verse 31, “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
While a human judge could be bribed and the guilty could avoid the punishment, the Righteous Judge rules or decides and implements with equity (Psalm 96:10) – He accepts no bribe. “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes” (Deut 10:17).
While a human judge relies on the mountain of evidence and the number and credibility of witnesses, the Supreme Judge does “not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears” (Isa. 11:3-4).
Consider the verdict of the Great Judge against those who will try to present their “evidence.” Read Matt 7:22-23, “Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”
Concrete evidence will not save anyone from His condemnation. He based is verdict on “the motives of men’s hearts” (1 Cor. 4:3-5).
“All a man’s ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD” (Prov. 16:2). King David told his son, Solomon: “…for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts” (1 Chron. 28:9).
Indeed, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7). And the Judge knows “that every inclination of the thoughts of his (man’s) heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5).
We read in Isaiah 64:6, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”
No one, then, is innocent before the Righteous Judge: “… all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). And if we are “powerless against this great multitude” --of problems – “that coming against us” – we are also powerless to save ourselves from the wrath of this Judge (our greatest problem). We cannot argue our innocence before Him. Surely, “We do not know what to do…” As Job said: “Though I were innocent, I could not answer him; I could only plead with my Judge for mercy” (Job 9:15).
What we can only do is to appeal for His mercy, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13) and fix our eyes on Jesus – “but our eyes are on you” – the Righteous Judge who is also Merciful One. By His Grace, He saves those He called to come to Him!
He did it by absorbing the wrath they deserve to suffer and by clothing them with His own robe of righteousness -- even issued with a new "identity" (divine nature)-- making them actually righteous in God’s sight! "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished -- he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (Rom 3:21-26).
The Supreme Judge is able to destroy and to save. He would punish, yet He could also justify. He knows how to rescue the recipient of His mercy from trials and to hold the unbelievers for the day of judgment. “He brings one down, he exalts another” (Ps. 75:7).
No one can match Him -- the Judge of all judges -- who deserves our worship in everything we do!
