But with righteousness shall he judge the poor
Isaiah {11:1} And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: {11:2} And
the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; {11:3}
And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of
the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: {11:4} But
with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with
equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth
with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips
shall he slay the wicked. {11:5} And righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his
reins. {11:6} The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall
lead them. {11:7} And the cow and the bear shall feed; their
young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat
straw like the ox. {11:8} And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his
hand on the cockatrice’ den. {11:9} They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full
of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea
'And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes.
Neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor.'
The only way we do judge is with the sight of our eyes and hearing of our ears.
We only have the ability to judge in those ways, right?
We have no righteousness in ourselves with which to judge with because we are all sinners and subject to judging only as sinners.
The judges we have in courts are they righteous?
No.
They like to claim impartiality and fairness but all their judging is colored by their own sinfulness.
The juries we use to judge others are filled with sinners.
We like to think we are fair and for the sinners we are just maybe we are as fair as we can be, yet there is no getting around the fact that we judge without the purity that only the Lord can judge us with.
He judges without sight, without hearing, but with righteousness.
We are told not to judge--
Matthew
{7:1} Judge not, that ye be not judged. {7:2} For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what
measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
Does this mean we cannot judge anything at all? If this were the case how could we even judge right from wrong? This doesn't mean we aren't to judge for ourselves, it means we are not to judge for others.
You'll get a lot of people shouting and condemning others, pointing their fingers at them and telling them they're doomed. Even in our Bible we have those men of God who went to the people and told them if they didn't change their ways they'd be destroyed. We have to know right from wrong to be able to judge the difference. We can judge an action, we can shout the penalty for wrong actions, but we cannot condemn anyone, we cannot judge their eternal life- that is only for the one and only Righteous One to do, the One who can judge without sight or hearing but with righteousness.
Am I saying we shouldn't have judges and juries, trials and hearings, jailings and dismissals? No. We do what we need to do in society to keep people safe and such.
We can't claim to know anyone's eternal life status.
We might think we can, but we can't.
We can judge actions, but not the eternal life.
I can judge that the action of a person as being an action that is wrong, I can tell that people what they are doing is wrong, I can even tell the person that if it's not repented of they may lose eternal life, but ultimately I cannot tell that person they are unsaved and never going to have eternal life. I cannot be that judge, I only judge with what I see and hear, I don't know the heart, I can't know their thoughts. The One who judges with Righteousness, He knows it all.
There is a special reassurance for all of us that we will be judged with Righteousness and not as men judge one another. God will judge with pure righteousness. This is why we cannot be saved of our ownselves in our own righteousness-
Romans {3:10} As it is written, There is
none righteous, no, not one.
2 Peter {1:1} Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus
Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ
Through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Gal. {5:5} For we through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Our hope, our faith, our righteousness is found only in Jesus Christ.
We have no righteousness of our own, our righteousness exists by faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
There is comfort knowing we are not judged by our own righteousness which falls far short of any righteousness at all.
This doesn't mean we aren't to judge between right and wrong actions and follow after what we know to be right, it does mean that ultimately every one of us sinners has to rely on Christ and His righteousness, we have no righteousness of our own that is even comparable to the righteousness of Christ.
There is hope in knowing we aren't to be judged by sight, by hearing as we know it but by righteousness, Christ's righteousness. There is hope and the knowledge that it is only by the mercy and grace of our Lord will we be saved by His righteousness.
May the Lord bless and keep us, by faith in Christ may we live.
Amen.
3/3/10
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If we believe in God, truly believe we have to believe God will NEVER leave us, and that NOTHING can ever separate us from the love of Christ, NOTHING.
Tribulation- Great affliction, trial, or distress; suffering: the tribulations of the persecuted.
Distress- To cause strain, anxiety, or suffering to. To constrain or overcome by harassment.
Persecution- To oppress or harass with ill-treatment. To annoy persistently; bother.
Famine- Severe hunger; starvation
Nakedness- Having no clothing on the body; nude.
Peril- Imminent danger. b. Exposure to the risk of harm or loss. Something that endangers or involves risk.
Sword- An instrument of death or destruction
Reading through this list of things that could possibly come our way reveals how horrible it can be to live a life in Christ and STILL NOT be separated from Christ's love. Yet why do we get it in our heads that if we love God we won't suffer, or shouldn't suffer. That if God loves us then we won't have to go through any pain, horrific pain. Read that list again:
Tribulation- suffering. Distress- anxiety, suffering, harassment. Persecution- oppressed, annoyed, bothered. Famine- starvation. Nakedness- no clothes. Peril- danger, harm, loss, risk. Sword- death, destruction.
We don't believe any of that should happen to us if we love God, that we have the right to question God's love for us if we are called to go through severe suffering. We can let all that or any bit of it separate us from Christ, that's what Satan wants and any who try to convince you that Satan is just a made us boogy man, I say that you can't believe in God and not believe in Satan, the Bible is clear on the matter of His existence- the father of lies, the prince of this world, the dragon- he is very real and while you might think that the common person isn't of interest to Him that would be a mistake. Every human being is of interest to him. He would have each and every one of us on His side and separated from God and he will do everything he can to separate us, he will use EVERYTHING at his disposal. I've had some tell me that Satan is just an illusion and people use the idea of him to get away with their own evil. He's not an illusion. He is among the principalities, the powers, the creatures that will try to separate us from the love of Christ.
We have to cling to Christ through it all. We have to realize that life is like a rubber raft trip down a river. You're going to have calm traveling but you're also going to encounter amazing rapids such that threaten to toss you from the raft and separate you from it so that you drown. Christ is that raft and we have to cling to Him at all times. We have to hold on to Him in the calm and in the raging river. We are on that 'white water rafting trip' for life. We will only reach the shore when Christ returns or the sleep of death claims us and we sleep in Christ until He returns. It's a lifetime trip without any separation from that raft. If we think we can reach land and tie up the raft and go off exploring we are wrong. When we leave the raft we leave our protection, our source of eternal life. People think they can leave the raft, they believe they can go off without Christ in their lives and still have eternal life in Him. As long as we love God and have faith and hope in Him we can survive anything in Him without being separated from Him. When we lose hope and lose faith in Christ we are in danger of separating ourselves from Christ. Christ doesn't leave us when we go through trials and tribulations, we leave Him, we question Him, our faith crumbles.
I don't know when the next tribulation will hit me, but I know it will. It might be something outrageous or it could be something small and unassuming yet still a trial that will come trying to separate me from Christ, but I pray that my faith and hope remain by the grace of Christ, through the Holy Spirit.
Read this again...
Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May this be our belief, our heart felt belief that nothing separates us Christ's love, nothing! By the grace of God, through His righteousness, His love now and forever, by His forgiveness.
Amen.
3/3/11